# Die Walkure - Berwick Festival Opera, Berwick and Perth (September 2015)



## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Die Walkure
Berwick Festival Opera
Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, 04-Sep-2015
Perth, Scotland, 06-Sep-2015

Yes, two performances in (arguably) two countries. What dedication! Actually bad planning on my part during my south-north road trip was what made it happen.

I'll start with Berwick-upon-Tweed, a historic town of 12,000 people on the border with Scotland. Such is the geography and history that its football and rugby teams play in the Scottish leagues, not the English. And the accent sounds Scottish to the English and English to the Scottish. The town is notable for still being at war with Russia, due to an oversight during the singing of the peace treaty following the Crimean War. (Let's not have the facts getting in the way of a great tale). The Maltings is a small arts venue converted from a malt house. It houses a 'proper' theatre of 310 steeply rakes seats and a small balcony. Its extravagant bohemian bar is a delight. In fact the whole place is a gem the town is rightly proud of.

This was a concert performance with a derisory and under-utilised screen projection behind. The orchestra had 22 players, performing Jonathan Dove's rearrangement for 18 players made for the Birmingham Opera Company in 1990. Mr Dove also trimmed an hour off the running time. Some may say that's a good thing.

The orchestra strikes up with the scary chase motif of the Act I prelude and I immediately know we're not going to be luxuriating in Wagner's sensual strings this evening. Siegmund stumbles breathlessly onto the stage. Ronald Samm is a man of fuller figure from Trinidad. His is a fine voice and one can easily imagine his signature Otello. Semi-staged it might be, but he's keen to act out. His 'twin', the fragrant blonde Janice Watson, appears from the other side. Yes, I know. No smirking please. The important thing is they both sing well. Simon Wilding as Hunding cuts a fine and menacing figure with a deep and powerful voice but I don't care for the bass-baritone oscillation. Act I is over in 40 minutes which feels about right if you're going to do cuts, and here comes a point of contention... the Act II prelude is segued with the Act I finale. I see what Dove was trying to do, but for me, Wagner's act openings and closures are such a great pleasure that I felt denied of them. Brunnhilde and Wotan promptly appear for their first scene. Miriam Murphy has the pipes and frame to make a big impression although I wanted her to carry the notes a little further. For me Paul Carey Jones as the dapper Wotan was the class act with a fine tone and presence, kind of like the Donald McIntyre Wotan I have on DVD. Andrea Baker's vivacious Fricka also makes a strong impression on Wotan and the audience. The first half of the opera ends in the lull after B & W's middle scene. It's kind of awkward and left to me to start the applause. Maybe Mr Dove should have worked in a little cadence to get us to a more fitting point?

The second part (unlike the program I'm not going to call it Act II) uses the same device of seguing Act II and III together. It works well enough if you don't mind missing quite a few bars of the Act II outro. Fricka (with the aid of nothing by her rearranged shawl) has transformed into a feisty Waltraute, and is joined by voices from the back of the hall. The other two Valkyries - Helmwige and Rossweisse - sing as they walk up the side isles to the stage. The three of them are vampishly attired and most fetching (from this male viewer's point of view). It proved a hard act to follow although Wotan sung his closing scene very well as the orchestra did its best to blaze and shimmer.

My conclusions: Wagner needs more strings than this! 8 plus a double bass simply isn't enough to convey the glory of the music. Secondly, if you're going to have a film image backdrop, do something useful with it! There were no titles, but I think (and have thought before for semi staged) that the screen could be used for simple commentary, such as 'With Wotan's approval Hunding kills Siegmund', 'Wotan banishes Brunnhilde to live on a rock surrounded by fire'.

Perth, a city an hour north of Edinburgh has a very nice modern concert hall. I repeated the experience and was able to meet up with Braddan, one of the forum's newer members, who is sociable, nice and an opera fan, and not (he seemed eager to point out) an 'axe-murderer'. Although I believe it's an in-joke amongst axe-murderers to use that line.


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