Three full cycles of an outstandingly successful Ring took place in this beautiful north German town: in September 2010 and in February and May 2011, and we are also promised a keenly-awaited DVD. Lübeck is the birthplace of Thomas Mann who saw his first Wagner (Lohengrin) at the opera house on the site of the present theatre in 1893. The new (1908) art nouveau theatre holds some 800 people and has an orchestra pit so effectively sunken that the instrumentalists gasp for air.

The acoustic is so good that some soloists sound amplified. The general manager had to threaten one newspaper with an injunction for suggesting this in the case of the consistently magnificent Wotan (Stefan Heidemann). Hearing Wagner as good as this in a small house is a thrilling experience, just as any weaknesses would be magnified.

If you only saw Rheingold in this production you would get the impression of a straightforward, outstandingly well sung modern-dress staging without any particular distinguishing marks except Valhalla as an elaborate construction-site, with genuine building-workers to match. This Ring is modern but not aggressively so, and the direction is almost never distracting, but enhances and illuminates the action, or has real charm. For example in Siegfried the Woodbird is represented as a young Red Cross nurse, radiantly sung by Andrea Stadel. At the end of Act II Wotan watches her encourage Siegfried on his way to Brünnhilde. To the closing notes of the Act he takes some paper-money out of his pocket and slips it into the Woodbird’s breast pocket. It is witty, suggestive, and hardly distracting, because the act is over.

There are many such deft but seldom extreme touches throughout this pleasing, always intelligent and intelligible production. In Götterdämmerung, the Rhinemaidens appear out of their natural element as tipsy bar-girls. It is astonishing how well the music fits such an interpretation. The most extreme and striking directorial intervention occurs during Siegfried’s Funeral Music. This martial music, however magnificent, is utterly alien to Siegfried’s character and represents a Gibichung takeover of his murdered body: a classic mafia cover-up, stage-managed by Hagen.[note] In this production, at the height of the most violent kettle drums, Hagen and his hoodlums attempt to gang-rape Gutrune. The essence of that brutal music is revealed as never before.

This imaginative production of this Ring is by the Cyprus-born Irishman Anthony Pilavachi, who has directed in Berlin, Cologne and Houston among other places. Little seems to have been published about his concept, but the impression is of a director who has come fresh to the work, who puts the music first, and who directs with great originality but with deep empathy and respect for Wagner’s work.

All of the singers deserve the highest praise, particularly Rebecca Teem’s astonishingly powerful Brünnhilde, Jürgen Müller’s youthful, always resonant Siegfried, Veronika Waldner’s unforgettable Fricka (also Waltraute), Antonio Yang’s mesmerically evil Alberich, Arnold Bezuyen’s sinister but also comic Mime, Gerard Quinn’s Gunther in wicked drag, and Ausrine Stundyte as his touchingly vulnerable sister. Ulrike Schneider’s Erda has a voice of the profoundest beauty. Mention has already been made of Stefan Heidemann’s tireless Wotan and Andrea Stadel’s attractive Woodbird. Only Loge (John Pickering) seemed to lack character, but my benchmark is the inimitable Emile Belcourt in Goodall’s ENO Ring of nearly forty years ago, so this may be a little harsh.
 
Note:
In lines 1896–1902 Brünnhilde herself says she has not heard a note worthy of such a hero (‘nicht erklang mir würdige Klage, wie des hehrsten Helden sie wert’).

(20.12.2021)