Der Ring des Nibelungen

15.06 Das Rheingold, 16.06 Die Walküre, 18.06 Siegfried, 20.06 Götterdämmerung

Conductor – Evan-Alexis Christ, Director – Plamen Kartaloff

After opening with "Lohengrin", the Sofia Opera's Wagner Festival continued with the full "Der Ring des Nibelungen" cycle with a revival of the production presented last year directed by Plamen Kartaloff and conducted by Evan-Alexis Christ.

I am not in the habit, when expressing my impressions of an opera spectacle, to give priority to the stage over the sound part, as I am convinced that there is still a hierarchy of values in musical theatre. Wagner's concept of "Wort, Ton und Drama" (words, music and stage action), in theoretical unity, lives primarily thanks to the countless notes on the equally countless staves, not on the spoken words or the staging, which change and evolve over the years.

Contrary to my well-tried custom, today I prefer to give priority to what we saw on the stage of the Sofia Opera over what we heard from the orchestra and from the voices of the singers alternating one after another during these four evenings.

You may or may not like the myth of the Nibelungs, it may even seem like a naive childish joke, but it remains a myth, a great fairy tale that Wagner believes in without reservation. And it is in this sense that he is unwilling to adapt to spatial-temporal constraints that might somehow diminish its universality. From this point of view, Wieland Wagner's historical productions in Bayreuth in the 1950s and 1960s, based on pure abstraction, set a precedent by taking to the extreme the detachment of the Wagnerian myth from any reference to everyday life and its environment. More than half a century has passed since then, times have changed and it is obviously impossible to revive a style that might not withstand today's times. However, the basic concept remains. Plamen Kartaloff has focused heavily on lighting in this Bulgarian setting, which often has a suggestive and explanatory role. He has created a scenography reduced to a few basic and symbolic elements, he has incorporated the presence, in various forms, of the ring at the beginning of the drama, only to have it disappear in the last bars along with the return of what has been stolen in the waters of the Rhine, while the theme of "love's redemption" resounds vividly in the orchestra.

And the result proved to be remarkable, effective and above all respectable and not dominating in terms of the musical part, as I have already personally had the opportunity to appreciate in other Wagnerian productions staged in Sofia, such as the excellent "Parsifal" in recent years and the very recent "Lohengrin".

Few links to modern times – the percussive hammer in the hands of giants, the apparently mechanical dragon and other details were ancillary elements that did not change the main concept: myth becoming life, remaining in an eternal dimension, or, as Wagner himself put it, "the role of music becoming visible". It is this role of the music to which the other components of the production must necessarily adapt respectfully, as clearly seen in Plamen Kartaloff's production.

If, however, you want to find a connection with everyday life at all costs, it will be possible. The listener will do it, freely and if he sees fit, without the stage set necessarily doing it for him, without Wotan in a dinner-jacket or the Nibelungs turned into greedy bankers.

The musical part in the production was high impact. In addition to what I have already highlighted in my impressions of the first evening with "Lohengrin", I should note here the remarkable level achieved by the Sofia Opera Orchestra, which already qualifies as one of the most prestigious institutions in Eastern Europe in the transmission of the complex Wagnerian language. At the podium, Maestro Evan-Alexis Christ took over the baton this year from Constantin Trinks, who led last year's "Ring". His interpretation presents a performance of "Das Rheingold" that is formally correct musically and very balanced in the relationship between voices and orchestra. In Act I of "Die Walküre", after the tremendous initial storm, the lyrical aspect of the birth of love between Siegmund and Sieglinde, the song of spring and the passionate conclusion follow one after the other as a narrative prelude to what is to come next. From Act II onwards the conductor flew and soared higher and higher. We know that in the Act II of "Die Walküre", before the last minutes, almost nothing happens, everything is based on the three great duets in which the divine collides with the human, in a complex of sensations, emotions and feelings that the voices and the orchestra analyse in depth and which Maestro Christ conveys in a sublime way. The particular line of movement of the strings in the depiction of Wotan's suffering or the solemn and perfectly calibrated sound of the wind instruments in the announcement of his death are unforgettable. There is indeed emotion here, just as the emotional involvement was great in the moving final dialogue between Brünnhilde and Wotan.

I mean, the key to understanding the conductor's interpretation was just that – since the divinity descended from the auras of Valhalla to enter the man and experience his feelings and passions, the voices and above all the orchestra experienced the drama with extreme intensity. Hence the great importance attached to certain major scenes, among which I would like to mention, in addition to what has been said above, the dialogue between Wotan and Erda, the encounter between the Wanderer and Mime (often underestimated by many, including myself, and here vindicated in its value), the entire scene of the Norns, and above all the story of the Waltraute. Here, in particular, the voice of Alexandrina Stoyanova-Andreeva, the director and the orchestra managed to masterfully create the image of a ghostly Valhalla, shrouded in a fog of mysterious sounds that herald the now inevitable twilight. There is great tension felt in the last act "Götterdämmrung", which with narrative spirit and increasing intensity and without caesuras leads to a vivid final catharsis.

For this revival of "The Ring", the Sofia Opera appeared with a cast of almost entirely Bulgarian voices. This in itself is a commendable result. Considering that Bulgaria is a relatively small country, to gather the large number of voices needed for such a project is almost unbelievable, especially considering the commitment and vocal effort required of the singers. There were very few exceptions (Wotan/"Die Walküre", Hunding and Wanderer). For the rest, all the local artists and even the principal roles were distributed – we had three different interpreters of Brünnhilde, one for each opera, three Wotan/Wanderer, two Siegfried, ready to replace each other in case of unexpected circumstances. And I have to say that the entire cast fulfilled the necessary commitment, both vocally and on stage, demonstrating among other things (an element impossible to ignore in Wagner) a good command of the German language.

I report the full cast in the comments, here I'd like to mention those that I thought particularly stood out in terms of vocal, stage presence and introspective character analysis. So I remember Veselin Mihaylov (Wotan/"Das Rheingold", Daniel Ostretsov (Loge), Mariana Zvetkova (Fricka), Petar Buchkov (Fafner, Hagen), Martin Iliev (Siegmund, Siegfried/"Götterdämmrung"), Tsvetana Bandalovska (Sieglinde and many others). Elsa in the last "Lohengrin"), Gergana Rusekova (Brünnhilde/"Die Walküre", Krisztián Cser (Wanderer), Krasimir Dinev (Mime), Atanas Mladenov (Gunther), Iordanka Derilova (Brünnhilde/"Götterdämmrung") in addition to the aforementioned Alexandrina Stoyanova-Andreeva (Waltraute/Flosshilde) were also appreciated. However, without underestimating the rest of the cast who contributed with great dedication and professionalism to the success of the "great undertaking". Yes, because the staging of "The Ring" is indeed a great undertaking, a challenge that the Sofia Opera accepted and won with all honours.

So much so that there's already talk of a 2025 Wagner Festival with a new "Tannhäuser" production and re-creations of "The Ring", "Der fliegende Holländer", "Lohengrin" and "Parsifal".

Not to be missed!