The Atlanta Opera’s production of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried debuted this past Saturday, and things are officially getting serious. Last seen in the land of the peach under the auspices of the Metropolitan Opera tour in April 28, 1917 (a performance which also forced the farewell of the celebrated Johanna Gadski for her assumed political improprieties) Siegfried is the third installment in Wagner’s monumental tetralogy: Der Ring des Nibelungen, and it presents tremendous challenges to any company tasked with bringing the work to life. Not spared from the struggle is the audience, which now past the midpoint in the Ring Cycle marathon, finds itself out of Looney Tune references to guide its step. Though framed as a fairy tale, Siegfried also serves as an epic, near 4-hour character study of the young hero and his place within the dynamic power struggle between Gods, mankind, and all the Norse/Germanic things in between. Wagner’s Siegfried has been known to separate the rabid Wagnerite from the faithful season subscriber, a trend reflected by the body count at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre for both the Saturday April 26th prima and the Tuesday April 29th performance, which were the basis of this review.
To ease his audience into compliance, Carl W. Knobloch Jr. General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun summoned Siegfried within a familiar context by bringing back the original production team and many of the principals which contributed to the success of the Ring Cycle’s previous installments (Das Rheingold and Die Walkure). One notable exception affected the pit, with the replacement of maestro Arthur Fagen (who became the company’s Music Director Emeritus as of January of this year) with maestro Roberto Kalb, a young conductor who made an exciting Atlanta Opera debut two years ago in Verdi’s Rigoletto and is now assigned to lead the remaining two operas of the cycle.
As previously noted in his approach to Wagner’s tetralogy, Stage Director Tomer Zvulun’s production values promote a reasonably contemporary aesthetic without the sort of Reggie practices that could trigger some reddit users. His consideration of our admittedly shattered 2025 nerves curiously required the omission of the opera’s third act punchline in the supertitles (“Das ist kein Mann!”) though delivered accordingly by Director Zvulun’s leading man to get the basic point across. This approach served him well to facilitate his depiction of a superhuman hero exhibiting supreme lack of respect for established order and general restraint, framed around self-validating bravado in a digestible way. The projections by Scenic and Projection Designer Erhard Rom in conjunction with the filmed media designs by Felipe Barral graced the production best when replacing naturalistic stagings (the forest sequence was uniquely arresting).
Other times they enhanced the action by providing interpretative visuals to orchestral passages, ranging from the invigorating (depictions of Wotan’s steed Sleipnir) to the uniquely disturbing (a triumphant Siegfried covered in flames). Designer Rom’s staging for Siegfried maintained cohesion with his work in both Das Rheingold and Die Walkure, with Mime’s lair providing the opportunity to expand upon his vision of the Nibelheim through Mime’s grotesque career development: a boiler room, which harmoniously matched Costume Designer Mattie Ulrich’s post-apocalyptic aesthetic. Their combined efforts offered a functional setting for our cast to forge out their frustrations while unlikely to summon those who protested Chereau’s interpretation of the work nearly 50 years ago – and lived to see the aftermath. I would be remiss to ignore (for the third time!) the efforts of Wig and Makeup Designer Anne Nesmith in depicting the physical toll that the cursed ring has inflicted upon our main players, from the subtle aging of Greer Grimsley’s Wotan to the obvious physical decay of Zachary Nelson’s Alberich.
These carefully crafted conditions contributed to the success of the opening night’s presentation, which, perpetrated by a series of planned and unexpected events, suffered serious setbacks before the curtain’s rise. For starters, Atlanta’s rising pollen index proved the undoing of Greer Grimsley, to many the heart and soul of The Atlanta Opera’s Ring Cycle, who found himself unable to go on as the scheduled Wotan/The Wanderer. In his stead, the company secured the assistance of bass-baritone Kyle Albertson, who covered the singing duties from the wings while Mr. Grimsley acted the part onstage. While this improvisation saved the evening from near collapse, the unexpected switcheroo conspired both with maestro Kalb’s spacious tempi in key moments where the music should sizzle up and keep the audience in the venue for the second act (the maestro is a first time Siegfriedian) and tenor Stefan Vinke’s audible coping strategies to get through the mammoth difficulties presented by the title character. The net total injected a dose of disconnect between the audience and the opera’s challenging first act.
To make matters worse, the evening’s designed itinerary which aimed to provide a reserved dining opportunity by extending the first intermission to an unheard-of 50 minutes, served a further miscalculation by exacerbating the length of the engagement. Patrons of modest means found themselves seeking their fortunes elsewhere, many resorting to staches of pre-planned snacks in the parking deck at a time when the company should want to keep its patrons away from their vehicles. Those who stuck around for the remainder of the performance were treated to the cathartic Siegfried experience.
Coming to the aid of the ailing Greer Grimsley, bass-baritone Kyle Albertson provided the voice of Wotan/The Wanderer, a part which he has prepared and performed both as a cover artist and within the scope of tantalizing reductions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle such as Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s Journey to Valhalla, and Opera Graz’ Der Ring an eimen Abend. An artist who made his Atlanta Opera debut 11 years ago as the Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Mr. Albertson has garnered attention ever since as a promising up and coming Wagnerian. His execution of the score was confident and polished, bearing the traits of a young god by effortlessly negotiating his gossamer voice around the passagio with apparent ease. His diction is clear, though his positioning on the stage promoted a certain disconnect from the action. He matched Mr. Grimsley’s pantomime as best as could be expected, though I fear our scheduled Wotan/The Wanderer would have been told to sashay away by the second act. He was meant to sing, damn it, and thus I decided to attend Tuesday night’s performance in hopes that Mr. Grimsley would go on – and he did not disappoint. Allowed to once again connect action with sound, Mr. Grimsley delivered an engaged, stentorian reading of the part. The inescapable comparisons with Mr. Albertson flatters both men, though the deeply-felt nobility and gravitas in Mr. Grimsley’s voice will continue to shift the gravitational pull towards his Wotan with unquestionable authority.
Opening night patrons owe tenor Rodell Rosel further gratitude, for his vivid characterization of Mime served as the anchor for many to get past the glitches threatening to make Siegfried’s first act an interminable affair. Mr. Rosel’s zany and wiry Mime offered a stark contrast to Mr. Vinke’s often frustrating restraint (more on this below), deploying his razor-sharp tenor, by an instrument of dimensions and nobility well past the trappings of a character singer, with lively enthusiasm at every phrase. Against puffs and marbles, his statements ran true, pinching the members of the audience challenged by Wotan/The Wanderer’s drawn-out game of trivia back into the action. These performances also featured the return of Zachary Nelson’s Alberich, not seen since his star-making turn in Das Rheingold, albeit his run time in Siegfried is essentially a cameo. Regardless, Mr. Nelson made full use of his opportunity to strike the right tone and balance to portray what Jay Hunter Morris eloquently described in his introductory lecture: Alberich is the embodiment of the ring’s corruptive power. His shared culpability with Wotan/The Wanderer was also cleverly hinted at by Mattie Ulrich’s and Anne Nesmith’s designs.
Landing a Siegfried worth his salt, an inextricable requirement for the success of any mounting of the final two operas in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, has historically proven to be an uphill battle, such gripe reportedly inclusive of the premiere of the role by Georg Unger back in 1876. Subsequent productions of the Wagner’s Ring Cycle have yielded noble legacies by great artists who did right by several of the cycle’s most testing parts, yet pinning down a truly great Siegfried, the great Lauritz Melchior exempted, has proved singularly elusive, often leading companies down a series of compromises which has yielded infrequent stand-alone performances of the operas requiring Siegfried as a principal attraction. Beyond a casual superficial browsing of the challenges which must be surmounted (a voice of tremendous weight and projection, deployed with uncommon endurance, coupled with the believable physical constitution of a young alpha male [the great Lauritz Melchior, again, exempted]) the part must be brought to life by a creative artist beyond its reactionary disposition to spark the imagination of the audience. Siegfried is a chatty guy, depicted through an endless word count designed to weave through Wagner’s leitmotivs and build the whole of the man. The right exponent must expertly transition from moments of vocal lyricism to heroic outbursts, and the more athletic vocal gymnastics to be done in between: it is here where the sheer basic fabric of the instrument must be summoned to validate the artist’s work.
Stepping up to the challenge is tenor Stefan Vinke who makes his Atlanta Opera debut with these performances. He arrives well recommended, having graced the stages of the major operatic hubs equipped with tackling this repertoire with consistent frequency (his debut as Siegfried at the Metropolitan Opera for its 2018-19 Ring Cycle was heralded as a game changing event), including the hallowed grounds of Bayreuth. As seen during the opening night presentation, and the subsequent performance the following Tuesday, his execution falls somewhat short of his anointed position.
His stage deportment was well-conceived. Mattie Ulrich’s designs have fashioned him as Roddy Piper starring in a lost Mad Max spin-off. He is a charming actor, though unable to extend beyond a calculated brand of charisma. Either by design or endowment, his vocalism is slow to congeal, betraying a hollow weakness in the middle register which clouded his diction, rendering his delivery of his declamatory exchanges glottal and murky. He excelled, however, when the moment came to rally forward in passages which necessitated his blazing vigor, which he relished with boundless energy. This audible exchange, perhaps the reasonable side effect of a steady Wagnerian diet for nearly a quarter of a century, deterred his connection with the audience during the above-mentioned crucial first act. Lucky for all, his development progressed throughout the long evening, finding him in steadier stride during the confrontations with Fafner and Mime in the second act. As he managed to get past Wotan/The Wanderer on his way to confirm the wood bird’s claim in the third, he was fully at home with the lyricism which dominated the final 40 minutes of the score, allowing him to join his leading lady in a clarion high C to cap his participation. He received a massive ovation from an audience happy to have him back next year to recap his role and thus close the historic chapter of our city’s first Ring Cycle.
Serving as Siegfried’s final boss fight, soprano Lise Lindstrom as Brunhilde faced challenges of an altogether different nature in this her debut role with the Atlanta Opera. The sleeping Valkyrie awakens quite late into the proceedings, limiting her opportunities to make an impression. Her performance brought the opera to a close with a decadent brand of exuberance that was altogether suis generis. Her opening lines, “Heil Dir, Sonne!” manifested her voice in its full splendor, warts and all, filling the hall with a sound both tremendous and gloriously erratic, quite at odds with the joyous fanfare that greeted it. As the extended duet between the lovers progressed, she expanded upon her initial statement. The voice is ample in size and rendered steely through various means, often sketchy in pitch. It has a calloused patina around its edges, surely collected through the years of a steady diet of Wagnerian assignments. As she sang, I felt transported to that strange International Opera Gala that took place at the Woodruff Arts Center during the 96 Olympics (some of y’all know what I’m talking about) where Gwyneth Jones sang the second act of Puccini’s Turandot and proceeded to peel the paint off the walls. It wasn’t just the type of vocalism at play that gave Gwyneth Jones’ vibes, it was Ms. Lindstrom’s use of the words that made the audience sit up and notice. And how (oh how!) she exploited the dramatic opportunities to be found in the name “Siegfried” alone! At once full of joy, pain, fear, outrage. She reminded me of the old complaints from decades past when singers used to give too much, beyond what their voices could give, and thus pay the price for it. The angst with which she sings smoothed over some of the more unruly elements of her instrument, but the hardness and lack of elasticity in her singing could not be ignored during the famous “Ewig war ich, Ewig bin ich”. Yet, her singing remained all giving, all courage, all relinquishing. I can think of no better description of what she did onstage both on Saturday and Tuesday, and no greater endorsement for her return in next year’s Gotterdamerung: It indeed gave Gwyneth Jones vibes.
Luxury casting extended to the smaller roles, led by contralto Lindsay Ammann, another Atlanta Opera debut, offering a cavernous, tantalizing Erda. Aided by the work of Center of Puppetry Art’s Jason Hines, Alexander Kopeczi made a memorable American debut as Fafner, revealing an alluring, dark walnut bass. His encounter with Siegfried is filtered to the audience through the young hero’s viewpoint, distorting the dragon’s terrifying presence through a whimsical, cartoonish lens. Soprano Amber Norelai’s forest bird warbled everyone’s secrets through a leggiero which demanded attention beyond its mere contrast to the alpha male business happening below but also for its purity of tone.
Wagner’s Siegfried is here, y’all, and there are two remaining performances this season. Patrons are advised to come prepared: Bring snacks – Drink your coffee – Don’t bring a big purse (no, seriously) – Don’t set off the metal detectors. This is not a drill!
For tickets, please visit the company’s website at https://www.atlantaopera.org/
-Daniel Vasquez