| And without the great singer in the play there will be something to see Valery Gergiev's Stars of the White Nights festival has reached its culmination - Placido Domingo arrived in St. Petersburg. Although the visit of the famous Spaniard here has not surprised anyone for a long time. Over the past ten years, he has become his own man at the Mariinsky Theater. Domingo himself performs here almost every year. His wife Martha produces plays. And his Los Angeles Opera is, in a sense, a twin brother of the Mariinsky Theater: both theaters receive money from the pocket of American multimillionaire Alberto Vilar. Recently, Mr. Vilar's wallet has become the most compelling argument in favor of the friendship of the two theaters and their artistic directors - money is given out for joint projects.
At the current St. Petersburg festival, Domingo performed in all his known forms. As a pop star, he sang on Theater Square, unafraid of the St. Petersburg wind. As an opera patriarch, he conducted Verdi's Aida. As a secular character, he received a seven-kilogram statue of “Fortune” with the wording “in recognition of the great tenor by all the Slavic people.” And finally, as a great tenor, he performed the role of Sigmund in the premiere of “Die Walküre”. The fact that the last role turned out to be more interesting than all the others was no less pleasing than the fact that “Valkyrie” did not turn into Domingo’s benefit performance. The golden voice found quite worthy partners on the Mariinsky stage.
Die Walküre, the second opera in Wagner's monumental tetralogy, has long been something of a pig in a poke. No one could even imagine what would happen. Having quarreled with the director of the first opera of the cycle, last year's Das Rheingold, Johannes Schaaf (who, according to the preliminary plan, was supposed to stage all four operas of The Ring of the Nibelungs), Gergiev did not cancel his idea and entrusted it to Gottfried Piltz. He started in this project as a set designer and, in addition, in his life he had already designed one “Ring” - at the Finnish Opera.
Pilz, who this time acted as director, set designer and author of the lighting concept for the production, had a difficult task - firstly, to continue the satirical-anti-bourgeois line that Schaaf began (the tetralogy should be more or less homogeneous). Secondly, to fit into his modern performance the long-established pattern of the signature, romanticized role of Domingo (it would be difficult to imagine that the 60-year-old tenor is ready to radically reconsider it). Thirdly, to please Gergiev.
The performance captured traces of all these unrest. It turned out to be uneven, eclectic, with childhood mistakes, but also with pleasant successes. The latter includes a double cast of Valkyries, attacking the viewer with their bare shoulders and shiny torsos. There is no need to fly like this. “Flight” is hosted by Valery Gergiev's orchestra alone - fantastically energetic, albeit unusually sloppy.
Pilz generally plays tricks all the time, relying on spectacular simplicity and modern technology, rather than on a strong directorial decision. On the stage there is a huge table, covered with tablecloths of different colors and furnished with chairs (in the finale their place will be taken by 16 Valkyries) - either a symbol of a wretched woman's lot, or a love bed, or the main party committee detail in the abode of the gods in Valhalla. Meaningful magical and road signs are projected onto the backdrop. Clouds are running across the tulle super. Brunnhilde (Olga Sergeeva, ideal in this role) appears in a horsewoman's costume with two funny wings in her hands - that's the whole fairy tale.
Where the director still could not disobey Wagner’s remarks and followed them with all seriousness, he obviously lost: the battle of the elderly macho Sigmund with the elderly mafioso Hunding (Gennady Bezzubenkov) is funny and awkward; the sacred sword Nothung falls onto the stage with a nasty plastic thud; the love scene between Siegmund and Sieglinde (artistic, but not immediately sung by Mlada Khudoley) is embarrassing.
But another couple turned out to be expressive - Wotan (Vladimir Vaneev) and his daughter Brünnhilde. It turned out to be easier to believe in their love passion than in the no less forbidden craving of the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde. The unexpectedly revealed rivalry between the two couples benefited the performance. It is clear that without the charmer Domingo he will not be lost, and maybe even will become more organic and integral. Ekaterina BIRYUKOVA, St. Petersburg |
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