WAGNER I SVERIGE: Forsén Lennart

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lördag 24 juni 2017

SIEGFRIED, STOCKHOLM, MAJ 2017

MEDVERKANDE

Siegfried – Lars Cleveman.

Brünnhilde – Nina Stemme.

Mime – Niklas Björling Rygert.

Wotan – John Lundgren.

Alberich – Johan Edholm.

Fafner – Lennart Forsén.

Skogsfågeln – Marianne Hellgren Staykov.

Erda – Katarina Leoson.

RECENSIONER

John Johnston: Siegfried as Swedish Midsummer Vigil in the Stockholm Ring (Bachtrack)

A performance of Wagner's Siegfried stands or falls by its titular hero and Lars Cleveman is highly experienced, having sung the role when the production was new, though not originally cast for this revival. Crop-headed in a chain-mail byrnie, like a throwback Viking, he does not conform to Brünnhilde's vision of a childlike hero and laughing boy. His sturdy Heldentenor rang out in the Forging Scene, and he paced himself throughout the rigours of the part, sounding fresh and boisterous in the last act. In the more introspective moments, like the Forest Murmers, his sensitive phrasing and alert use of words embodied his loneliness.

As his would-be nemesis, Mime (Niklas Björling Rygert) sang truly and vividly, alternately smug and twitchy as his plans go increasingly awry. The interaction between him and Siegfried from exasperation to dependency, played out at a long kitchen counter with the forge at one end and the range at the other. With the incoming of the new free hero, John Lundgren, as Wotan/Wanderer, was of rock-like strength and majesty. His answer to Mime's third riddle, "Auf wolkigen Höh'n wohnen die Götter" rolled out grandly. In his sparring with Johan Edholm's Alberich, they played off each other with equal stature and it is no surprise that Edholm also sings Wotan in this house. In Lundgren's scene with Erda, imposingly sung by Katarina Leoson, only a certain lack of world weariness and renunciation raised the question why such a vigorous god should be ceding power to his grandson at all.

(...) Nina Stemme deployed all the burnished coppery colours of her voice, with darker undertones, reminding us that she is Erda's daughter. Heroically anguished and movingly tender in “Ewig war ich”, both she and Cleveman brought the duet to a radiant close.

The charming soubrette Woodbird of Marianne Hellgren Staykov, dressed as Sieglinde, gave an odd maternal tenderness to her promptings.

(...) From the serpentine opening, Marko Letonja conducted with muscular momentum, with rich brass sonority and poetically articulate woodwind. Only the sweeping inexorablity of the Act 3 prelude, with its interweaving themes, lacked cosmic grandeur.

Karin Olsson: Wagner – alltid med betydande obehag (Expressen)

(...) I Staffan Valdemar Holms drygt tio år gamla uppsättning är det en betydligt mer bekymmersam Siegfried - i form av den starke tenoren Lars Cleveman - som möter publiken. Clevemans hjälte försöker skuggboxa bort sin frustration innan han drar ut på sitt ödesbestämda äventyr.

(...) Mötet med kärleken Brünnhilde - sopranen Nina Stemme - förlöser Clevemans Siegfried. Tillsammans ska de bana väg för den nya tiden och den nya människan när den gamla ordningen har fallit. I en sista kärleksexplosion utlovar de gudarnas fall och välkomnar "Nacht der Vernichtung", förintelsens natt. I bakgrunden - av scenografen Bente Lykke Møllers svedda väggar - syns röken ur skorstenarna.

AUDIO

Sveriges Radio

fredag 23 juni 2017

VALKYRIAN, STOCKHOLM, MAJ 2017

MEDVERKANDE

Brünnhilde – Nina Stemme.

Wotan – John Lundgren.

Hunding – Lennart Forsén.

Sieglinde – Cornelia Beskow.

Fricka – Katarina Dalayman.

Siegmund – Michael Weinius.

Helmwige – Sara Olsson.

Gerhilde – Susanna Stern.

Orthilde – Angela Rotondo.

Waltraute – Marie-Louise Granström.

Siegrune – Monika Mannerström Skog.

Rossweisse – Johanna Rudström.

Grimgerde – Kristina Martling.

Schwertleite – Katarina Leoson

RECENSIONER

John Johnston: An outstanding Swedish Sieglinde in a strongly cast Walküre in Stockholm (Bachtrack.com)

(...) The unified setting in Staffan Valdemar Holm's production emphasises the classical unities with the action plausibly taking place in a brief time frame, focused dramatically on dialogues: Siegmund and Sieglinde; Wotan and Fricka; Brünnhilde and Wotan. Memories are unpeeled in the narrations and significant events happen off-stage. We hear the fight between Siegmund and Hundling, and see the reaction in Sieglinde's terrified response as Brünnhilde bears the shards of Nothung wrapped in Siegmund's bloodied shirt.

Cornelia Beskow's outstanding Sieglinde shone vocally with all the luminosity of a Northern late spring day, with an underlying resonance as she physically blooms in “Du bist der Lenz”, her auburn Pre-Raphaelite tresses cascading freely. Earlier, under her husband's dominance, her passive-aggressive demeanour is clear in her tight-laced rigidity, as she bobs a formal curtsey to him, while threatening him with a bread knife behind his back. As her unkempt twin, Siegmund, Michael Weinius' stalwart Heldentenor thrilled in his cries of “Wälse”, and beguiled with his lyricism in “Winterstürme”. With Lennart Forsén's oppressive squire of a Hunding, all three singers made for a highly charged Act 1.

Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde delivered her opening battle cry, in Victorian riding habit brandishing her crop like one of Trollope's racier fox-hunting heroines. Her full-toned vibrant voice no longer quite commands the spear-point sharpness and trills of the cry, yet her stillness and watchfulness during Wotan's narration draws attention. Supremely so in the 'Todesverkündigung', the lofty transcendent sadness and rich nuance of her singing was emotionally overwhelming. Matching her, Weinius was heroically resigned and heart-breakingly tender in his care for his increasingly agitated sister.

John Lundgren (Wotan) and Katarina Dalayman (Fricka) charted every blow in their marital argument. Dalayman, regal and opulent of voice, wheedling and demanding the abandonment of Siegmund, snaps her husband's billiard cue and forces him into a handshake and a frigid embrace of submission. Lundgren's interpretation deepens as he is bound by the constraints of his own actions, his Heldenbariton surmounting with ease even the most violent orchestral outbursts.

(...) From the opening storm, the orchestral playing under the baton of Marko Letonja was on an altogether higher level than the previous evening, yielding grandeur, fire and tenderness through well graduated dynamics and tempi. In conclusion, an evening of great Wagner singing making one eager for the next instalments.

Camilla Lundberg: ”Rhenguldet”, ”Valkyrian” ”Nibelungens ring” på Kungliga Operan (DN)

(...) Extra härligt också att få bevittna ett genuint genombrott: sopranen Cornelia Beskow.

Det är som Sieglinde hon triumferar, den olyckliga tvångsgifta kvinnan som förlöses i kärlek till sin bror och inspirerar sin kompositör till oemotståndlig klanglyrik. Beskow, lång och slank, presenterar sig med en lite gäll kant på stämman till det hårdknutna kroppsspråk som hör situationen till. Därför blir hennes blomning extra verkningsfull, när rösten expanderar med rika övertoner och ett härligt glitter. En intelligent och känslig Sieglinde, som måste älskas.

Och det gör hennes tvillingbror i Michael Weinius tunga gestalt; visuellt ett tveksamt släktskap men känslomässigt desto trovärdigare. Vad än Weinius gör, så är det ärkemusikaliskt och genomtänkt. Rimligtvis borde han räknas till det internationella toppskiktet av hjältetenorer och ha de riktigt hårdkokta rollerna som Tristan och Siegfried inom räckhåll.

Nu kan Sverige i varje fall mönstra en Wotan i världsklass, den mäktigaste av Wagnerska barytoner. John Lundgren, i många produktioner partner till Nina Stemme, stiger här fram som en skrämmande modern maktmänniska.

(...) I en unikt tidlös scen blottar han sitt innersta för dottern Brünnhilde. Samspelet här mellan Lundgren och Stemme är värt hela Ringen.

(...) Ett riktigt teaterstycke, som Holm & Møller förvaltat med humoristisk skärpa.

(...) Den gästande slovenske dirigenten Marko Letonja övertygar inte här; intrycket är orepeterat och ogestaltat.

RECENSIONER

Sveries Radio

lördag 17 juni 2017

RHENGULDET, STOCKHOLM, MAJ 2017

MEDVERKANDE

Wotan – John Lundgren

Donner – Kristian Flor

Froh – Joel Annmo

Loge – Jonas Degerfeldt

Alberich – Johan Edholm

Mime – Niklas Björling Rygert

Fasolt – Lennart Forsén

Fafner – Rasmus Bodén

Fricka – Katarina Dalayman

Freia – Susanna Stern

Erda – Katarina Leoson

Woglinde – Vivianne Holmberg

Wellgunde – Susann Végh

Flosshilde – Johanna Rudström

Kungliga hovkapellet.

Dirigent: Marko Letonja.

Regi: Staffan Valdemar Holm.

Kungliga operan, Stockholm.

RECENSIONER

John Johnston: A highly accomplished start to Stockholm's Ring (bachtrack.com)

(...) With an unequaled tradition of Wagner performances and world-class singers, the curtain of Staffan Valdemar Holm's production did, in fact, rise on a museum gallery with glass cases full of props, set designs and historic costumes such as would have been seen in the original 1876 Max Brückner staging in Bayreuth. The Rhinemaidens, in plaid dresses and ringlets, scampered around like giddy Dickensian young ladies, teasing and flirting with a very juvenile Alberich, in knickerbockers and Eton-style collar until, almost in a fit of pique, he seizes the gold from its vitrine.

With almost Mendelssohnian orchestral accompaniment under Marko Letonja, all glittering woodwind and shimmering arpeggios, this was almost a comedic start to the cycle. (...) Letonja led a fluid, well balanced performance ensuring audibility, only lacking real weight in the interludes to and from Nibelheim and during Alberich's curse. The orchestra responded with a plating of warmth and character in their wood-panelled pit. This expository evening gave full evidence of thorough preparation and engagement, giving promise of epic events to come.

(...) Such an approach needs a tightly characterised ensemble and the Swedish cast were successful in their vivid alertness and interaction. John Lundgren, bullet-headed, youthful and overbearing, gave a world-class performance as Wotan, with a voice powerful and firm and untiring throughout its range, seizing every chance to wheel and deal. Johan Edholm as Alberich, transformed into a hard headed mill-owner, almost matched Wotan in vocal incisiveness and impact, delivering a fearsome Curse.

Katarina Dalayman, a former Sieglinde and Brünnhilde, was an unusually sympathetic Fricka, with an easy top though some unsteadiness in the lower range show that the vocal switch to mezzo roles may still need time to settle. Jonas Degerfeldt was a drily sardonic Loge, a tail-coated flâneur, casually striking a match on the sole of his boot as the gods process with their baggage off-stage into an unseen Valhalla.

(...) This fairly small house suited lighter voiced singers such as Joel Annmo's fey Froh and Susanna Stern's fresh Freia. Mime was truly sung and not whined by Niklas Björling Rygert, although the vocal steadiness of the two giants, Lennart Forsén and Rasmussen Bodén, didn't quite match up to their stature. The very present, folk-dressed Erda, Katarina Leoson, was notably deep-toned and secure in her admonition.

Camilla Lundberg: ”Rhenguldet”, ”Valkyrian” ”Nibelungens ring” på Kungliga Operan (DN)

”Rhenguldet”, av Wagner kallat ”förspel”, dock ej att förglömma. Ett riktigt teaterstycke, som Holm & Møller förvaltat med humoristisk skärpa. Här, i Wagnerskt borgerlig salong, lattjas det med torrsimmande Rhendöttrar och spelas det ful dvärg – tills det faktiskt blir allvar. Den gästande slovenske dirigenten Marko Letonja övertygar inte här; intrycket är orepeterat och ogestaltat. Men man gläds åt Jonas Degerfeldts preciöse trickster Loge och hur Johan Edholm förvandlar sin oskuldsfulle ”dvärg” till mäktig kapitalist.

Återstår att se hur Bente Lykke Møllers inomhuslåda kommer att hantera såväl drakslakt som gudarnas undergång i Ringens andra hälft.

Karin Olsson: David Baas: Wagners tid är nu (Expressen)

(...) Dvärgen Alberich – här i form av skolpojksklädde barytonsångaren Johan Edholm – roffar åt sig guldet.

(...) Guldtjuven Alberich förvandlas till en despotisk gruvdirektör bakom det tunga skrivbordet i industrialiseringens tid.

(...) Den eldfängde guden Loge – här görs rollen av tenoren Jonas Degerfeldt – blir ett slags kommenterande 1800-talssprätt med hög hatt. John Lundgrens Wotan är patriarken som börjar tappa greppet, om sig, sin familj och samhället.

(...) Det förintande Ragnarökledmotivet, som återkommer i Ringens fjärde del, bär fram Wagners predikan allra mest kärnfullt när mezzosopranen Katarina Leoson, i rollen som den allvetande gudinnan Erda, sjunger med sin sorgsna stämma:

"Höre! Höre! Höre! Alles was ist, endet." Gudarnas tid är förbi. Vad gör du när den gamla ordningen rasar?

AUDIO

Sveries Radio

tisdag 16 maj 2017

DAS RHEINGOLD, STOCKHOLM, september 2006

MEDVERKANDE

Wotan: Terje Stenswold

Donner: Johan Edholm

Froh: Klas Hedlund

Loge: Thomas Sunnegårdh

Alberich: Kettil Hugaas

Mime: Niklas Björling Rygert

Fasolt: Hans-Peter König

Fafner: Lennart Forsén

Fricka: Martina Dike

Freia: Sara Olsson

Erda: Anna Larsson

Woglinde: Hilde Leidland

Wellgunde: Susann Végh

Regi: Staffan Valdemar Holm

Kungliga Hovkapellet, Stockholm.

Dirigent: Gregor Bühl

Kungliga Operan, Stockholm

RECENSIONER

Göran Forsling: Richard Wagner, Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera in Stockholm (Music Web)

Originally Neeme Järvi was scheduled to lead this Ring cycle but he had to withdraw due to failing health and in his place the young German Gregor Bühl sprang in. He is no newcomer to Wagner: in Hannover, where he has been principal conductor since 1996, he has performed most of the operas, including the complete Ring. It was also obvious from the outset that he knew his Wagner. The remarkable prelude, “the birth of minimalism”, with its repeated “wave” motif, was built up from the almost inaudible start towards ever greater intensity, the waters of the Rhine running fiercer and fiercer, and the Royal Orchestra responded willingly. Bühl kept things moving without rushing. A well-balanced reading, full of life.

(...)

Martina Dike, who already has a long list of memorable role assumptions (see review of Don Carlos), was a splendid Fricka, her voice ringing out with magnificent ease and she is a good actor. As Freia Sara Olsson didn’t have much to sing but what little there was she did well and she acted movingly. Erda’s part is even smaller, but her “aria” Weiche, Wotan, weiche is on the other hand one of the sublime moments and Anna Larsson’s deep warm contralto was perfectly suited to it, just as artlessly affecting as when she sang the same part in a concert performance of Rheingold at the Stockholm Concert Hall a couple of years ago.

(...)

In the men’s department, the diminutive Klas Hedlund drew a finely etched Froh and his unforced lyrical tenor is always a joy to listen to, while Johan Edholm personified the choleric Donner with biting intensity. Thomas Sunnegårdh, excellent actor, found the right scheming tone for Loge, a part he has sung for many years around the world, his voice still in fine fettle. Fafner and Fasolt, bear-like in their brown costumes and with long hair and beard, were magnificently sung by Lennart Forsén and Hans-Peter König, the former with a roundness and beauty of tone that almost conflicted with the evil, while König has the most tremendously gigantic bass-voice one can ever expect to hear.

The black forces in Nibelheim were also well taken care of. Ketil Hugaas, the buffo bass par preference in Stockholm at the moment, adopted all his considerable skill to give a many-sided portrait of Alberich. A good actor with many colours in his not exactly beautiful but expressive voice. And young Niklas Björling Rygert, who is quickly claiming the role as the leading character tenor, was a perfect Mime, younger looking and younger sounding than most and a lithe actor.

On top of this Norwegian guest Terje Stensvold was a well-nigh ideal Wotan, physically imposing but showing all the different sides of Wotan’s many-faceted character. He sang with firm tone, blacker than most baritones, which is right for Wotan, but with impressively gleaming high notes – and he had a wonderful legato. Far from the speech-singing all to often heard in the role, this was a bel canto Wotan.

(...)

Sofia Nyblom: Rhenguldet (SvD)

Loges gnistor ger glans åt Hovkapellet, som dirigenten Gregor Bühl leder i en romantiskt sprittande tolkning av Wagners Rhenguldet. Bente Lykke Møllers scenbilder skimrar löftesrikt, särskilt öppningen där tre krinolinklädda sjöjungfrur förstrött åser hur skolpojken Alberich stjäl sagans guldboll och försvinner ner i mattan i kvällens enda teatertrick.

(...)

Ketil Hugaas Alberich förblir en skurkkliché, stämman trist nyansfri när han förbannar Ringens makt....

(...)

I finalen sätter Thomas Sunnegårdhs finurlige Loge fyr på härligheten, drömmen om romantiken smälter i regnbågsdiset. Men sagoberättaren får gärna släppa loss leklustan inför nästa byggsten i det allkonstverk som är Nibelungens ring - först när man tror på sagan, kan den bli riktigt kuslig.

(...)

söndag 2 april 2017

SIEGFRIED, STOCKHOLM, september 2006

MEDVERKANDE:

Siegfried - Lars Cleveman

Mime - Niklas Björling Rygert

Vandraren - Terje Stensvold

Alberich - Kettil Hugaas

Fafner - Lennart Forsén

Brünnhilde - Katarina Dalayman

Skogsfågeln: - Marianne Hellgren Staykov

Kostym: Bente Lykke Møller

Ljus: Torben Lendorph

Koreografi: Kristin Kåge

Filmer: Mats Bäcker and Johan Forslind

Regi: Stefan Valdemar Holm

Dramaturge: Stefan Johansson

Kungliga hovkapellet

Dirigent: Gregor Bühl

RECENSIONER:

Göran Forsling: Wagner, Siegfried at the Stockholm Royal Opera, 16.09.2006 (MusicWeb)

Dramaturge Stefan Johansson calls it a satyr play – whatever the terminology it is a great macabre (...).

Gregor Bühl definitely has the measure for this, the most complicated of Wagner’s scores, and holds together all the sprawling ends admirably. He opts for mostly fastish tempos which also means the Wagner’s brew is boiling at a high temperature and he is supported by grandiose playing by the orchestra, who are on a truly elated level of excellence at the moment (...).

But Björling Rygert has gone from strength to strength in a variety of character roles the last few years and here he caps anything he has done before. I praised his neurotic Mime in Das Rheingold a year ago but he has grown even more since then and besides his actual acting talent his voice has expanded; now he possesses a shining dramatic tone and a volume that challenged even Siegfried himself. I bet that in ten years time he will be a glorious Siegfried – but he shouldn’t hurry. As Mime he might well be a leading star in the big houses for years to come. Having lived with the part for 2½ years every word, every inflexion is in his system, as he said in an interview, complete with tics, and it is only to be hoped that he can separate Mime’s personality from his own. (...)

Terje Stensvold, whose Wotan was so impressive in the first two operas, was just as glorious and I would even go as far as saying that his singing was even more uninhibited here. A bass-baritone of imposing dimensions that can pour out golden tone at a volume that fills even the biggest houses, delivered with a steadiness that even the most world-famous Wotans should envy. (...)

Lars Cleveman (...) executed the part with aplomb, his steely tenor cutting through the orchestra like a welding flame. But he also showed another side of the character; after all, Siegfried has some human sides too, especially when he, in the Waldweben scene, wonders about his mother. Then he expressed this with warmly lyrical outpourings that not every Heldentenor could manage. (...)

Ketil Hugaas was an intensely expressive, black-voiced Alberich and Lennart Forsén once again proved that he must be counted among the best basso cantante singers around. He has little opportunity to show this as Fafner, where the main task is to sound as nasty as possible, but after Siegfried has penetrated his heart his last utterances are filled with melancholy and warmth. Anna Larsson’s warm and beautiful contralto makes her an ideal Erda, and her tall appearance adds to this impression. Marianne Hellgren Staykov was a really lovely Waldvogel, fluttering her wings and moving her head very bird-like. (...)

Katarina Dalayman at last was liberated from her shield and armour she was just as impressive as in Die Walküre. Her voice is not of that larger-than-life size of some famous dramatic sopranos but it has a glow of its own, it has beauty and she is an expressive singer and actress. That final scene contains some of most beautiful music Wagner ever wrote and she sang it with great feeling.

Sara Norling: Operan smider guld (Dagens Nyheter)

Operans mastodontprojekt med att sätta upp hela Wagners ”Ring” har kommit till tredje delen. Sara Norling möter drakdödaren Siegfried och vill se mer. Opera ”Siegfried” av Richard Wagner Scen: Kungliga operan, Stockholm Dirigent: Gregor Bühl Regi: Staffan Valdemar Holm Scenografi & kostym: Bente Lykke Möller Ljus: Torben Lendorph Medverkande: Lars Cleveman, Niklas Björling Rygert, Terje Stensvold, Ketil Hugaas, Katarina Dalayman, Anna Larsson, Kungliga Hovkapellet m fl

Mogens H. Andersson: Siegfried på Kungliga Operan (Operalogg)

Igår kväll var det alltså dags för Siegfried, näst sista delen av Wagners Nibelungens ring. Det är kanske lika bra att jag säger det meddetsamma Siegfried tillhör inte mina favoriter. Egentligen tycker jag att det är den tråkigaste delen av Ringen, med undantag av tredje akten. Det tycker jag vanligtvis.

I går kväll var jag inte så imponerad ens av tredje akten, men å andra sidan så var ju Wotan eller Vandraren som han egentligen heter, i sin verkliga toppform. Och det var mycket roligt att höra på.

Erik Wallrup: Operans bittra eftersmak (Göteborgs Posten)

Opera Kungliga operan Siegfried av Richard Wagner. Regi: Staffan Valdemar Holm. Scenografi: Bente Lykke Møller. Dirigent: Gregor Bühl. Erik Wallrup har sett en vacker Siegfried som säger förvånansvärt lite.

AUDIO/VIDEO: