Century ring

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The production of Richard Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen by Patrice Chéreau for the 100th anniversary of the Bayreuth Festival in 1976 is known as the Ring of the Century . Actually, the theater director Peter Stein had been asked for the anniversary production of the ring ; the negotiations failed, however, because Stein demanded that the stage and auditorium be converted and refused to meet the then Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss on the occasion of the premiere. Instead, the festival management entrusted the direction to the 31-year-old film and drama director Patrice Chéreau, who was the youngest director (and first foreigner in this position) in the Bayreuth festival history. The conductor and composer Pierre Boulez (with his assistant Jeffrey Tate ) was in charge of the music . The stage design was designed by Richard Peduzzi , the costumes by Jacques Schmidt , and the lighting by Manfred Voss . François Regnault was hired as a dramaturge .

The production of the Ring by Chéreau and Boulez is still regarded as a benchmark work in the history of the work's interpretation.

The staging

Conception

Chéreau based his conception on George Bernard Shaw's clairvoyant analysis of the ring ( The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on The Niblung's Ring ), which had already appeared in London in 1889. Shaw interpreted the ring as a parable on the socio-economic upheavals of the 19th century and interpreted it as the "drama of the present". Chéreau followed this basic approach. Before him, the director Ulrich Melchinger in Kassel and the Leipzig opera director Joachim Herz had already chosen a historical-political approach to staging the tetralogy . The Leipziger Ring was created between 1973 and 1976, and many analogies in content and dramaturgical conceptions, in visual artistic solutions and in the staging of the relationships between characters suggest that Herz 'work could have been a source of inspiration for Chéreau.

Both directors assumed that Wagner reflected his own time in the guise of the Nibelungen myth and, through this poetic alienation , was able to grasp the economic and intellectual upheavals of the 19th century all the more precisely. For this, it was necessary to find a balance between concretion and abstraction. The processes with which Herz and Chéreau explored scenic picture solutions appear similar: Herz and the set designer Rudolf Heinrich collaged details of concrete historical buildings (industrial architecture as well as bourgeois representative buildings) with emblematic abstract or surreal structures. Chéreau and his set designer Richard Peduzzi also developed an associative narrative of the Ring fable from an abundance of historical visual material , which Peduzzi ultimately condensed into symbolic symbolism. His stage sets looked “realistic” and surreal at the same time. One of the most memorable images was the weir (a “machine that lets a river flow”) for the beginning of the Rheingold . In the Götterdämmerung , the now rotten weir formed the scene for Siegfried's murder. The Götterburg Walhall appeared as a palatial architecture, in front of which was the playing area covered with gratings: the splendor stood, so to speak, on a ground full of holes, under which one could assume the industrial army of the Nibelungs, which created the wealth. This association was supported by a large gear train on the right side of the stage, which apparently created the connection between Walhall and Nibelheim. The first elevator of the Walküre (Hunding's house) played in front of a stage-filling window front; in the foreground the withered ash and left a large flywheel. Technology quotes repeatedly permeate bourgeois interiors. In the second act, Peduzzi showed the interior of Walhall as feudal architecture with a huge door frame, a standing mirror and a pendulum in the middle of the stage. Mimes Schmiede ( Siegfried ) was represented by a huge steam hammer. For the second act, Perduzzi designed an almost naturalistic forest idyll. The home of the Giebichungen in Götterdämmerung was like a Mediterranean palazzo. In the final scene of Götterdämmerung , Peduzzi took up the front of the house with fire escapes, which was modeled on a New York house from the 19th century and already featured as a pictorial element in Rheingold .

According to Chéreau, the key point for him is the analysis of political power. "The 'ring' is a description of the terrible perversion of society, which is based on this preservation of power, the mechanisms of a strong state and the opposition." (Patrice Chéreau) The god father Wotan was accordingly subjected to a critical view: he is the ruler who sits out the conflicts in the interests of maintaining power and misses the historic opportunity for renewal. Here, too, Chéreau followed George Bernard Shaw, who described lies and self-deception as Wotan's primary instruments of power. He saw Siegfried as an antihero who became Wotan's unsuspecting henchman. “For me, Siegfried was representative of the non-tragic. (...) A bad actor who pulls off his show and causes nothing but confusion during his short earthly life, a being full of denials. ”Chéreau even called him a forerunner of instinctive fascism. In contrast, Wotan's and Siegfried's opponents - Alberich and Mime - appear in his interpretation as victims of circumstances, not as incarnations of evil.

Occupations

For the four planned ring cycles of the premiere year, some roles were cast twice. In the following cast list, the second name in each case means the double cast.

  • The Rheingold : Wotan: Donald McIntyre / Hans Sotin ; Thunder: Jerker Arvidson; Happy: Heribert Steinbach; Lodge: Heinz Zednik ; Fasolt: Matti Salminen ; Fafner: Bengt Rundgren ; Alberich: Zoltán Kelemen ; Mime: Wolf Appel ; Fricka: Eva Randová / Yvonne Minton ; Freia: Rachel Yakar ; Erda: Ortrun Wenkel / Hanna Schwarz ; Woglinde: Yoko Kawahara; Wellgunde: Ilse Gramatzki ; Floßhilde: Adelheid Krauss
  • The Valkyrie : Siegmund: Peter Hofmann ; Hunding: Matti Salminen / Karl Ridderbusch ; Wotan: Donald McIntyre / Hans Sotin; Sieglinde: Hannelore Bode; Brünnhilde: Gwyneth Jones / Roberta Knie ; Fricka: Eva Randová / Yvonne Minton; Gerhilde: Rachel Yakar ; Ortlinde: Irja Auroora; Waltraute: Doris Soffel ; Sword leader: Adelheid Krauss; Helmwige: Katie Clarke; Siegrune: Alicia Nafé; Grimgerde: Ilse Gramatzki ; Roßweiße: Elisabeth Glauser
  • Siegfried : Siegfried: René Kollo ; Mime: Heinz Zednik; The Wanderer: Donald McIntyre / Hans Sotin; Alberich: Zoltán Kelemen; Fafner: Bengt Rundgren; Erda: Hanna Schwarz / Ortrun Wenkel; Brünnhilde: Gwyneth Jones / Roberta Knie; Forest bird: Yoko Kawahara
  • Götterdämmerung : Siegfried: Jess Thomas , Gunther: Jerker Arvidson; Hagen: Karl Ridderbusch / Bengt Rundgren; Alberich: Zoltán Kelemen; Brünnhilde: Gwyneth Jones / Roberta Knie; Gutrune: Irja Auroora; Waltraute: Yvonne Minton; 1. Norn: Ortrun Wenkel; 2nd norn: Dagmar Trabert; 3rd Norn: Hannelore Bode; Woglinde: Yoko Kawahara; Wellgunde: Ilse Gramatzki; Floßhilde: Adelheid Krauss

reception

Today, Chéreau's production is “often an emblematic symbol for the Bayreuth Festival of the modern era. Its disturbing effect will of course be gone after decades, its images have become timeless ciphers, completely detached and independent of their former meaning and context. ”No later Ring performance could ignore the interpretative positions of Chéreau; his work remained a crucial point of reference for all directors.

The production was shown for five festival summers (from 1976 to 1980) in 16 performances of the complete Ring cycle as well as four additional performances of individual works in Bayreuth. In the second year some changes and further developments in the scenic area were made: For example, the “Valkyrie Rock”, which in 1976 still looked like a Matterhorn made of cardboard, was given its final shape, which was modeled on the island of the dead by Arnold Böcklin . The visual appearance of the Götterburg Walhall , which was rather unsuccessful in 1976 , was significantly improved in 1977.

The premiere shocked large parts of the audience and led to protests in the Bayreuth Festival Hall on the Green Hill . There were fights, lists of signatures against this staging were displayed and leaflets were distributed. Chéreau's relocation of the plot to the time of early industrialization motivated many Altwagnerians to form a citizens' initiative that advocated a “future-oriented understanding of Wagner's work” and called for “factory security for Wotan”. In the first year of performance there were even vehement disruptions to individual performances, which almost led to their being abandoned. Members of the orchestra also turned against the musical interpretation by Pierre Boulez in the first year. Der Spiegel wrote: “[...] just for the jubilee year [...] the conservatives expected a kind of musical Burgtheater: dignified and boring. Now it was - apparently - disrespectful and certainly entertaining. The veteran lost hearing and seeing. ”The conservative critics saw Wagner's ring in the hands of a left-wing revolutionary. The initial rejection from parts of the audience gave way to growing enthusiasm from year to year, which may also be due to the fact that the coverage of the premiere year discouraged those hoping for a conventional performance from attending the performance in the coming years. As early as 1980, after the last performances, the anger, at least among those who still attended the performances, had evidently largely given way to the insight into the high dramatic and scenic intensity of this production and turned into jubilation: with applause of over ninety minutes and the impressive number of 101 curtains (both record values ​​in Bayreuth) the staging was adopted.

In November 1976, Chéreau read the press reviews carefully. In doing so, he found an "exaggerated tendency to refer to GB Shaw"; he was also struck by the severity of the reactions.

Special events

In Die Walküre , Chéreau staged Siegmund's death as a politically motivated execution by Wotan, which culminated in an embrace of the corpse. The cruelty was shown so drastically that the audience reaction almost forced the performance to stop.

A situation that is unique in the history of the festival occurred on August 20, 1977, at the last Siegfried performance of the year. René Kollo, the singer in the title role, had broken his leg on a sailing excursion shortly before and was therefore unable to play his role. Since it was impossible to briefly brief another singer on the complex movements of the production, director Chéreau slipped into the role of Siegfried and played it silently, while Kollo, invisible to the audience, sang from the scenes.

The opposite case occurred the following year on August 12, 1978, when René Kollo was vocal indisposed. This time the hero tenor Jean Cox sang the role from the scenes while Kollo played silently.

TV broadcast and book

The production was recorded in 1979 and 1980 as an audio and video document. The Walküre was broadcast as the first and initially only one of the four parts on August 29, 1980 in the first ; it was only broadcast in full at the beginning of 1983 on the occasion of Wagner's hundredth anniversary of his death. At that time, the recording was also shown in theaters in New York. The complete recording is now available on DVD.

In the book The 'Ring'. Bayreuth 1976–1980 , the conductor and directing team describe their work.

literature

  • Stephan Mösch : “Is that what we hoped for?” About the creation of the Ring of the Century by Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez. In: scene makers. Wagner directing from the 19th century until today. Bärenreiter Verlag, Kassel 2020, ISBN 978-3-7618-2492-4 .
  • The ring". Bayreuth 1976-1980. Kristall-Verlag, Berlin / Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-607-00020-4 .
  • Jochen Kienbaum: The Ring of the Nibelung. Bayreuth 1976-1980. An examination of the staging by Patrice Chereau and an approach to the total work of art. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-640-03507-0 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-201507302501
  • Uwe Faerber : The Jubilee Ring in Bayreuth 1976. A critical examination of the new staging of the tetralogy for the centenary of the festival. Self-published, Berlin 1976, DNB 780012259 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Philippe Olivier: The Ring of the Nibelung in Bayreuth from the beginning until today . Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, 2007. ISBN 978-3-7957-0594-7 , p. 171
  2. ↑ ibid
  3. ↑ Joachim Herz stages Richard Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen at the Leipzig Opera House. Part I: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre. Part II: Siegfried, Die Götterdämmerung . Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic. Berlin 1975 and 1980
  4. ↑ Nora Eckert: The Ring of the Nibelung and its productions from 1876 to 2001 . European Publishing House / Rotbuch Verlag, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-434-50503-2 , p. 264
  5. ↑ Philippe Olivier: The Ring of the Nibelung in Bayreuth from the beginning until today . Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, 2007. ISBN 978-3-7957-0594-7 , pp. 174-179
  6. ↑ quoted from: Nora Eckert: Der Ring des Nibelungen and his productions from 1876 to 2001 . Europäische Verlagsanstalt / Rotbuch Verlag, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-434-50503-2 , p. 266
  7. ↑ ibid, pp. 236-237
  8. ↑ ibid, p. 267
  9. ^ Occupations taken from: Wolfgang Wagner: Lebensakte. Autobiography . btb Goldmann Verlag Munich 1997, ISBN 3-442-72085-0 , pp. 262-263
  10. ↑ Peter Emmerich: '... the ring rules / who wins it.' The ring productions at the Bayreuth Festival from 1976 to 2004 . Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich and Berlin 2006, p. 107
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Wagner: Life files. Autobiography . btb Goldmann Verlag Munich 1997, ISBN 3-442-72085-0 , pp. 263-265
  12. ↑ The Bayreuth Ring Battle . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1976, pp. 106-107 ( Online - Aug. 2, 1976 ).
  13. ↑ a b Stephan Mösch : How “left” was the “Ring of the Century”? In: www.faz.net. June 30, 2020, accessed July 24, 2020 .
  14. ^ Database of the Bayreuth Festival: Siegfried 1977 , accessed on April 17, 2018.
  15. ^ Database of the Bayreuth Festival: Siegfried 1978 , accessed on April 17, 2018.
  16. ↑ On TV this week . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1980, pp. 184 ( Online - Aug. 25, 1980 ).
  17. ↑ On TV this week . In: Der Spiegel . No. 2 , 1983, p. 160 ( Online - Jan. 10, 1983 ).
  18. ↑ On TV this week . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1983, p. 180 ( Online - Jan. 17, 1983 ).
  19. ↑ On TV this week . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1983, p. 196 ( Online - Jan. 24, 1983 ).
  20. ↑ On TV this week . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1983, pp. 216 ( online - Feb. 7, 1983 ).
  21. ↑ A masked ball for death in Venice . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1983, pp. 172-174 ( Online - Feb. 7, 1983 ).