Die Walküre on stage

Today got a pretty bad start, since the field of poppies, which as something new will be outside Hunding’s house, has been delayed for several weeks already, was even more delayed this morning due to a misunderstanding.

There was a feeling of depression all around and we were almost about to drop the field completely, which would be a shame after all the trouble making it (and since we finally got it after having wished for it in the two earlier productions in 2003 and 2004). But with our joined effort we got a hold on it, and eventually it turned into a surprisingly good day.

Stig and Gitta both did a good job improvising the arrangements for the new field of poppies. Now there will be less jumping around when they come out of Hunding’s house. But this only stresses the fragility of their love affair and I think it’ll work out fine. Stig and Gitta were really cool. They both threw themselves into it without hesitation. Today it is the only real rehearsal I attend at the first act (the next two rehearsals will be run-throughs), but we made it I think.
The difficult part is that the tree with the sword has to be lowered from the ceiling and hit a hole in the field so it will stay fixed when Sieglinde pulls out the sword. But it looks like it is going to succeed. Phew! Altogether it still looks like we have an extremely tight schedule on the Die Walküre. Now I am more optimistic than I have been for the last couple of days. The stage technicians worked very hard today and did a great job – even though they struggle with narrow space at the backstage and bay areas which are completely filled with the gigantic decors from The Tempest, Die Fledermaus, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre at the same time. When we present the whole Ring cycle (and La Traviata) next year the stages will really be packed with decors.

The dress rehearsal

Today at 12 o’clock we had the dress rehearsal on Das Rheingold with audience, so now we are on the go. It went well and it is very clear that we’ve had almost too much time – or, at least – enough time for Das Rheingold. That’s positive. All the singers have had time enough to develop their characters, which brings clarity and life to the performance. It also seemed like the audience was very attentive.

On the other hand the time that’s been scheduled for Die Walküre seem terribly tight. It’ll be difficult to have the decoration finished in time and there is only about the same time scheduled for rehearsals as for Das Rheingold, even though Die Walküre is more than twice as long. But I brought that on myself, since it was me who planned the schedule.

Die Walküre is easier though in many ways, because there are fewer people on stage at the same time, and most of the singers are very experienced. Now we’ll see. Tomorrow at 12 o’clock we’re back on stage, and then we only have two weeks left until the dress rehearsal on Die Walküre.

Today I also spoke with the orchestra committee. It is obvious for everybody that we are running on a very tight schedule right now. It is ambitious to make the whole RING in repertoire together with the already ambitious program we have. But it also seems like everybody are proud and have big demands for the level of ambition.

We also had a set model for “Tosca” delivered today, that Peter Langdal is going to direct next season. It looks really exiting! And everybody seems to be well (touch wood), after we had to put a replacement for a singer on a taxi-plane from France to save “The Tempest” on Saturday.
PS! I think the blog was hacked the other day. It was so funny - and it almost felt a bit cool that somebody had done the effort to hack my bloc – but there are no ostriches in Das Rheingold, if you got the chance to read the fake contribution from me.

Almost done

Das Rheingold is almost done by now. Wednesday we had a long day rehearing with the orchestra during the day, and with piano (and a photo shoot) in the evening, Thursday we had a really good orchestra rehearsal, and today we had our preview, which went very well. It has become very tight and touching.

Johan Reuter arrived from Madrid yesterday and went straight to a rehearsal with the piano and immediately after that to a rehearsal with the orchestra as Wotan. Highly impressive. He is really doing a superb job, so now we have two good Wotans. We have a problem with our new lumps of gold, so I think we’ll use the old ones instead. Apart from that it all fits together now.

We have just made the new correction with the lighting, so now we’re ready for the dress rehearsal on Monday. And right after that Die Walküre are staging on Tuesday – even though I haven’t been present at most of the rehearsals for it. But I’m confident that Anne, my assistant has it all under control.

Yesterday evening I was suddenly overcome by a sense of the grandeur of what we are doing. You speak about setting up the whole Ring and then - all of a sudden - I got this out-of-body experience on my way to the stage, and I realised “My God, now it is happening. This is it!” And suddenly I could see everything from the outside and I sensed a mixture of humility and arrogance! But maybe I only got the chance to think this way because we’ve had plenty of time to work on Das Rheingold. Die Walküre will be exciting but we also have an extremely tight schedule, particularly the stage technicians. But we’ll take care of that next week!

First run-through

Had the first run-through with piano today. We were a little delayed and had to start over tree times. But on the other hand I succeeded in persuading everyone to run everything straight through. We made it without any breaks, even though the stage technicians have never had the chance to rehearse the difficult scene changes within the exact frame of time before, and in spite of the fact that there were new stage technicians on the crew today. Extremely impressive. All together the technique is working very well.
Dramaturgically all the pieces were really coming together today. And it seems that the lighting is working really well, even though the 4th scene still needs a loving hand to become tight enough, concerning the lighting. Maybe we’ll catch up on that tomorrow afternoon, between the orchestra rehearsal during the day and the run-through in the evening with the other team of singers in full costumes and makeup and everything, and with a photo shoot.

Getting closer

Have had some nice days. Was on stage Thursday and Friday. And – at last – almost all the singers were fit for work at the same time. It was great to see the pieces coming together in the 2nd scene. It suits Das Rheingold extremely well entering the big Main Stage and the singing sounds a lot freer. Acoustically you can really sense a kind of before-and-after effect, when you listen to the voices in this room.

I ALWAYS underestimate the 4th scene. It is just as long and complex as the 2nd scene, with just as many story lines taking place simultaneously. And the end has to be really accurate if we want to keep the audience’s attention and make the story of the Wotan-Fricka-Erda triangle appear clearly. But, exactly like two years ago, I have spent way too little time on the 4th scene, thus it appears a bit too general. I was rather frustrated about this last Friday, where we barely had the chance to finish the rehearsal before we had to leave the stage at 4 o’clock. I think though that we got it under control yesterday.

I think the new singers; Susanne as Fricka, Mette as Erda, Jens K. as Froh, Carsten as Fasolt and Charlotte as Freia are now really excellent and have all found the style of the performance.

Yesterday after the rehearsal we worked on the lighting from 4 to 11 o’clock, since there were no performances taking place at the Opera House. The lighting designer Jesper has “translated” all the light cues from Old Stage, which was an extremely important starting point for us to make it on time (there is only little time in the schedule for making the lights on a revival like this is). But then we could continue our work based on the existing cues. The new Main Stage is more demanding, but it also has some very fine gear. Especially the 1st scene will be much more beautiful than last time, I think.

At the same time Michael had a sitzprobe in the orchestra rehearsal room, where the singers rehearsed with the orchestra for the first time. Today and tomorrow evening we’ll have run-throughs with piano, costume and makeup and lights and everything. And from tomorrow at noon the orchestra will be playing at the rehearsals.
For the time being Anne Fugl is taking care of Die Walküre. It’s lovely to have a skilful assistant who can prepare it, while I’m working on Das Rheingold. Otherwise it would have been impossible to make it in time.

On stage

We had a good start with Die Walküre on Tuesday, I think. It is a bit frustrating to know that I can only attend a few of the rehearsals because of the rehearsals on Das Rheingold, which are running simultaneously. But that’s the way it is. And, fortunately, my assistant, Anne Fugl, is almost a world champion in reviving performances. So it’s going to be fine. It was fine though to be present at the rehearsal this Tuesday and get the chance to tell Eva Johansson, who is new in the role as Sieglinde, about the character and the concept. I really think that she is looking forward - for the first time - to pull the sword out of the tree instead of Siegmund! Girl power!

More long days

These are long days. On Saturday I was supposed to have the whole day off. But it was partly “stressed” into pieces because Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria was ill, and we had to find another singer for the part in a hurry. Things like this occur. Sunday we had a first night on Il ritorno, which, including the evaluation, took most of the day. But after a difficult rehearsal it all went incredibly well. Therefore it is a great relief that everything is okay now. Monday, 14 straight hours of meetings, interview, and rehearsal in the rehearsal room, more meetings and e-mails in a row. After that we had a rehearsal on stage for the first time with Das Rheingold in the evening from 8 to 11 pm. This went all right, except that Wotan, Alberich and Flosshilde were all absent due to illness. So my assistant and I really got the chance to play it through. The scene with Alberich and Flosshilde looked a bit like a parody, with my assistant and me as the only two on stage singing! But technically it looks like all the pieces are coming together: Alberich’s magic potion, the pool, the first big open scene change from the prologue, the flight with the giants etc. were all working well, so that is a giant step forward. Lovely. Technically it’s a very difficult performance. We still have to face the challenge of the scene changes, which have to be done very quickly during the orchestral interludes. But we’ll make it on time, I think. Hopefully the singers will stay healthy from now on… Today, Tuesday, we are running Die Walküre. Due to on-stage rehearsals on The Tempest (which opens on Saturday), Das Rheingold will not be rehearsed until Thursday - except for a stunt rehearsal with Martin Spang Olsen on Wednesday. But we start rehearsing Die Walküre in the rehearsal room today, so now we’re moving ahead.

The arm

Now we’ve tried to cut off Alberich’s arm again, and we’ve also had Danny (our extra, who’s playing the Rheingold) swimming in the pool. Both parts worked just fine, and the arm has now been provided with extra blood, which works amazingly well and is pretty scary. It is supposed to be brutal, you know. In return the arm does not adhere closely to the shoulder, so it looks a bit artificial in the angle and is also at bit too long. But the costume department will adjust that. I almost believe now that we have solved the problem with the “magic-cage”, which is conjuring Alberich into other shapes. The trapdoors at the Opera are a bit slower than on Old Stage. So the question is if we have enough time, especially to conjure the dragon away and Alberich up again. But I think it’ll work out fine - and if not, we have a plan B.

Long days

These are long days. It’s fun working with the Ring, but also hard sometimes, especially when the job is mostly about reconstructing. Still frustrating that so many people are absent. Unfortunately Jens Krogsgaard was ill today, but we managed to consolidate the second scene and to rehearse the ending with Poul and Randi for the first time. Little by little the second scene is now appearing more sharply. It’s so important that there’s something at stake in this scene all the time. Otherwise the outlines are easily getting a little unclear.
Gave a lecture to the Wagner Society last night. Good for me to have the headlines of the concept through the whole Ring refreshed - and funny to get a couple of challenging questions, like: “How much is allowed?” I feel though that I succeeded in giving a good definition on, why it can’t be put like that. There is no such key.