This year’s Siegfried, the third installment of Wagner’s Ring cycle at La Monnaie, arrived under slightly turbulent circumstances, with a last-minute change of metteur en scène from Romeo Castellucci to Pierre Audi. Despite the behind-the-scenes shake-up, the production held together remarkably well.
Musically, the cast was strong across the board, they delivered solid and well thought through performances that carried the evening’s considerable demands. Vocally, the production felt secure in itself, which is no small feat in a work like Siegfried.
To my surprise, I found myself genuinely appreciating the staging. The opening scene with Mime and Siegfried’s hammering was particularly effective: the large blocks dominating the stage created a sense of weight that really suited the forging motif, and also gave the actors the ability to reside on separate planes if needed. There was a stark, sculptural clarity to the visuals that worked in the opera’s favor.
That said, the staging occasionally did feel somewhat cliché. The dragon, rendered as a kind of glowing crumpled form, felt visually underwhelming and somewhat predictable compared to the more striking imagery elsewhere. Still, these moments did not significantly detract from an otherwise compelling and thoughtfully realized installment in La Monnaie’s Ring, especially given the circumstances and restraints in time and budget the production had.
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