This is it!

Now we are busy. Das Rheingold was truly breathtaking. It was one of those evenings where you can feel all the energy uniting and the whole performance rising to a higher level because everybody is responding to one another. Die Walküre was also great. We had a few annoying technical problems in the 2nd act. But the 3rd act raised the performance to a higher level again.

Tuesday evening I was completely ecstatic, thinking: “Waugh, now we are actually having the premiere on our Ring”. It is kind of surrealistic, but it is also a great experience being able just to lean back and witness all the pictures run by. Maybe exactly this will be one of the most striking characteristics in our Ring – that you will get the experience of having seen a stream of pictures running by – just like if you turn over the pages of a photo album.

Domingo

I haven’t had time to write during Domingo’s stay. Needless to say, it was a very great experience. He is so incredible generous – a fantastic voice and a huge personality.

Beside the fact that it was a great performance, it gave us all a lift having him in the house and working with him. (I shudder to think what might have happened if he had cancelled the performance. After all, he has cancelled a number of performances earlier this year. After the performance Domingo himself said to me that this was the first time during the last four months that he had sung such a big role as Siegmund!).

He gave inspiration to us all, and everybody in the house proved their own worth by playing and singing better than ever.

We are almost ready for the complete Ring cycle. But now there’s also less than two weeks left until it begins…

That was it

Long silence since the premiere… have I fallen into a coma? I could just as well have been, because that was the kind of emptiness I had expected to feel and actually felt – mixed with suitable pride and greatness of the moment … and alcohol –last Sunday.

No, seriously, I have just had the chance to take a much needed vacation together with my wife far away from Denmark under distant skies - far away from opera and work, computer and mobile. I left everything behind. This is the reason for my silence.

I received the reviews by fax. A lot of them were really good. It saddens me a bit though that the newspapers Berlingske Tidende (and partly Jyllands Posten) were bad. Isn’t it typical focusing on that, since the reviews in Politiken, Weekendavisen, Børsen, Information and Kristlig Dagblad were all good?! I actually don’t quite understand what Mr. Kassebeer from Berlingske Tidende missed in the performance. Well yes, he didn’t like the scene with the norns. That’s fair enough since it is a really radical choice. Some people think it’s perfect and other people find it stupid. I actually have had mixed emotions about the scene also. But I’ve ended up liking it very much – mainly because the three singers are playing this part in such a wonderful way… Well, tastes differ.

I felt extremely proud and after the circumstances the premiere went good. Now I’m looking forward to experience the complete Ring performances in April (and to have Domingo staying with us for a week in the beginning of April – it’ll be fun). But in the meantime there are a lot of meetings and a huge pile of unfinished paperwork on my desk.

Tomorrow I’ll travel to Cardiff to attend a meeting in “Opera Europe” and after that I’m going to see “Der fliegende Holländer” with Bryn Terfel. Not bad.

Premiere today

In a few hours from now the premiere of Die Götterdämmerung will take place. Right up till now I’ve hoped that Stig would recover miraculously, but it didn’t happen. We had rehearsals all day yesterday with Christian Franz. He is a great singer and he was very positive and in a good mood. He was almost a bit too relaxed and calm, compared to my own mood anyway…

It was not his fault at all and I’m positive that he’ll do fine at the premiere. I was just sad since I have been working on this project together with Stig for so many years and Stig has been an extremely important factor for the development of the Ring. Besides Stig has an extraordinary sensitive and original way of being present on stage. I hardly know anybody else who’s able to put up an act like his. And since we have been rehearsing for months, working with all the little details and nuances, etc., nobody will be able to take over and come up with the same results in just 24 hours.

Christian will do just fine and everybody will be pleased, but today’s premiere is not that kind of ending I’ve dreamed about after all the years of work with the Ring. Anyway we are very lucky that Christian would come and save the premiere.

I’m excited, happy, downhearted and nervous at the same time. I wish that I could just sit back and enjoy this day, but of course I’m also a little anxious to know how everything will work out. That’s the name of the game when working with opera. It’ll be just fine.

The baby

We got a mail from a woman who had been present at the dress rehearsal yesterday. She was very upset because we had used a baby in the performance. She wrote that the baby would surly be traumatised for life and she even compared it to incest. I was pretty shocked at her accusation. We have taken all precautions to insure that the baby will not be harmed in any way. We’ve been in contact with an expert from the Centre of Crises and Disaster Psychology at “Rigshospitalet” who asserted us that being on stage would not cause the baby any damage at all. The baby will be away from its mother for about one minute all in all and will be in the arms of a woman who’s also a mother. The mail shocked me. We have to trust the experts (- and also the parents) judgment and we all agree that no harm will be done. I’m a bit worried if a lot of people will react with this kind of intensity. Personal I look at the scene with the baby as a tribute to life.

Luckily I have also received a lot of positive and enthusiastic mails, which made me so happy. I don’t think people really know just how important it is for me to receive all this positive reactions. It makes me extremely happy!

Urrgh!

Urrgh! Stig is ill and can’t perform on Sunday. He is very sad and so am I. All this work with the little details… and then a guest performer is taking over in the last minute. Stig is such an excellent singer and his personal character and presence is so important for the performance. No matter how good the replacement might be, without him it will never be the same.

Christian Franz, a brilliant singer, is taking over and we will rehearse with him all day tomorrow. It’ll be okay at the premiere. But still it is an aggravating way of ending the Ring. It’s a strange kind of anti-climax and I feel so sad for Stig, who’s a great part of this Ring.

Well, we’ll have to look at this as an experience and see how much we can catch up with today and tomorrow.

Dress rehearsal

Today we had our dress rehearsal at 12 o’clock with me as Siegfried. Yes, me! Peter and Guido are both well again and Ylva’s health is slowly improving. Unfortunately Stig is now ill. I hope though that he will be ready for the premiere on Sunday. But we decided to spare him from singing today.

We didn’t have the time to find another Siegfried (now we have found a standby for the premiere on Sunday) but it seemed a little grotesque that my assistant, Mette should play his role - so I played the part myself. I promised not to sing though. Instead Michael Schønwandt sang from time to time. It was a strange feeling standing on stage and, of course, this had never worked out at a real performance. To me it was a quite extraordinary experience. It’s a crazy way to complete the Ring.

I can definitely find traces of a self-portrait in both the character Siegfried and in the production as a whole. To me it was funny playing Siegfried. I’m sure it must have looked quite awkward and confused, but I decided to just let go and play the part no matter what. It was a strong experience getting the chance to give expressions to all the emotions – especially performing the death scene felt quite extraordinary to me.

Being close to the actors and to feel and experience the sweat, the sound and the intensity is fantastic. What looks so calm among the audience feels really intense on stage; the concentration all around before entering the stage, how incredibly loud it sounds when Irene sings while you lie with your head on her stomach, playing dead feeling how everything is evolving around you, and to look up in the lights and to feel this special magic going on at stage. I really had an extraordinary experience today! It almost went to my head– I don’t really feel like taking the ring off my arm ever again :)

I’m truly moved – and sad. Now it is over. I don’t know what to do with myself. Still I’m looking forward to Sunday. Now I can only hope that Stig and Ylva both will be ready for Sunday. I almost feel like call them and begging them to get well. But they also want to get well off course…

A hard Monday

Monday we had our last run through, this time with an audience. They were very positive and everything went quite okay, except for one single technical mistake.
My assistant had to replace Ylva who was ill. Of course this took a lot of energy out of the performance. Peter was back but did not sing, and Guido had a cold. It felt like somebody had pressed the button “mute” in some parts of the first act. But we’ll catch up on that.