Review: GODS & MORTALS: A CELEBRATION OF WAGNER at The Kennedy Center

To kick off its 2024-2025 season, Washington National Opera (WNO) has returned to the works of composer Richard Wagner, who, WNO General Director Timothy O’Leary noted, has been absent from the Kennedy Center’s stage since 2016. Led by O’Leary and Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, the WNO team has centered the new season on the power of individuals to remake their worlds, and the quests pursued for justice, love, and power. In the spirit of those themes, WNO launched the season with a Wagner compilation, Gods & Mortals: A Celebration of Wagner.

The program for Gods & Mortals features some of Wagner’s best-known works, and some of his more obscure ones. The production highlights selections from Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes; The Flying Dutchman; Lohengrin; The Mastersingers of Nuremberg; and three of the operas that compile The Ring of the Nibelung: The Valkyrie, Siegfried, and Twilight of the Gods. WNO also included a bass aria Wagner drafted for Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, which Wagner penned as an addition to the work, but was not performed until it was found among his papers during the 20th century. Interspersed with a few orchestral intervals, the WNO team performs these selections over the course of the evening with minimal staging, centering the works and the emotional weight behind it.

The Washington National Opera Orchestra may be offstage, but they’re clearly the star of the show. Wagner’s orchestrations are vast, sweeping, and complex, and require a passionate and dedicated team of musicians to bring them to life as intended. Wagner’s works can sometimes carry a reputation for being too heavy or even maudlin, but the WNO Orchestra, under conductor Robert Spano’s deft direction, manages to carry a much more engaging and majestic approach, particularly in the full orchestral performances of the Overture to Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes and the Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin.

The onstage performers are also incredibly talented individuals. The much-beloved Ride of the Valkyries was a delightful showcase for the Cafritz Young Artist performers, making it easily one of the most enjoyable moments of the evening, and it seemed clear the talented members of the program were having a blast in these roles. Derek Welton’s bass-baritone lends itself wonderfully to the tormented titular Flying Dutchman and the imposing god Woton; the contrast he portrays between the Dutchman’s rails against his fate and the god’s anguish at punishing his beloved daughter give Welton’s performance a rich depth that matches his vocal abilities. Tenor Brandon Jovanovich steps into a variety of heroic roles, with soaring notes and large emotional crescendos, though, unfortunately, his reliance on a music stand and sheet music for one such declaration of love did siphon some of the emotion out of his performance and his ability to connect with soprano Christine Goerke.

Goerke, though, deserves tremendous amounts of praise for carrying the emotional core of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy, not to mention the impressive array of difficult notes and runs the leading roles demand. Goerke brings the audience through waves of passionate love, betrayal, regret, and resolve, and her fiery (in more ways than one) finale in “… Starke scheite” rings across the audience well after the last note.

Unfortunately, Solomon Howard’s phenomenal bass performance almost feels wasted in this production. While Howard’s stirring interpretation of Wagner’s bass aria for Bellini’s Norma is, in a vacuum, easily one of the best performances, it feels out of place – not because it was written in a different style than some of Wagner’s other works, but because of the program’s structure. While this is intended to be a celebration of Wagner’s vast operatic repertoire, most of the non-orchestral pieces are drawn from The Ring of the Nibelung. The exceptions are Howard’s aria, Welton’s Dutchman, and another Welton nod at The Mastersingers of Nuremberg; Howard, as the only performer to not play a role in the main quartet, feels like an afterthought, hastily added as though someone realized they had neglected too much of Wagner’s other works and tried to remedy this at the last moment. O’Leary has promised more Wagner works later this season, so hopefully we’ll see more opportunities for a wider range and for more bass roles then.

The other main issue with this production may make me sound like a broken record, but it’s once again my old foe: Kennedy Center’s sound design. In this particular performance, the sin lies in how the orchestra microphones were raised so loudly, they often swallowed the performers’ notes. While Wagner’s orchestrations are, of course, integral to any Wagner tribute, a bit of balance on the sound would have made for a much better experience for all.

Thankfully, the other technical elements of this production were excellent, and almost made up for the sound flaws. Most notably, S. Katy Tucker and Kylee Loera’s gorgeous projections made the simple scenery effective and immersive, a feeling enhanced by A.J. Guban’s fantastic lighting work.

Gods & Mortals: A Celebration of Wagner is a beautiful, if limited, array of performances and works highlighting both the composer and Kennedy Center’s own wonderful talent. It may have been more effective to either broaden the scope of the composer’s works or narrow fully to an abridged production of a singular core story, but it’s a good starting point for another great season for the Washington National Opera, and the company will surely use its remarkable creative and onstage talent to build upon this foundation.

Gods & Mortals: A Celebration of Wagner played at Kennedy Center on Saturday, October 26th, as an opening for the Washington National Opera’s 2024-2025 theatrical season. Performance run time was approximately two and a half hours, with one 25-minute intermission. Information on WNO’s current production, Fidelio, and the rest of the season can be found on the WNO website.

Icon Photo: Christine Goerke (Brunnhilde) performs "...Starke scheite" (Immolation Scene) from Twilight of the Gods in Gods & Mortals. Photo by Scott Suchman.

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