Latest news with #DasRheingold
5 days ago
- Entertainment
Ryan Speedo Green triumphs in first outing as Wagner's god in 'Die Walküre'
SANTA FE, N.M. -- The Jemez and Sangre de Cristo mountains had vanished into the night sky by the time Ryan Speedo Green sang his first words as Wotan in Wagner's 'Die Walküre.' Still, their invisible presence around the Santa Fe Opera House was a fitting backdrop, since Wagner set the scene on a high mountain ridge. And indeed the part of Wotan, one of the most demanding roles in opera for a dramatic bass-baritone, seems to inspire mountain imagery. To conductor James Gaffigan, its length and difficulty make it 'the Mount Everest for this particular voice type.' To Green, 'It feels almost as if this is the pinnacle, the height of roles that you could portray.' Now, at age 39, Green stands proudly at that pinnacle, if sometimes still shaking his head in disbelief at how far he's come. Having survived a troubled childhood that included time in juvenile detention, he found a voice teacher who believed in his gift, honed his skills through years of study and an apprenticeship at the Vienna State Opera, then sang a series of increasingly prominent roles at the Metropolitan Opera to emerge as a full-fledged star. 'I never thought it would happen, that my career would blow up the way it has,' Green said in an interview between performances, which continue through Aug. 21. The Santa Fe performances are his first time singing 'Die Walküre,' the second of the four operas in Wagner's tetralogy and the one with the biggest and most daunting role for the head of the gods. It calls for a wide dramatic range — from exuberance, to despair, from fury to compassion. And the vocal challenges include a 24-minute monologue in which Wotan recapitulates the previous events in his life, and a scene at the end of a long evening for which he has to keep his voice fresh as he bids a tender farewell to his disobedient daughter Brünnhilde, sung here by soprano Tamara Wilson. 'My Wotan is still in its infancy and I can see it grow with every performance as I get it more into my blood and into my feet,' Green said. 'I'm lucky that I'm getting my first whack at it at 39.' Even in this first outing, his performance drew bravos from the audience and critics. 'Green … portrayed the troubled god as if he had been doing it for years,' wrote Harvey Steiman on Seen and Heard International. 'Sensitive to every singer around him, he delivered one great moment after another in his rich baritone, as silky as it is powerful.' Green actually made his debut as Wotan last year in a semi-staged production of 'Das Rheingold,' the opening 'Ring' installment at the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor Gustavo Dudamel. 'From the moment he walked onstage, everyone sensed his God-like presence,' Dudamel said in an email to the AP. 'When he sings, the colors and richness of his voice wash over you, and the sound completely surrounds you.' As a Black man, whose 6-foot-4 height and muscular frame make him stand out in any setting, Green said the role of Wotan provides a welcome outlet for feelings that are often pent up. 'From the moment I became a man, my mom told me: 'When you walk in the street, don't walk too tall. Make yourself small, so you don't stand out, so you can survive,'' he said. 'When I sang my first Wotan, it was the first time I played a character who doesn't have to worry about what anybody else thinks of him.' Green will perform the 'Walküre' Wotan again next spring with Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic and will play Wotan in a new 'Ring' cycle at the Metropolitan Opera set to launch in the 2027-28 season, Met General Manager Peter Gelb told the AP. Among his colleagues, Green is known for his relentless work ethic and perfectionism. 'He's extremely hard on himself,' said Gaffigan, who is conducting the Santa Fe performances and recalled the first time he heard from Green after he was cast. 'He called me to start discussing the role before he even got to Santa Fe,' Gaffigan said, 'And from the first words on the telephone, he said, 'I want an hour for Act 2 and an hour for Act 3, can you give me that?' … I knew this guy was really serious and he wouldn't give up on getting this time. 'The dedication to the text and the music and the rhythms is at the highest level of preparation I've heard in a long time,' Gaffigan added. 'He knows how serious this is. It's a major ascent in his career.' Green laughs when reminded of that phone call and mentions how he had prepared for his first Wagner role more than a decade ago. 'It was the Second Knight in 'Parsifal' ... and I was rehearsing for three months for a role that literally has 61 seconds of music,' Green said.. 'I was like, this is at the Met, I need to be perfect,' he said. 'That kind of mentality has been my saving grace, because I put everything I've got into it, vocally, physically, mentally.'
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ryan Speedo Green triumphs in first outing as Wagner's god in 'Die Walküre'
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Jemez and Sangre de Cristo mountains had vanished into the night sky by the time Ryan Speedo Green sang his first words as Wotan in Wagner's 'Die Walküre.' Still, their invisible presence around the Santa Fe Opera House was a fitting backdrop, since Wagner set the scene on a high mountain ridge. And indeed the part of Wotan, one of the most demanding roles in opera for a dramatic bass-baritone, seems to inspire mountain imagery. To conductor James Gaffigan, its length and difficulty make it 'the Mount Everest for this particular voice type.' To Green, 'It feels almost as if this is the pinnacle, the height of roles that you could portray.' Now, at age 39, Green stands proudly at that pinnacle, if sometimes still shaking his head in disbelief at how far he's come. Having survived a troubled childhood that included time in juvenile detention, he found a voice teacher who believed in his gift, honed his skills through years of study and an apprenticeship at the Vienna State Opera, then sang a series of increasingly prominent roles at the Metropolitan Opera to emerge as a full-fledged star. 'I never thought it would happen, that my career would blow up the way it has,' Green said in an interview between performances, which continue through Aug. 21. A role that has everything The Santa Fe performances are his first time singing 'Die Walküre,' the second of the four operas in Wagner's tetralogy and the one with the biggest and most daunting role for the head of the gods. It calls for a wide dramatic range — from exuberance, to despair, from fury to compassion. And the vocal challenges include a 24-minute monologue in which Wotan recapitulates the previous events in his life, and a scene at the end of a long evening for which he has to keep his voice fresh as he bids a tender farewell to his disobedient daughter Brünnhilde, sung here by soprano Tamara Wilson. 'My Wotan is still in its infancy and I can see it grow with every performance as I get it more into my blood and into my feet,' Green said. 'I'm lucky that I'm getting my first whack at it at 39.' Even in this first outing, his performance drew bravos from the audience and critics. 'Green … portrayed the troubled god as if he had been doing it for years,' wrote Harvey Steiman on Seen and Heard International. 'Sensitive to every singer around him, he delivered one great moment after another in his rich baritone, as silky as it is powerful.' Green actually made his debut as Wotan last year in a semi-staged production of 'Das Rheingold,' the opening 'Ring' installment at the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor Gustavo Dudamel. 'From the moment he walked onstage, everyone sensed his God-like presence,' Dudamel said in an email to the AP. 'When he sings, the colors and richness of his voice wash over you, and the sound completely surrounds you.' Freed to be himself As a Black man, whose 6-foot-4 height and muscular frame make him stand out in any setting, Green said the role of Wotan provides a welcome outlet for feelings that are often pent up. 'From the moment I became a man, my mom told me: 'When you walk in the street, don't walk too tall. Make yourself small, so you don't stand out, so you can survive,'' he said. 'When I sang my first Wotan, it was the first time I played a character who doesn't have to worry about what anybody else thinks of him.' Green will perform the 'Walküre' Wotan again next spring with Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic and will play Wotan in a new 'Ring' cycle at the Metropolitan Opera set to launch in the 2027-28 season, Met General Manager Peter Gelb told the AP. Practice until perfect Among his colleagues, Green is known for his relentless work ethic and perfectionism. 'He's extremely hard on himself,' said Gaffigan, who is conducting the Santa Fe performances and recalled the first time he heard from Green after he was cast. 'He called me to start discussing the role before he even got to Santa Fe,' Gaffigan said, 'And from the first words on the telephone, he said, 'I want an hour for Act 2 and an hour for Act 3, can you give me that?' … I knew this guy was really serious and he wouldn't give up on getting this time. 'The dedication to the text and the music and the rhythms is at the highest level of preparation I've heard in a long time,' Gaffigan added. 'He knows how serious this is. It's a major ascent in his career.' Green laughs when reminded of that phone call and mentions how he had prepared for his first Wagner role more than a decade ago. 'It was the Second Knight in 'Parsifal' ... and I was rehearsing for three months for a role that literally has 61 seconds of music,' Green said.. 'I was like, this is at the Met, I need to be perfect,' he said. 'That kind of mentality has been my saving grace, because I put everything I've got into it, vocally, physically, mentally.'
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Ryan Speedo Green triumphs in first outing as Wagner's god in ‘Die Walküre'
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Jemez and Sangre de Cristo mountains had vanished into the night sky by the time Ryan Speedo Green sang his first words as Wotan in Wagner's 'Die Walküre.' Still, their invisible presence around the Santa Fe Opera House was a fitting backdrop, since Wagner set the scene on a high mountain ridge. And indeed the part of Wotan, one of the most demanding roles in opera for a dramatic bass-baritone, seems to inspire mountain imagery. To conductor James Gaffigan, its length and difficulty make it 'the Mount Everest for this particular voice type.' To Green, 'It feels almost as if this is the pinnacle, the height of roles that you could portray.' Now, at age 39, Green stands proudly at that pinnacle, if sometimes still shaking his head in disbelief at how far he's come. Having survived a troubled childhood that included time in juvenile detention, he found a voice teacher who believed in his gift, honed his skills through years of study and an apprenticeship at the Vienna State Opera, then sang a series of increasingly prominent roles at the Metropolitan Opera to emerge as a full-fledged star. 'I never thought it would happen, that my career would blow up the way it has,' Green said in an interview between performances, which continue through Aug. 21. A role that has everything The Santa Fe performances are his first time singing 'Die Walküre,' the second of the four operas in Wagner's tetralogy and the one with the biggest and most daunting role for the head of the gods. It calls for a wide dramatic range — from exuberance, to despair, from fury to compassion. And the vocal challenges include a 24-minute monologue in which Wotan recapitulates the previous events in his life, and a scene at the end of a long evening for which he has to keep his voice fresh as he bids a tender farewell to his disobedient daughter Brünnhilde, sung here by soprano Tamara Wilson. 'My Wotan is still in its infancy and I can see it grow with every performance as I get it more into my blood and into my feet,' Green said. 'I'm lucky that I'm getting my first whack at it at 39.' Even in this first outing, his performance drew bravos from the audience and critics. 'Green … portrayed the troubled god as if he had been doing it for years,' wrote Harvey Steiman on Seen and Heard International. 'Sensitive to every singer around him, he delivered one great moment after another in his rich baritone, as silky as it is powerful.' Green actually made his debut as Wotan last year in a semi-staged production of 'Das Rheingold,' the opening 'Ring' installment at the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor Gustavo Dudamel. 'From the moment he walked onstage, everyone sensed his God-like presence,' Dudamel said in an email to the AP. 'When he sings, the colors and richness of his voice wash over you, and the sound completely surrounds you.' Freed to be himself As a Black man, whose 6-foot-4 height and muscular frame make him stand out in any setting, Green said the role of Wotan provides a welcome outlet for feelings that are often pent up. 'From the moment I became a man, my mom told me: 'When you walk in the street, don't walk too tall. Make yourself small, so you don't stand out, so you can survive,'' he said. 'When I sang my first Wotan, it was the first time I played a character who doesn't have to worry about what anybody else thinks of him.' Green will perform the 'Walküre' Wotan again next spring with Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic and will play Wotan in a new 'Ring' cycle at the Metropolitan Opera set to launch in the 2027-28 season, Met General Manager Peter Gelb told the AP. Practice until perfect Among his colleagues, Green is known for his relentless work ethic and perfectionism. 'He's extremely hard on himself,' said Gaffigan, who is conducting the Santa Fe performances and recalled the first time he heard from Green after he was cast. 'He called me to start discussing the role before he even got to Santa Fe,' Gaffigan said, 'And from the first words on the telephone, he said, 'I want an hour for Act 2 and an hour for Act 3, can you give me that?' … I knew this guy was really serious and he wouldn't give up on getting this time. 'The dedication to the text and the music and the rhythms is at the highest level of preparation I've heard in a long time,' Gaffigan added. 'He knows how serious this is. It's a major ascent in his career.' Green laughs when reminded of that phone call and mentions how he had prepared for his first Wagner role more than a decade ago. 'It was the Second Knight in 'Parsifal' … and I was rehearsing for three months for a role that literally has 61 seconds of music,' Green said.. 'I was like, this is at the Met, I need to be perfect,' he said. 'That kind of mentality has been my saving grace, because I put everything I've got into it, vocally, physically, mentally.'
Western Telegraph
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Western Telegraph
Torch Theatre: Royal Opera House screening in Pembrokeshire
The Pembrokeshire theatre is embarking on its 'cinema season,' which will kick off with a live screening of 'Die Walküre' (The Valkyrie) by The Royal Ballet and Opera. This opera-ballet extravaganza will be directed by Barrie Kosky and conducted by Antonio Pappano. The screening brings Wagner's tale of gods and mortals battling it out further, following the saga that began with 'Das Rheingold' in 2023. The storyline follows a love entwined with fate that could potentially be powerful enough to end the world. Meanwhile, an epic confrontation ensues between Wotan, played by Christopher Maltman, the king of gods, and his rebellious daughter Brünnhilde, enacted by Elisabet Strid. Viewers will be treated to a visually compelling stage setup by designer Rufus Didwiszus, with costumes by Victoria Behr and lighting by Alessandro Carletti. Critically acclaimed by the Guardian's Erica Jeal who gave the show four stars, the production will be sung in German with translated captions for English speakers. The show starts at 2pm on Sunday, May 18. Tickets are priced at £20 per person, with a concessional rate of £18. Those under the age of 26 can enter at £9 per head. Further information can be found on the Torch Theatre website or via telephone on 01646 695267. The Royal Opera House is renowned for its ballet and opera productions. For those in need of further assistance, contact the Box Office.
Telegraph
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Die Walküre: A bleak but brilliant vision of damaged nature and toxic relationships
One major advantage of unveiling a production of Wagner's Ring cycle year by year over four years is that you don't need to decide at the beginning how it will end. The director of the Royal Opera's new year-by-year staging, Barrie Kosky, has said that he does not know how this story will turn out by 2027: in this second instalment, his vision is an unvaryingly bleak and tortured picture of damaged nature and toxic relationships. As in the opening Das Rheingold, the scorched trees and gloomy landscapes of Rufus Didwiszus's sets create a compellingly bare, stripped-back scene of an earth destroyed. The wizened, aged, naked figure of Erda (Illona Linthwaite) observes continually: you feel she has seen it all before, covering her eyes in horror. She oversees interactions for both humans and gods in which we can believe: the awakening, forbidden love of Sieglinde and Siegmund; the fraught relationship between Wotan and his daughter Brünnhilde. There is not much to be gleaned from the first act's dreary blank wall of Sieglinde and Hunding's house, until the moment when the buried sword that Siegmund extracts reveals one of the production's ingenious twists. Solomon Howard's Hunding is a commanding figure (until Wotan dismisses him later with a Tosca-like backward flip), Natalya Romaniw's brightly sung Sieglinde a wife who screams in fear until she realises that Stanislas De Barbeyrac's ardent, lyrical Siegmund is her twin and her love. If this first act is slow to ignite, the second is totally compelling, starting from the crisp, strongly articulated Wotan of Christopher Maltman, whose argument with Marina Prudenskaya's imposing Fricka in purple, arriving in period limousine, is a power marriage all gone wrong. Elisabet Strid's youthful, tomboyish Brünnhilde starts as a rebellious child but quickly matures into an achingly independent adult in her heart-rending scene with her father in which their every fleeting emotion is captured in Kosky's direction. It was always to be expected that Kosky would want to delve into the constant problem of Wagner's anti-Semitism, and here the appearance in Act II of a charred body that is then viciously destroyed prepares the way for a shocking rethinking of the Ride of the Valkyries at the start of Act III, as they collect incinerated bodies, a sensation rescued theatrically only by the individual characterisations of the coven-like Valkyries. Vocally, this is a fascinating Walküre: all the singers, Maltman and Strid especially, but also Romaniw (who came in late to replace the more heavyweight talent Lise Davidsen), are comparatively youthful, fresh voices without a heavy inheritance of years of Wagner singing. The words are paramount, and their impulsiveness is matched by Antonio Pappano's conducting, which drives the music forward, sometimes feeling a little loose, but always effective in pushing the story forwards. Pappano is now Conductor Laureate at the house whose music he directed so effectively for 22 years. Who knows, perhaps a more optimistic vision of the future of humanity may emerge in the remaining instalments of this impressive, stimulating Ring cycle.
