“Das Rheingold” fascinates the audience
“Das Rheingold”: the first instalment of “Der Ring des Nibelungen”, marked the beginning of this year’s showing of the tetralogy at the Sofia Opera.
The Sofia Opera toured with the previous production of “Der Ring des Nibelungen” at the “Königswinkel” festival in Füssen, Germany, 2015 and in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 2018 as well as in Minsk and Skopje with showings of “Siegfried” and “Die Walküre”. Last year, a special invitation was extended from the opera festival in Füssen to Plamen Kartaloff and he set “Der Ring des Nibelungen” for the second time employing a completely different concept and vision compared to the last version of his production. After the Wagnerian festival during the summer of 2023, the most famous opera magazines acknowledged the enormous success of the Sofia Opera’s “Ring” and noted two important things: that the shows are performed by an entirely Bulgarian ensemble and that they have world class directorship.
This year one can again find new ideas in “Der Ring”. “Das Rheingold” boasts an entirely different set of multimedia effects through which the waters of the river Rhein come to life as well as the caves of the Nibelungs and the gods’ castle of Valhalla. Two solo singers made their debut: Vesselin Mihaylov who played an imposing Wotan and Stanislava Momekova who brilliantly portrayed the Rhein maiden Woglinde. The rest of the roles were performed by Plamen Dimitrov (Alberich), Krasimir Dinev (Mime), Daniel Ostretsov (Loge), Mariana Tsvetkova (Fricka), Silvana Pravcheva (Freja), Petar Buchkov and Stephan Vladimirov (Fasolt and Fafnir), Svetosar Rangelov (Donner), Hrisimir Damyanov (Fro), Vesela Yaneva (Erda), Ina Petrova (Welgunde) and Aleksandrina Stoyanova-Andreeva (Flosshilde).
Evan-Alexis Christ helmed the conductor’s stand. It is his first time conducting the entire tetralogy in Sofia and he received well deserved ovations from the audience.
Children from the vocal-theater formation “Talasamche” led by Dimitar Kostancaliev also took part in the performance.
The audience was in awe with the performance and the thunderous applause after praised everyone who took part in the show.
Wagnerians from Portugal, USA, Germany, Austria, Scottland, Spain and Brazil enjoyed Wagner’s music and were exceptionally happy to be present at this festival.
Here are the impressions of our guests after the performance.
Music critics and renowned experts on Wagner’s work were again present in the hall among which Klaus Billand from Vienna and Gregor Tassie from Glasgow as well as Riitta Karlsson from Stockholm, John DiGaetani (“Wagneriana”), Roland Dippel (“Das Orchester” and “Oper und Tanz”), Dirk Schauss (“Online Merker”), Helmut Pitsch (“Opera Online”).
Everyone was truly excited after the end of the performance and commented very fondly on Plamen Kartaloff’s vision and director’s decisions for “Das Rheingold”. The main topic of conversation was the way this take on Wagner’s tetralogy is different from the many different versions of it in several main ways. First of all, the operas are set in a way that is perfectly easy for the audience to understand. Second of all, the score and the director’s decisions are in perfect harmony with each other and finally: the most appropriate colors are chosen for the costumes, scenography and artistic lighting all of which are in perfect sync with the nuances in Wagner’s music. Several music critics shared that they had seen new ideas and details upon which they had never before stumbled in their many visits to different theaters all around the world. They noted that the syncretic connection between all elements in the show stays entirely true to Richard Wagner’s notion of Gesamtkunstwerk. Plamen Kartaloff was pronounced “a teller of tales” who is versed in Wagner’s work in the greatest of details.
“Der Ring des Nibelungen” scenography is done by Hans Kudlich. Hristiyana Zorbalieva is in charge of costumes and Andrei Heidinyak handles the lighting.
“Der Ring des Nibelungen” tetralogy continues today with the showing of the enthralling piece “Die Walküre”.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
A festive scenic performance to be held within three days and one night
Libretto and music by Richard Wagner
First night: “Das Rheingold”; first day: „Die Walküre“; second day: “Siegfried”; third day: “Götterdämmerung“
“Der Ring des Nibelungen” intertwines complex storylines and ideas. The story of the four-part cycle unfolds on Earth, in the waters of the river Rhein, within the depths of the earth, high in the skies of Valhalla and follows the dealings of men, dwarves and gods. The cycle ends with a catastrophe of cosmic proportions which encompasses the entire Universe.
After finishing work on “Lohengrin” in April 1848, Richard Wagner chose the legendary German mythology hero Siegfried as his next focus. In October that same year, he drafted a script for “Siegfried’s Death” which he developed into a complete libretto during the following months. After having fled from Dresden and having moved to Switzerland, Wagner continued to enrich and expand this project while having decided meanwhile that just one piece wouldn’t be enough to convey his vision in its entirety. In Wagner’s expanded concept, “Siegfried’s Death” would be the culmination of a series of musical dramas composed of an entire web of myths each of which would tell a separate part of the story. In 1851, the composer explained his goal in his essay “A message to my friends”:
“I intend to create this myth of mine as three complete dramas preceded by a long prelude (Vorspiel).”
Each of these dramas has an identity of its own but they cannot be shown separately.
“During a specially created festival, I suggest that in the future these three dramas be shown along with the prelude to them, within the bounds of three days and one night.”
In accordance to this plan, “Siegfried’s Death” underwent a significant rework from its initial version and would later become known as “Götterdämmerung“. This piece was preceded by the story of Siegfried’s youth: “A young Siegfried” which was later renamed to just “Siegfried” while „Die Walküre“ was already written before that. Finally, Wagner added a prologue to these three pieces which he called “Das Rheingold”; the entire story begins with this opera.
The first showing of “Das Rheingold” was on the 22nd of September 1869 at the palace theater in Munich, with Franz Wüllner as the conductor. The first showing of the opera as part of the complete cycle “Der Ring des Nibelungen” was held on the 13th of August 1876 under the conductorship of Hans Richter in the Wagner theater in Bayreuth; this theater was built with the help of the Bavarian King Ludwig II.
Some curious facts!
As the tetralogy’s prelude, “Das Rheingold” sets the stage for the main dramatic events which drive the story throughout the entire piece. “Das Rheingold” tells the story of the theft of the Rheingold by Alberich, after he had renounced love. The dwarf forges an almighty ring from the stolen gold and enslaves his own people, the Nibelungs, using its power; later, Wotan claims the ring in order to pay his depth to the giants who created his castle of Valhalla. Alberich puts a curse on the ring and on all its future masters. Erda warns Wotan to abandon the ring; the sinister power of the curse is revealed after Wotan gives the ring to the giants. The gods uneasily enter Valhalla, under the looming shadow of their own impending doom.
Wagner creates the cycle in reverse: the libretto of “Das Rheingold” was the last of the four to be written. The composer had completely planned the tetralogy by March, 1852 and on the 15th of September that same year he began writing the cycle’s libretto which he completed on the 3rd of November. In February 1852, at the „Baur au Lac“ hotel in Zurich, Wagner read the entire script of “Der Ring des Nibelungen” in front of a specially invited audience. After this event, all four parts of the cycle were published as a special private edition limited to fifty copies only. The script wasn’t widely published until 1863.
