Michael Tanner

New order

Opera: Siegfried; Götterdämmerung, Royal Opera

issue 03 November 2007

Opera: Siegfried; Götterdämmerung, Royal Opera

Siegfried is in some ways the most complex of the Ring dramas, showing us alternately, and then simultaneously, the old order recognising or/and resisting its need of replacement, and the new order beginning to emerge, but with no consciousness of what its purpose is — for Wagner much of the allure of Siegfried is his total lack of self-awareness. The old order, in the figures of the Wanderer/Wotan, Alberich, Fafner and Mime, is awarded music that makes one sorely regret its passing; we are familiar with it from the previous two dramas, but in Siegfried this music undergoes new and fascinating transformations and combinations, as Wagner’s art of leading motifs becomes ever more sophisticated and subtle. By contrast, though not a stark contrast, the new order, Siegfried and the ex-goddess Brünnhilde, is portrayed in a way that is less likely to win our sympathy, certainly dramatically and up to a point musically, and has the added disadvantage that even by Wagnerian standards its music is extraordinarily difficult to sing.

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