Britain’s Catherine Foster steals the show in excellent ‘Ring Cycle’
In 2006, conductor Ádám Fischer (older brother of Iván, but less politically outspoken) founded the festival Budapest Wagner Days, at that city’s Palace of Arts (Müpa), with a semi-staged production of Parsifal. Then, in 2009, he helped produce their first Ring, performed – astonishingly – over four consecutive days, like the Mariinsky in London that same year, but better.
This year Fischer is staging the entire Ring Cycle again, and it is a revelation. For a start, the acoustics are tremendous and mean singers can be heard clearly wherever they stand on stage. Fischer’s conducting is also wonderfully subtle, not least in a funeral march in Götterdämmerung that sings with unforgettable emotion.
Sensible use is made of dancers, who not only play the Nibelungs that accompany Alberich, but also a giant raven associated with the king of the gods, Wotan, and a pack of dogs who accompany Hunding in the second of the Ring’s four operas, Walküre. Projections, including underwater swimming Rhinemaidens, the mountains of the gods, the flowing Rhine, and Stone Age cave art in Walküre, appear on a wide screen covering the upper half of the stage.
Background changes are gradual at times but may switch in an instant, as when Wotan caves in to his wife Fricka (“Nimm’ den Eid”) in Walküre,
and verdant mountain scenery turns suddenly to the ruins of a modern city struck by war.
Vocally, this Wagner festival gives us the best, if not always the bestknown singers. In the relatively minor part of Gunther, Estonian baritone Lauri Vasar in his role debut was as good as any I’ve heard, as was Hungarian soprano Polina Pasztircsák as his sister Gutrune. There were also fine Hungarian singers for Erda, Freia, Donner, Froh, and Fricka, while Walter Fink, from the Vienna State Opera, sang a deeply subtle Fafner with superb diction.
The Alberich of Péter Kálmán was truly exceptional, and Gerhard Siegel made a superb Mime. As Wotan in the first two operas, Johan Reuter was a commanding presence, as was the Wanderer of Tomasz Konieczny in the third. As Siegmund and Sieglinde in Walküre, heldentenor Stuart Skelton and Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund were excellent; her recognition of his voice in Act 1, and frightening Act 2 dream of what would befall him, were rivetingly emotional.
Hunding, and later Hagen, was given huge power and presence by Austrian bass Albert Pesendorfer, and German tenor Stefan Vinke made Siegfried a truly likeable man
– I cannot recall it done better. But the unexpected star was Catherine Foster as Brünnhilde in the second and fourth operas, with Allison Oakes providing a glorious awakening in the third. Both will perform in Elektra in Birmingham next March – casting directors please note.
Why is Ms Foster so ignored in Britain? She was beautifully nuanced, singing with effortless power and portraying to perfection a role she has previously sung in Bayreuth.