He Climbed Up to a Burning Ring of Fire

Wednesday night saw us back at McCaw Hall for the third installment of the Ring Cycle, Siegfried. It was not as completely enthralling as Die Walküre was, but it was still impressive. You can read a synopsis of the plot here (or, in twenty words or less: greed, fearless hero, huge dragon, death, magic ring, death, powerless gods, woman teaches fearless hero meaning of fear, incest, love).

For us, in this production, the staging and the sets won out over the singing. We think this is partially because this opera, unlike Die Walküre, doesn’t have many women in it. One woman sings the role of “Forest Bird” in the second act, there’s a brief scene in the third act between the Lord of the gods (Wotan) and the woman he sired Brünnhilde with (Erda), and then there’s Brünnhilde herself, who doesn’t sing much until the latter half of the third act. Seattlest is partial to the female voice, and that just wasn’t enough for us. Especially when the women are so spectacular! But we’ve mentioned that before, so we’ll just rein ourselves back in.

So in the second act, Siegfried, the man who knows no fear, is supposed to kill the dragon guarding the ring and the rest of the gold. There was a bunch of singing while Siegfried waited for the dragon to wake up and emerge from his mountain cave. And when he woke, we first saw a huge tail shifting around in the cave. We kept wondering how a dragon’s head (especially one supposedly able to eat a man in one gulp) was going to fit through the cave opening if its huge tail was coiled in the way. All of a sudden, the dragon’s head appeared around the corner of the mountain, from the back of the stage. There was a collective gasp from the audience. This puppet head was as tall as Siegfried, and even drooled. Amazing puppetry. It was quite fantastic.

In the third act, Erda emerged from what looks like solid rock to have her conversation with Wotan. As it happened, we were a little distracted by the singing and didn’t really see it happen, so it was even more mind-bending. We were determined to watch her go back into the rock so we could know how it was done, and it turns out that a small part of it was a little like spandex-y fabric. Her costume matched the rock, and as she moved through the spandex-y fabric, it really did look like she was merging into the solid-looking mountainside.

Also in the third act, Siegfried finds Brünnhilde where Wotan had sentenced her to an enchanted slumber, on the top of a mountain surrounded by fire. There was real fire on stage. Built in to the rock. It was SO COOL. They fall in love. She’s his aunt.

Tonight’s opera, Götterdämmerung, is the longest (5 hours, 15 minutes). Siegfried, only half an hour shorter, didn’t feel long, and we’re hoping that holds true for Götterdämmerung. We’re also hoping Siegfried gets a love interest he’s not related to, but as they say, you can do anything in grand opera as long as you sing it.