Resonant, but No Real ‘Ring’ of Originality

SAN FRANCISCO — One hundred and twenty-five years ago, Wagner meant his “Niebelung’s Ring” to reveal the future of art. Through a four-evening epic, he developed grandiose themes and profound moral dilemmas as he presented lofty acts of will, exalted sacrifices for love, evidence of enduring good and evil. A musical Dr. Frankenstein, he humanized a mythic (and often ridiculous) drama through life-bearing, mesmerizing music. And he produced, in this ultimate challenge for opera house, singers and audience, the ultimate example of manipulative entertainment that coaxes disturbed minds toward violence. The “Ring” helped ground Hitler in his notions of German purity, heroism and anti-Semitism.

Still, the San Francisco Opera, which has had a notable 65-year history with the “Ring,” is not likely to be held responsible for much audience disorientation in its latest cycle, now on view at the War Memorial Opera House. Probably the most harm this benign production could accomplish happened Wednesday night, when one distracted, well-dressed woman rushing to the ladies’ room after 5 1/2 hours with “Twilight of the Gods,” the last opera in the cycle, momentarily confused genders.

Maybe her blood sugar was simply too low. Many opera houses schedule a dinner break after the two-hour first act, or at least a healthy intermission. San Francisco Opera doesn’t even allow enough time to wait in line for a snack and eat it. But then, seasoned “Ring”-goers take a marathoner’s pride in their endurance. They tend to bring along their own sandwiches and energy bars, and pray that, Wagner-drunk by the cycle’s end, they will be rewarded with the operatic equivalent of a runner’s high.

Even so, those looking for the future of entertainment Wednesday were more likely to be found across town checking out the opening of the $85-million Sony Metreon, said to be the largest urban entertainment complex of movie theaters and video arcades in the world. Next to 3-D Imax and high-tech video bowling, San Francisco Opera’s “Ring” is small-screen TV.

Neither “Siegfried” on Sunday afternoon nor “Twilight of the Gods” (Gotterdammerung) Wednesday substantially changed the impression already made by the two opening evenings of San Francisco’s recycled “Ring” last week. Andrei Serban, who has taken over a 15-year-old production, added new costumes and fiddled with the sets, seems to work episode by episode, as if this were a TV miniseries. The emphasis is not on lofty concepts or overriding themes, but individual character interactions. A certain amount of revisionism is in evidence, but it may be merely practical.

For instance, Siegfried, Wagner’s mindlessly glorious hero, is not at all attractive in the figure of Wolfgang Schmidt. Most around me sat in happy relief that the German heldentenor did not repeat what was said to be a vocally barked disaster of a Tristan earlier in the season here. Schmidt may not exactly display vocal bloom, but he got through two punishing operas relatively unscathed.

He did so, however, by creating a Siegfried who was less a hero than an abusive lout. His scenes with the sniveling dwarf, Mime, who rears him, verged on Abbott and Costello slapstick. In fact, Gary Rideout’s unusually sympathetic and exceptionally acted and sung Mime changed the entire dynamic of the story to something politically correct, not Wagner’s intention to expose Mime as the undermining Jew.

Nor did Jane Eaglen, the girlishly exciting Brunnhilde of “The Valkyrie,” seemed warmed or transformed by love for this brute of a Siegfried. Instead, she turned steely and stiff, although Wednesday it was announced that she would be singing even though she had developed a cold. Tom Fox was an interesting Alberich, the power-hungry dwarf who sets the whole nasty business of the downfall of the gods in motion and ensures its sorry end. In Serban’s interpretation, he was more criminal mastermind than cretin, and only he was left atop the ruins of Valhalla at the end to wave his hat goodbye at the audience.

Ultimately, no one really commanded this production. Alberich’s son, Hagen (Eric Halfvarson), who kills Siegfried, takes control over the Gibichung kingdom (here designed to look like something from comic-book 1930s science fiction) because someone has to, given his clingy, half brother and sister, Gunther (Alan Held) and Gutrune (Kristine Ciesinski). James Morris’ elegant Wotan seemed destined to fall far too soon in the proceedings. Marjana Lipovsek, vocally worn but a truly Wagnerian Fricka, Wotan’s hectoring wife in “The Valkyrie,” was also dramatically compelling as the Valkyrie Waltraute, who tries to talk some sense into Brunnhilde.

Just as street marathons are no longer the exclusive realm of special athletes, San Francisco Opera’s unremarkable but basically capable “Ring” gets away with being essentially ordinary. Donald Runnicles, the company’s highly respected music director, was its very good coach. The orchestra played well, the pacing of each act over long evenings was user-friendly.

* The San Francisco Opera “Ring” festival runs through July 4, $60-$190 each performance, War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, (415) 864-3330, https://www.sfopera.com.