PPP Music Theatre Ensemble, Munich
Reichshof Kulturbühne Bayreuth - August 2020
Ulrich Laykam, Peter P. Pachl, Uli Bützer, Rebecca Broberg, Giorgio Valenta, Steven Scheschareg, Dirk Mestmacher, William Wallace, Julia Reznik, Maarja Purga, Robert Fendl, Xenia Galanova, Reuben Scott
Marco Polo - DVD
The recording and release of any of the neglected operas by Siegfried Wagner, the son of Richard Wagner, is certain to be of great interest, and the mere fact that someone has gone to the effort to actually stage one of the works is admirable and makes this worthy of attention. It has to be said however that this Marco Polo DVD release of Sonnenflammen at Bayreuth leaves something, or more than a few things, to be desired. For all that is lacking in this production, it does nonetheless prove to be a worthwhile experience.
That perhaps still sounds a little harsh, but it is necessary to adjust expectations, as this PPP Music Theatre Ensemble production lacks the high production values that we more typically see on the main stage at Bayreuth for one of Siegfried's father's works. And indeed it lacks the production values that we would see on a typical DVD or Blu-ray release. Perhaps what most would see as the most significant shortcoming of this production however is the total absence of a live orchestra.
Needs must in Covid times, and opera houses all over Europe are adjusting to the new reality of live performance in restricted conditions, but I must admit I've never come across a digital orchestra used in a live environment before. The music here is performed by the Bayreuth Digital Orchestra, which is a computer derived reproduction of an orchestra using the Sibelius digital notation software. It doesn't seems to be an ideal way to be introduced to the music of Siegfried Wagner, but it's not entirely without human input and whatever your principled objection might be to the lack of human insight and interpretation brought to performance of the score, in practice it appears to give a reasonably accurate account of the music.
It's not as if the score is fed into a computer and the resulting music fed out, as the programming is managed by conductor and music director Ulrich Laykam, who sets the tempo and adjusts the instruments and sections much I imagine as he would a live orchestra. It creates a reasonable approximation of a full orchestral performance, but personally, with it being very much in the same neo-Romantic style, it produces a sound that for me is similar to that achieved by the symphonic prog rock band The Enid.
It's a comparison that probably does no favours to either The Enid or Siegfried Wagner, the latter's music inevitably closer to the idiom of his father in scope and complexity, or perhaps closer to the post-Wagner school of Austrian and German composers like Walter Braunfels, Franz Schreker and of course, Richard Strauss. Like some of the work of those composers, the drama of Sonnenflammen, Siegfried Wagner's eighth opera, composed around 1912 and first performed just days before the official end of WWI, can be seen to reflect the troubling nature of events in Germany around that time.
Sonnenflammen is set in 13th century Byzantium during the time of the Fourth Crusade, it depicts the fall of the Empire of Alexios as Constantinople is destroyed, set aflame in 1204. The three principal figures in the work are the Emperor Alexios, the knight Fridolin, and Iris the daughter of the court jester Gomella. Like traditional historical operas there is a romantic love triangle situation here that heightens the passions of the drama. Alexios is pursuing Iris, much to the disapproval of Gomella and the Empress Irene, who eventually commits suicide because of it. Iris is also adored by Fridolin, but since he has renounced the violence of the Crusades, she doesn't see him as sufficiently heroic, until it is too late.
Siegfried Wagner's perspective on the romantic hero warrior is quite different from that of his father, and the differences are interesting. I suppose Siegfried (in Richard Wagner's The Ring) was also an imperfect hero in many ways, but Fridolin - certainly as he is depicted in this production - is definitely not the typical image you would have of a heroic knight. He's a dreamer (signified by wearing a VR headset here) who wants peace and love, refusing to join the crusades or take part in the cruel excesses of the court of Alexios. He even chooses the degradation and shame of being made a jester and being disavowed by his father rather than be arrested and executed for carelessly showing a little too much enthusiasm for an assassination attempt on the Emperor.
Despite the low budget nature of the production design giving the impression of being modern or abstract, director Peter P. Pachl actually relates the original story completely faithfully. Or almost completely. While the drama of the court of Emperor Alexios is played out according to the libretto with costumes and togas that approximate the period (with a few quirks like the VR headset) there is a simultaneous projection that pulls the work back to the time of its composition, 1918 early 1920s. The projections make little direct allusion to either contemporaneous or modern events however, merely illustrating or enhancing the idea of the fall of an Empire, including nuclear destruction.
The Marco Polo Standard Definition DVD of Sonnenflammen is adequate for getting the production across, but clearly not at the level of the more typical High Definition opera releases on Blu-ray. The LPCM stereo is effectively mono, capturing the sound in the theatre with no real mixing separation or post-production. It sounds quite echoing but despite the evident limitations, there's a good account of the work here and the DVD certainly gives more than just a flavour the quality of the performances. And indeed the work itself. It's easy to get caught up in its flow and impressive enough to hope that some ambitious opera houses could forego another new production of Lohengrin or Tannhäuser and opt instead for a more adventurous treatment of a lesser known Siegfried.
Links: Amazon.uk
