Review: Superb Sub in WNO's THE VALKYRIE

Ten years of planning and $10 million in production costs couldn't prevent the Washington National Opera from pleasing all the gods in its ambitious staging of all four operas in Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung.

A week before The Ring was to begin, British soprano Catherine Foster twisted her leg during a dress rehearsal, forcing her to sit out her premiere of the second opera, The Valkyrie, on Tuesday.

Foster was to play no less than Brünnhilde, the character who traditionally wears the horned Viking cap; the veritable symbol of all opera to non-goers, a figure who is also supposed to have inspired the phrase, "It ain't over till the fat lady sings."

The winning motto, in this case, for WNO, is "The show must go on." And so they acquired no less than American soprano Christine Goerke, a choice that had fans nodding when it was announced at curtain and cheering at the program's end, more than five hours later.

Goerke is something of a pro in the part. She just completed a run playing Brünnhilde in the Houston Grand Opera's Siegfried, in which she also played earlier this season at Canadian Opera Company. She's been Brünnhilde in The Valkyrie for both companies last season and will return as Brünnhilde in Twilight of the Gods next season. Full Ring cycles are in her future at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Met.

Goerke probably has her own helmet at this point, except that WNO artistic director and Ring director Francesco Zambello's production uses no such helmet. It's set at some nebulous time in the American 20th century, a time of skyscrapers and billionaires in boardrooms - yes it is the Masters of the Universe, to use Tom Wolfe's phrase from The Bonfire of the Vanities, who are the gods in this production.

And Goerke was great in the role. Foster hopes to be back in time for the third opera in the cycle Siegfried, opening Wednesday. But in the meantime, her presence is a special treat.

But of course the crowd for The Ring is game for anything - a four hour running time, eating box lunches on the foyer carpet, two intermissions that effectively cleared the room like fire drills, and on Tuesday, a driving thunderstorm on the patio that was only slightly more impressive than Mark McCullough's special effects lighting on the stage.

Still, for those just stepping into The Ring during the second opera, it may be surprising that a production this big, with a buzz twice as large, isn't very big on stage. There isn't a cast of hundreds (just 15). Michael Yeargan's sets, by and large, are meant to be familiar and not necessarily knockouts (though you can't deny the rings of fire).

Unlike epic binge-ready TV, The Ring comes with no "Previously on" updates. In fact, it would seem there is little connecting the first opera prologue, The Rhinegold, to the first chapter, except for a couple of characters and a curse.

But look what has happened since the prologue, according to a notation in the company's 96-page program: Fafner has turned himself into a dragon to protect his golden hoard (if this kind of thing were done off-screen on Game of Thrones there'd be an uprising; despite that there's no talk or glimpse of Fafner in The Valkyrie).

The only other thing that's been happening is that industrialist (and probable hotelier) Wotan has fathered nearly a dozen adult children, all but one a female, including Brünnhilde but also all eight Valkyries, imagined in this production as a kind of skydiving team. With an unnamed mortal, he's fathered twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde.

The two don't know each other, but one day, an exhausted Siegmund collapses near her home and there's an attraction between them; she even leaves her husband for him (especially when he's strong enough to pull out a sword in a tree there).

In his big office, Wotan is urged by his wife Fricka to do something about this ickiness, so he stages a fight that he'll fix. This is where Brünnhilde comes in, defying her dad by messing with his plan and allowing the possibly pregnant Sieglinde escape with her to Valhalla.

It is there, in Act III that is Wagner heaven, with that familiar theme John Williams has been appropriating all these years. And in the background, the evening's most striking visual of - in a sea of clouds, a group of Valkyries landing in parachutes.

One can say a lot about The Ring - how long it is, how old fashioned its story of patrician god seems to be, how it caught the fancy of the Third Reich, how it has nothing to do with the horror movie of the same name.

But when Wotan and his daughter Brünnhilde confront one another about the betrayal, in a discussion that goes on quite a while, it is one moment where the Kennedy Center is absolutely rapt, the kind of moment that is the reason companies go for broke to present the epic work (even if it occasionally means a twisted leg).

It's also shows the power of Zambello's approach - where the intimate personal interaction trumps spectacle, both in Valhalla, and the meeting that begins the opera.

Much of the success is due to the music directing by conductor Phillippe Auguin, who was able to eke some nuance out of a score many expect to simply steamroll. For all the fiddling with setting and time, Auguin is a stickler for original instrumentation, too, and just as he used tuned anvils in The Rhinegold, he had half his French horn players doubling on "Wagner tubas" and an alpenhorn blaring during the fight scene in The Valkyrie.

Bows and bouquets go to the other singers besides the stand-in job by Goerke. American bass-baritone Alan Held is formidable as Wotan; in addition to his proclamation he shows some feeling for his daughter in their final scene at Valhalla. British tenor Christopher Ventris and American soprano Meagan Miller make for strong twins; American bass Raymond Aceto is appropriately brutish as her husband. American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop continues her fine work as the complicated Fricka, who knows too well of her husband's multiple dalliances. And huzzahs for all of the Valkyries.

Experiencing The Valkyrie may seem a labor of love --remember, it's only a fraction of the whole 18 hour epic - but the surprise is how much love and emotion are involved.

Running time: Five hours and 10 minutes including a 40 minute and 35 minute intermission.

Photo credit: Megan Miller as Sieglinde and Christopher Ventris as Siegmund in the Washington National Opera's "The Valkyrie" at the Kennedy Center. Photo by Scott Suchman.

The Valkyrie, part 1 of The Ring of the Nibelung repeats May 11 and 18 at 6 p.m. as part of the complete Ring that continues through May 22 at the Kennedy Center. Tickets available online.

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