These Romans are crazy! Wagner’s ‘Ring’, performed in the Sala Santa Cecilia, begins with a resounding success | Culture

“Who could ignore that we are on the verge of a new era of empires?” This disturbing question by stage director Vincent Huguet, included in the program for the season opening of the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, underlines the validity of the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelungby Richard Wagner, almost 150 years after its premiere. Numerous European cities have embarked on new stage productions of the great work Wagnerian, on the occasion of this anniversary: ​​London, Milan, Paris, Munich and Vienna, among others.

Rome did not want to be left behind. Especially considering that the last Ring Wagner’s work performed in the Eternal City dates back to 1961, with legendary voices such as Martha Mödl, Wolfgang Windgassen and Theo Adam. However, the project has not emerged from the Teatro dell’Opera, but from the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, Italy’s main symphony orchestra. An initiative by its chief conductor, the British Daniel Harding, to inaugurate his second season at the head of the institution, after the success obtained with an intense and symphonic Tosca last year.

Harding had already advanced this project in a brief meeting with EL PAÍS, in October 2024: “It will be a visual montage far removed from the conventional concert format, although simple enough not to interfere with the music.” However, in the hands of stage director Vincent Huguet, it has become a complete staging, which imaginatively confronts the theatrical limitations of a concert hall. It seemed crazy, but the proposal has managed to take advantage of the excellent homogeneous and expansive acoustics of the Sala Santa Cecilia of the Roman Parco della Musica, designed by Renzo Piano, with the voices located above the orchestra, although this very horizontal arrangement of the instruments generated specific balance problems with the brass and percussion.

It was decided to start with The valkyriethe first day of the tetralogy, reserving the prologue, Rhine goldfor the closing of the cycle in 2028. In this way, the next two seasons in Santa Cecilia will open with Siegfried y The twilight of the gods. This is not a bad choice, since Huguet intends to evoke in his three-day scenic proposal each of the three empires of which Rome has been the capital throughout history: the ancient Roman Empire, the Vatican State and, finally, the Italian colonial Empire of the 1930s and 1940s.

Herein Valkyrie Ancient Rome is recalled, with Wotan converted into a decadent Caesar, surrounded by conflicts. However, the production draws parallels with the Capitoline Triad, with Wotan as Jupiter, Fricka as Juno and Brünnhilde as Minerva. Huguet knows how to take advantage of the sober multi-level scenography designed by Pierre Yovanovitch, clearly inspired by the architectural spaces with stairs of Adolphe Appia. Although the acting direction is not distinguished by its precision, it achieves theatrical moments of great impact, such as the death of Siegmund. Furthermore, it punctually relies on Christophe Forey’s lighting, as happens in the ending, when everything is dyed red by Loge’s burning fire.

Edoardo Russo’s costumes are based on the aesthetics of the Roman Empire, especially in the human characters, although he incorporates neoclassical and modernist details in the mythological ones. As Russo himself confesses in the hand program, his inspiration comes from the famous Delphos dress by Mariano Fortuny, and he has had the collaboration of the historic tailoring shop Tirelli-Trappetti. The result is especially imaginative in the Valkyries, which portrays “a little like brides, a little like angels of death and a little like Red Cross nurses.”

But the great winner of this Valkyrie stage performance in a concert hall was director Daniel Harding. The Englishman added to his admirable clarity and structural mastery a renewed dramatic urgency that elevated, especially, the third act. Although he dealt decisively with the initial storm, the first act was more contained until the final scene, where he extracted authentic delicacies from the luminous Roman strings arranged in the German style, with the violins facing each other on both sides of the podium. The prelude to the second act was exemplary as an introduction to Wotan and Brünnhilde, but everything reached its climax in the third with a glorious ride of the valkyries. From there, he maintained dramatic tension and orchestral precision until the final magical fire, with that variegated of violins enhanced by the carillon, as if scattering dust of sparks.

The cast was on par, with the unfortunate exception of tenor Jamez McCorkle, who was booed harshly at the end. The American sang with dedication, but his voice is too light for Siegmund, despite his efforts to darken and strain it as much as possible, in addition to showing poor German pronunciation. In front of him, each intervention by soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė, as Sieglinde, filled the atmosphere with emotion and drama. The Lithuanian soprano, in full vocal maturity, shone from the first act with an intensely dramatic way of projecting her high notes, accompanied by a very expressive vibrato, which left the audience breathless in her beautiful farewell to the third act, Oh most wonderful miracle!. It should be added that Miknevičiūtė will perform the first act of The valkyrie with the OCNE in May and, a month before, will star Salome by Strauss in The Arts.

The baritone Michael Volle once again demonstrated that, at 65 years old, he is still a Wotan of reference. The German singer masterfully mastered the character’s extensive monologues, with inflections that ranged from whisper to scream (the Go! with which he struck down Hunding at the end of the second act was shocking). He maintained a solid vocal form until his famous farewell Farewelland displayed a liederist lyricism in the beautiful central section, lulling Brünnhilde with his song. This character was played by the Finnish soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, who tackled with authority the high jumps of her Hojotoho! initials and, already in the third act, he showed a notable central register in Was it so shameful?.

The mezzo-soprano German Okka von der Damerau was an authoritative Fricka, and Danish bass Stephen Milling was an imposing Hunding. The eight Valkyries also shone, forming a perfectly balanced, homogeneous and powerful group in their cavalcade, despite being distributed in different parts of the set.

resounding success for the start of this Ring staged in the Roman Parco della Musica, where these days you can visit an exhibition dedicated to Wagner’s stay in the city in November 1876. It is a simple exhibition, located in the lobby of the Sala Santa Cecilia, which includes a bust of the sculptor Ettore Ferrari, along with panels with sketches, letters and documents that record the appointment of the composer as illustrious member of the Academy.