Photo by Lynn Lane
Scott Cantrell's review in the Dallas News of the Houston Grand Opera's Wagner Ring is not kind to the Barcelona theater company La Fura dels Baus' konzept of Das Rhinegold:
I’m completely befuddled by the various realizations of the Rhine gold as a giant human fetus and, later, a pile of human bodies, apparently manufactured in Alberich’s sinister factory. And what’s with the portrayal of the gods’ new home Valhalla as either a spidery human bust or a tower of suspended acrobats? Sorry, don’t get it.
A Bay Area Wagner enthusiast, who has seen scores of Ring productions, also found Houston's "too fussy ... had trouble knowing who was singing when," and unlike Cantrell, she was unambiguous about the conducting:
Summers' conducting was bad. I’m not certain who wasn’t up to the task. The horns weren’t for certain. The opening E-flat was not a smooth melodic line but herky jerky and the shimmering transition from the Rhinemaidens to Valhalla went for nothing; all the transitions went for nothing. By the Erda scene it was obvious — she was not singing to the same beat as Summers. To his credit it never got too loud.
Of Merola alumnae, our anonymous source says: "Melody Moore and Meredith Arawady, were good, especially Renée Tatum whose voice has developed a gorgeous burnished luster." Cantrell has a "yes — but":
Renée Tatum sang gloriously in the first scene, but later, offstage, their tuning lost mooring. The one real disappointment is Meredith Arwady’s raucous Erde, who rises from what appears to be construction debris. The wise Earth Mother needs much more nobility than this.
Without intermission, it's not easy to abandon the opera, and yet, according to one report, "massive defection from the Grand Tier ... the orchestra which was really full, only some people were peeling out about the time Freia came back with the giants." And, the very good news: "a LOT of young people in the audience."