In addition to great classical music, when attending a performance of L.A. Opera at the sleek Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Downtown L.A., visitors are guaranteed to hear a variety of foreign languages. I heard tongues from Europe, that operatic bastion, as well as from Asia being spoken at what is a major visitor attraction in Los Angeles. In particular, L.A. Opera’s $32 million production of Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelungen has been attracting Angelenos and out-of-towners alike since Das Rheingold, the first installment of Wagner’s colossal four part opera, premiered in February.
The second installment of the Ring Cycle is even more noteworthy, as it co-stars the planet’s most famous tenor, Placido Domingo, and because it features one of the greatest pieces of music ever composed and performed.
Richard Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries is one of my favorites, but I had never heard it performed live until I attended L.A. Opera’s Die Walkure, the second installment of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelungen. The Ride of the Valkyries is oft-used, currently – and rather blasphemously – played during a TV commercial for computers wherein pigeons play (Wagnerians may cry “fowl play!”) the role of the Valkyries (aka Die Walkure), those winged women warriors.
Of course, the most powerful screen use ever of The Ride of the Valkyries is in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Apocalypse Now. To “scare the hell out of” the Vietnamese peasants below large stereo speakers are attached to the helicopters to blast Wagner’s chilling music as the choppers attack the Viet Cong village. The scariest thing about what is one of the greatest cinematic sequences ever shot is the reason why the Yankees wreak havoc on the Vietnamese: the seaside village has the great misfortune of being located near an outstanding surf break, and the Americans want SoCal super surfer Lance B. Johnson (initials “LBJ” — get it?) played by Sam Bottoms to be able to ride the waves there. Thus, with Wagner’s music, the absurd rationale for the devastating assault, et al, Coppola captured the quintessence of the American invasion of Vietnam.
One of my closest, most cultured friends says that this visceral scene forever ruined listening to Valkyries for her, as the music now always conjures up memories of this disturbing movie scene, which is seared in her mind and memorably culminates with Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore’s (Robert Duvall) insane exultation: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Like the imperialist Kilgore the Nazis loved the mythic, martial music of Wagner (reputedly a notorious anti-Semite) and Nuremberg rally-like pomp and pageantry of his operas; Adolph Hitler courted Wagner’s daughter-in-law. Nevertheless, I still enjoy the undeniably rousing Ride of the Valkyries.
So, it was with great expectations that I watched the curtain rise on Act III of Die Walkure, which opens with opera’s most famous Ride (with the possible exception of Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell, which – like the Valkyrian strains – are now inextricably linked to another piece of American pop culture, The Lone Ranger). Much to my surprise, there was actually an element of humor in the scene as performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with Valhalla’s angels of death swooping down during battle to snatch bodies of fallen heroes on contraptions that looked sort of like horsey bicycles. The militant mounted maidens seemed, at times, to be laughing, and the operagoer to my right chuckled during the much-anticipated scene, performed with much gusto.
In this second installment of L.A. Opera’s adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, the direction, design, props and costumes of Director/Designer Achim Freyer and of his daughter, Co-Costume Designer Amanda Freyer, seem more restrained than they were in the wildly optically extravagant first installment of The Nibelungen, Das Rheingold. This time around, there’s no airplane hovering overhead –- not even during the Valkyries aerial escapades. However, Die Walkure remains visually inventive and highly imaginative, with its fair share of special effects, such as glowing gloves, elongated arms, masks, and the like. A colossal eyeball stares down, godlike, upon the unfolding action, with the omnipotent orb periodically changing color. Co-Lighting Director Brian Gale’s gloomy onstage chiaroscuro suggests a spectral otherworldly outer space, an Asgard and Valhalla inhabited by gods, giants, elves and immortals, instead of by just we mere mortals.
Classical productions are widely considered to be highbrow affairs for the hoity-toity. In fact, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, long regarded by many as the greatest play in the English language, is a ghost story about revenge and lust, with incestuous undertones. Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto features the titular hunchback who wants to have sex with his attractive daughter. Similarly, amidst much murder and mayhem, Die Walkure is about the adulterous, incestuous affair and marriage of a brother, Siegmund (the legendary Placido Domingo in a rare opportunity for Angelenos to see and hear the Spanish tenor and L.A. Opera’s General Director perform live), to his sister, Sieglinde (German soprano Anja Kampe). Die Walkure could also be viewed as the ultimate damsel in distress story.
Norse and Germanic myths are the source material for Wagner’s Ring libretto, just as they were for Fritz Lang’s 1924 silent screen two-part adaptation of Die Nibelungen, Siegfried and Kriemhild’s Revenge. It’s interesting, and indeed amusing, to note the human-like frailties of even the mightiest of these gods. The unfaithful Wotan’s (Ukrainian bass Vitalij Kowaljow) woes include a henpecking wife, Fricka (mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung), who is the goddess of wedlock. Wotan may be the immortal and almighty chief of the gods and lord of all he surveys, but like many a husband he is mere silly putty in the hands of his demanding, argumentative spouse. Nor can he control the free will of one of his offspring, the Valkyrie Brunnhilde’s (soprano Linda Watson).
In addition to the themes of militarism, struggle for world domination and will power (the stuff that Nazi dreams are made of) the discerning operagoer can also read between the lines and find concerns that are resonant with today’s so-called “culture wars” that pit “family values” advocates against adherents of a more freewheeling sexuality.
The grand finale is a theatrical tour de force, with the Dorothy Chandler’s stage eerily illumined as it is set on fire as part of Wotan’s (who, as every Thor comic book reader knows, is also called Odin) punishment of Brunnhilde for her apparent defiance of the will of the gods. This opera inferno is a Wagnerian feast for the eyes, and under the baton of Conductor James Conlon, for the orchestral ears, too – but of course. The second installment of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelungen ends, quite literally, with a cliffhanger, and I can’t help but wonder if this 1870 opera is the source of that term which was closely associated with movie serials, such as The Perils of Pauline. Be that as it may, Die Walkure’s curtain closing ending perfectly and literally sets the stage for the third installment of the Ring Cycle, Siegfried. However, this truly is a cliffhanger, as Angeleno opera aficionados will have to wait to find out what happens longer than TV-land audiences did to discover who shot J.R. on Dallas, as Siegfried doesn’t premiere until Sept. 26, 2009! Stay tuned.
Das Walkure is being performed at L.A. Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., on Sunday April 19 at 1:00 p.m.; Thursday April 16, Wednesday April 22 and Saturday April 25 at 6:30 p.m. Please note the early performance times of Die Walkure, which is more than four hours long and has two intermissions. L.A. Opera is presenting the entire Ring Cycle, which will conclude in 2010. For more info: (213)972-8001; www.laopera.com.
Photo by Monika Rittershaus
Ed Rampell has traveled widely, to more than 100 Pacific Islands, Asia, Europe, Mexico and Africa. His travel writing and photography has appeared in: Islands, Action Asia, Travel Age West, Skin Inc, Porthole, Far East Traveler, Asian Diver, L.A. Times, Toronto Globe & Mail, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Pacific Business News, E The Environmental Magazine, L.A. Reader, etc. Rampell is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Journal. was interviewed at Tahiti for the CBS newsmagazine “48 Hours,” and National Public Radio’s “Savvy Traveler” interviewed Rampell about the Marquesas Islands. Rampell acted as a consultant for, and appears as the most used on-camera interviewee, in the 2005 Australian-European co-production “Hula Girls,” which has been seen by millions of viewers on Dutch, German, French, Swiss, Australian, etc., television on the Avro and Arte networks. Rampell’s Polynesian daughter Marina is a singer in Australia.
