{"id":1042,"date":"2024-12-27T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-27T19:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2026-02-17T09:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:23:08","slug":"siegfried-la-monnaie-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/music-diary\/siegfried-la-monnaie-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Siegfried &#8211; La Monnaie 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This year\u2019s <em>Siegfried<\/em>, the third installment of Wagner\u2019s Ring cycle at La Monnaie, arrived under slightly turbulent circumstances, with a last-minute change of <em>metteur en sc\u00e8ne<\/em> from Romeo Castellucci to Pierre Audi. Despite the behind-the-scenes shake-up, the production held together remarkably well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musically, the cast was strong across the board, they delivered solid and well thought through performances that carried the evening\u2019s considerable demands. Vocally, the production felt secure in itself, which is no small feat in a work like <em>Siegfried<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To my surprise, I found myself genuinely appreciating the staging. The opening scene with Mime and Siegfried&#8217;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\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, the staging occasionally did feel somewhat clich\u00e9. 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\u2019s Ring, especially given the circumstances and restraints in time and budget the production had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"782\" height=\"685\" src=\"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1929\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image.png 782w, https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-300x263.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 782px) 100vw, 782px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Trailer Siegfried (Richard Wagner) | Alain Altinoglu, Pierre Audi\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/awgukiXqygE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>15\/9\/2024. The third installment of the Ring at La Monnaie &#8211; with a different stage director than the previous two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[85,9,24,67,16],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-diary","tag-alain-altinoglou","tag-la-monnaie","tag-opera","tag-the-ring","tag-north-america"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}