(Posted this morning on the TONY Blog)

Lorin
Maazel, music director of the New York Philharmonic and an experienced
hand in the opera pit, returned to the Metropolitan Opera last night
after a 45-year absence to conduct Die Walküre, the second
installment in Richard Wagner’s "Ring" cycle and arguably the most
popular. It was big news, and an event worth getting excited about:
Even those of us who aren’t always fond of the musical micromanagement
in Maazel’s performances with the Phil could appreciate the rare
opportunity to catch a stateside opera house appearance by this
undeniably potent conductor.

Maybe it was that very sense of novelty that made
certain characteristics of last night’s performance—which might have
seemed like fussy obsessiveness in a Phil concert—come across as so
sharply detailed, exacting and exciting at the Met. There’s no denying that James Levine musters more genuine warmth and sensuality in Walküre,
and Valery Gergiev, who conducted the opera’s last performances here in
2004-05, wrung out more blood, sweat and passion. What Maazel provided
was an extraordinarily lucid account that underscored every little
detail of orchestral characterization. No matter how thick and heavy
Wagner’s music was, Maazel summoned a transparency that approached the
quality of chamber music. You could argue that he sacrificed surging
momentum, but Maazel offered a razor-sharp clarity audible from the
opening bars, and subtly emphasized each passing leitmotif (those
musical themes that Wagner used to identify characters and plot
developments) for narrative cogency. Credit also belongs to the Met’s
extraordinary orchestra, with extra-high marks to the bass clarinet and
English-horn soloists.

The cast assembled for last night’s performance was
about as fine a group of Wagnerians as you’re likely to encounter these
days. Clifton Forbis was powerful, robust and virile as the doomed
warrior Siegmund, with Adrianne Pieczonka a strong, strikingly sensuous
Sieglinde. The pair sounded good together; physically, they were a
strikingly well-matched pair of siblings. Mikhail Petrenko, a young
Russian bass, sang well as Hunding, but lacked the edge of nastiness
and brutality essential to the character. (You could almost complain
that his Hunding was too sympathetic—a problem when you’re supposed to
be rooting for those crazy Wälsung sibling-spouses.)

James Morris remained an unassailable Wotan, his
voice aged agreeably enough and his dramatic instincts profound; few if
any actors could match Morris’s realization of the character’s majesty,
regret and terrible fury. As his daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde,
Lisa Gasteen got off to a slow start: her acting little more than
leaping around and mugging, her high notes crashing considerably short
of the mark in those cruel opening exclamations. Happily, Gasteen
warmed up steadily, and her chemistry with Morris went a long way
toward covering up shortcomings. Best in Brünnhilde’s quieter, more
introspective moments, she was extraordinarily moving in "War es so schmählich," the
heartbreaking third-act passage in which Brünnhilde asks her father
whether her disobedience—for which he is about to strip away his
favorite daughter’s immortality and banish her from his realm
forever—was really so wrong, given that she was enacting his own
forbidden desires.

The strongest performance of all was that of mezzo
Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, Wotan’s much-betrayed wife. Through her
imperious presence and rich, powerful singing, Blythe created a Fricka
that could credibly cause the most potent of gods to tremble, cower and
finally capitulate. Like Natalie Dessay in the Met’s season-opening Lucia di Lammermoor,
Blythe took a scary tumble on stage; like Dessay, Blythe remained
intensely focused on her character, suggesting the perfectly plausible
notion that Fricka had simply lunged headlong to block Wotan’s escape.
An audience that warmly greeted the performers during their curtain
calls mustered an extra intensity for Blythe.

The Metropolitan Opera will present five more performances of Die Walküre
through February 9; on January 28, Deborah Voigt and Michelle DeYoung
take over for Pieczonka and Blythe, respectively. Ticket information is
available on the Met website.