Music Review : Strong Singing, Conducting in ‘Die Walkure’ at the Bowl

Admirable in intention, respectable in execution, John Mauceri’s solidly conducted performance of Act III of Wagner’s “Die Walkure” at Hollywood Bowl Tuesday night promised much, but delivered less. Of course it sang. But it seldom soared.

A recognized master of canny programming, Mauceri put on this unstaged--but mood-lit and laser-punctuated--act as a delayed outdoor encore to his indoor performances last spring of the entire work at Opera Pacific in Costa Mesa.

With some changes: While his Brunnhilde, Scottish singer Jane Eaglen, remained the same, the conductor resorted to a more famous and accomplished Wotan than the one he had engaged in Orange County. Seven of the remaining Valkyries had served the same functions at those earlier performances. And the new Sieglinde became the very promising Patricia Baskerville, heard here at the Bowl in July in Mauceri’s “Porgy and Bess” excerpts.

The symphonic ensemble, which in March had numbered 71 players stuffed into the Performing Arts Center pit in Costa Mesa, became this time the game, 81-member Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Though much of its playing emerged adequate but blunt, largely uncolored in terms of a broad dynamic scheme and short on telling details, this ensemble nevertheless seemed to outplay its Orange County counterpart.

Eaglen’s singing, faithfully microphoned, apparently without distortion for the nearly 18,000-capacity amphitheater, made a stronger impact this time around. Consistency, in both articulation and vocal production, is its virtue, clarity its strength. The voice may not be distinctive but it is pure of tone; equally important, its delivery of words proved reliable, at least in these favorable conditions.

Because Robert Hale is a more engaged singing actor than Mauceri’s previous Wotan, the closing scene of this Act III took on an added poignancy, especially since Eaglen seems to have deepened her characterization of Brunnhilde since last we encountered it.

Even so, and despite his healthy, robust voice, the 57-year-old American singer brought less energy and a less commanding delivery to the god’s authority. Here was a touching portrayal, but one still lacking some facets of this complex personality.

Baskerville, so impressive at her last Bowl appearance, produced unfocused singing and textual mysteries as a rather undefined Sieglinde. Variable in tone-quality, but impassioned in statement were the eight Valkyries: Katherine McCloskey (Gerhilde), Deborah Dey (Grimgerde), Anita Protich (Helmwige), Cass Powell (Ortlinde), Cindy Sadler (Schwertleite), Kate Butler (Siegrune), Patricia McAfee (Waltraute) and Martha Jane Weaver (Rossweise).

Postscripts:

* The performance was heard on this occasion by an audience counted at 9,265.

* The last time “Walkure” was heard at the Bowl was July 12 and 13, 1938, when conductor Richard Hageman led two staged performanceswith a cast headed by Friedrich Schorr as Wotan, Maria Jeritza as Brunnhilde and Paul Althouse as Siegmund.

* The passing-by of only one aircraft distracted the performance.