Siegfried review of part 3 of Wagner's Ring Cycle

Part 3 of Wagner's Ring Cycle is the most simply named - Siegfried. We see the character Siegfried for the first time. He was a foetus in his mother's womb last we saw at the end Walküre.  At the start of Siegfried, the boy, referred to by the German word Knabe, is a young man. We learn that his mother, Sieglinde died in child birth and that he has been reared by the dwarf Mime, a blacksmith, who would like to think of himself as cunning.

Act 1 of Siegfried begins with some joyful interaction between Mime, sung by Dennis Petersen and Siegmund, played by Stig Andersen. Both were making their Seattle Opera debuts. Andersen was a big catch for Seattle Opera with an admirable bio. He has sung in London, New York, Dresden, Berlin, Helsinki, Geneva, Lyon, Oslo, and Mannheim, among other cities. In addition, he has sung the Wagner title characters of Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Parsifal, and Tristan, as well as Erik in Der fliegende Höllander, Siegmund in Die Walküre, and Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in opera houses throughout Europe.

However early on, we learned that Andersen had not been having a good week. Prior to the opening curtain, General Director Speight Jenkins appeared in front of an expectant house and announced that Andersen had been hit by a virus, had battled it hard and would sing. No-one seemed quite sure of the purpose of this announcement, but we didn't have time to digest it before Andersen joined the immaculate Petersen on stage.

The lines were delivered superbly and I can having nothing but admiration for Petersen's performance. He did all the things I need to see from a Wagnerian singer superbly. I admit not all patrons speak German and this may be of lesser importance to them, but I actually want to be able to understand the singers, and perhaps give the sub-titles an occasional by-pass, so as not to miss a potential nuance on stage. Petersen delivered this better than anyone else so far except perhaps Richard Paul Fink as Alberich who also scored well on this aspect. Dennis also sang his part with expression, using his eyes and his hands to supplement his voice in portraying the exasperated emotions of being a dwarf, bringing up an ungrateful child. He hit the notes too. And lastly, he was loud enough to be heard through out the hall, and that's not always easy to do given that you have notes to hit, and words to enunciate.

If his interplay with Andersen as Siegfried was enjoyable, better was to come. He brought the absolute best out of Greer Grimsley's Wotan. I have to say that I had been less a fan of Grimsley as Wotan than many others. It had been hard for me to pinpoint what I thought missing. When he performed with Petersen, I think I finally realised it. Grimsley was interacting with his co-cast more in this scene than before, where he had seemed (to me anyway) to be more just focusing on delivering his lines well.

With Petersen, something extra appeared to me in Grimsley's performance. Wotan at last had character, humour, wit and was perhaps less aloof and godlike as the Wanderer than he had been as the god Wotan. If this was a deliberate ploy because the Wanderer is not a god, but Wotan, a god, playing at being a mortal, then hats off to Grimsley too, because he achieved it.

Whichever, it was my favourite scene thus far of the three nights. Petersen had a brief interaction with Fink's Alberich, but by then I was expecting something superb and got it. Thanks Dennis. It's a pity Mime got killed really. I'd look forward to seeing you perform again.

When the cast came out to receive their applause at the end of the night, Petersen's reward was a huge, verging on the tumultuous, applause.

The puzzle of Speight's announcement was soon solved. Stig Andersen was as heroic as a real life opera character to perform Siegfried at anything other than 100% health. The word valiantly is valid and of course sharing the stage with Mime helped a great deal as the dwarf imposed his character on Scene 1. But at times, Andersen struggled to project Siegfried's lines over the orchestra. I would have put this down to the virus except in an interview with Mary Brazeau, Stig Andersen gives an interesting view on Wagner and volume.

I wonder what a Wagnerian voice is, because it is not about shouting. I do it my way and that is the only thing I can do, so to speak. I am happy when I feel the audience understands that there are more nuances, more details than just loud notes.

So maybe his lesser volume is indeed part of his style, and not down to his condition. I do have to say that in further stretches where the orchestra was largely quiet when Siegfried sings, Andersen sounded like a superb singer  and maybe rather than a health matter, a simpler rebalancing of orchestra and singer in a few early places might solve this. We will see more of Stig on Friday and it is only fair if the man has been ill to wait and see. I will be willing him on to success when the time comes. He certainly showed he has the acting skills when asked to perform the reed scene, where Siegfried tries to imitate the tune of the forest bird. The crowd lapped him up.

I loved the bear. I loved the dragon but they are not quite inspiring me to write, as I am by the stage appearance of last night's third debutante, Maria Streijffert playing the role of Erda. When she first appeared on stage, she just looked right. Subconsciously, I could just feel that by being on the stage in Seattle singing Wager for us, she was where she was supposed to be in the world. Welcome. It is hard to comment on her performance because much of what came before was swept away by the power of the last scene when Siegfried wakes Brünnhilde out of her sleep, imposed on her by Wotan for her disobedience.

If you haven't read the program notes of this scene, they are hilarious, whether deliberate or not. I am going to quote here,

Discovering a human creature different from himself, a woman, Siegfried finally experiences the meaning of fear.

Wise man. :-)

I've no idea if the author of the notes meant it to come out that way, but it certainly added to my enjoyment of the scene and Andersen hammed this one up for all his might. I didn't sense any spark though between his Siegfried and Janice Baird's Brünnhilde. Sometimes two actors click, sometime they don't. It may have also been the case that Andersen was tiring, and I would totally understand that.

So now, I am 3/4 of my way through my first ever Ring Cycle. I doff my hat to everyone who advised me not to miss it, not to allocate different reviewers to different nights and not to treat it as opera per se, but as a unique entity worthy of consideration alone as a work and as an event.

Thanks to what I have seen so far, I now have operatic heroes, and singers I will come back to the Opera just to see perform other roles. I had them before I guess, but the Ring is just well .. different. Now where did I put that a umlaut key for Part 4?

See also:

What to Expect form Part 3 of the Ring Cycle

Siegfried - Some Bedtime Thoughts

Photos: © Chris Bennion

Stig Andersen (Siegfried) and Dennis Petersen (Mime), Richard Paul Fink (Alberich) and Dennis Petersen (Mime), Greer Grimsley (The Wanderer) and Maria Streijffert (Erda).