Legend of the Ring, Berkeley Opera, July 31 2010

What? Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in 3½ hours? How do you do that? With massive cuts: drastically reduced lusting of Albrerich for the Rhinemaidens, no Donner, no discourse on Freia's golden apples, no Mime, no Erda; no Friedmund darf ich nicht heissen or Der Männer Sippe or Winterstürme or Du bist der Lenz, a highly compressed argument between Wotan and Fricka, a snippet of Wotan's monologue, a highly compressed Todesverkundigung, no Walkürenritt (no Valkyries other than Brünnhilde), no Leb' wohl; no "twenty questions" between Mime and the Wanderer, no Alberich-Wotan confrontation, no forest murmurs, no Erda, no "das ist kein Mann," no reluctance by Brünnhilde to fall in love with Siegfried; no Norns, no Waltraute, no Hagen's Watch, no Hagen's call to the vassals, no scene between Siegfried and the Rhinemaidens, no Siegfried's Funeral Music, and a drastically reduced Immolation Scene. It's the story of The Ring, stripped down to its bare essentials, and it still takes 3 hr 45 min start to finish including one intermission. It helps you realize that The Ring is as big as it is because it needs to be as big as it is.

You also do it with a serious reduction in performing forces: Brünnhilde doubles as Wellgunde, Wotan/Wanderer as Gunther, Alberich as Fasolt, Siegfried as Froh and Siegmund, etc. The orchestra isn't much larger than the Pocket Philharmonic: three violas (right: no violins), two cellos, two basses, one flute, one clarinet, one trumpet, three horns, one trombone, one percussionist, and an electronic piano for a harp. (They still managed to slip a Wagner tuba in amongst the horns.) Despite the small size, volume of sound was never a problem, though it might have been if Siegfried's Funeral Music had not been cut. A front row center seat may have helped also.

And you conduct with passion. The orchestra played their hearts out, with lots of enthusiasm, though not with the technical skill that I'm accustomed to hearing at Berkeley Opera. As the horns entered in the Rheingold prelude, I was afraid that it might turn into a looong evening in the theater. But anything that the orchestra lacked, the singers more than made up for. Marie Plette in particular was simply outstanding. She got to wear the most hats of anyone: Woglinde, Freia, Sieglinde, Woodbird, and Gutrune. And every time, in every role, hers was a voice to reckon with. Richard Paul Fink, perhaps the world's reigning Alberich, finally got a chance to sing Wotan. He was fine, but maybe he should stick with Alberich. That role was taken by Bojan Knezevic, rather impressively. Another highlight was Stephen Rumph as Loge: one of the youngest people on stage, he sang without the whiny tone that I so often hear in Loge, and he was a very dynamic onstage presence, always in motion, as you might expect of a flickering flame. Jay Hunter Morris certainly had the pipes as Siegmund and Siegfried, and made a good Froh as well. Dean Peterson lacked the ultimate vocal heft that makes for a great Fafner or Hunding or Hagen. I thought more highly of Christine Springer as Brünnhilde than did my companions, but that's faint praise. I was wishing for another Marie Plette in that role.

The staging was done with lots of projections, on screens to the left and right of the center where most of the action takes place. Most effective was the series of images that represented various stages of the descent into Nibelheim. There were a very few props in the center, primarily a white box that Alberich can crouch behind as he turns himself into a serpent and then a toad, and which Brünnhilde can ascend for the Todesverkundigung. There are also two fancy black leather "waiting room" chairs; Brünnhilde is put to sleep with her torso on one chair and her legs on the other, while Loge reclines on the white box. Stage direction was perhaps at its most effective near the end of Walküre Act I: as Siegmund and Sieglinde ramp up their passion, Wotan and Brünnhilde appear stage left and look on approvingly–and then Fricka enters upstage and is shocked! shocked! when Siegmund and Sieglinde kiss. Somewhat jarring was the Woodbird near the end of Siegfried. Marie Plette was wearing a woman's suit style of dress with a pillbox hat adorned with feathers, and she carried a cell phone, which she apparently used to relay a play-by-play report of the battle between Siegfried and Fafner. She even used it to take a picture of the victor. Cute, but just a bit “out there.”

There is also some sort of talisman, a T in a circle with a semicircular tab hanging from the right side of the T, looking sort of like a hood ornament. It got passed from character to character, and at times was stuck into a receiving slot in the white box. Its significance escaped me.

Overall, very enjoyable. I don't particularly feel the need to catch one of the remaining performances, but I'll certainly look forward to the next time that Berkeley Opera (presumably they will have assumed their new name of West Edge Opera by then) performs Legend of the Ring.