Metropolitan Opera Archives

The afternoon presentation of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle was brought to a close yesterday afternoon with a presentation of “Götterdämmerung” which did frequent, if not complete, justice to the master’s stupendous music-drama. It was with the role of Brünnhilde that Mme. Flagstad brought the season to an unforgettable close in 1941, although she appeared thereafter in a post-season “Tristan und Isolde,” before departing for Norway. And while those who heard her Brünnhilde ten years ago as well as yesterday could hardly have failed to notice that the vocal splendor that pervaded her conception a decade ago is no longer consistently hers to dispense, this remains unquestionably her finest role.

Most compellingly realized was her portrayal in the second act in which her startled discovery of Siegfried’s betrayal with her subsequent “Oath on the Spear” accusing Siegfried of perjury were sung and acted with an intensity of expression hitherto not present in her delineation. In the first act, too, as well as in her grandiosely conceived delivery of the closing Immolation Scene, there was much vocalism that recalled her incomparable work of former years as well as some in which the highest tones emerged with a decide edge and some in which the lowest tones approached inaudibility.

Some of the most satisfactory singing and acting was contributed by Mr. Svanholm, particularly in the last act in which his account of Siegfried’s death-scene was genuinely affecting. As Gunther, Mr. Janssen was heard most advantageously in the first act; thereafter his singing deteriorated in quality and became weaker in sound, possibly because of fatigue.

New to the cast was the Gutrune of Miss Resnik. This is an ungrateful role at best, but it is especially ineffectual when it is invested, as it was, with sounds so wanting in concentration that their pitch often becomes vague. It is also to be regretted that Miss Harshaw, who had made the change from contralto to soprano felicitously this season with her embodiment of Senta in the “Flying Dutchman” should again be called upon to assume the functions of a contralto as Waltraute. Quite naturally, Miss Harshaw no longer has the low tones at her disposal essential to satisfactory unfolding of Waltraute’s Narrative and she resorted to an open kind of production throughout which she had happily abandoned as a soprano.

To Hagen, Mr. Ernster brings his impressive stature and powerful, if sometimes hollow-sounding bass voice. His characterization is well-planned but does not suggest to a sufficient degree the brooding, overwhelmingly sinister malignancy of the role. The scene in which Alberich appears to the sleeping Hagen is one of Wagner’s least inspired and Mr. Davidson, who sang Alberich’s music for the first time here, should not be held responsible for its dullness.

The open*ing Norn scene was more steadily handled by Miss Harshaw and Miss Lipton than by Miss Madeira. The Rhine Maidens, probably because they were heard in the open, rather than from behind props or backstage, sounded both fuller and more beguiling than they had in “Das Rheingold” a few weeks ago. As in the preceding “Ring” performances, much of the cogency of yesterday’s presentation was attributable to the musical discernment and sensibility of Mr. Stiedry who elicited almost unfailingly consentaneous effects from his orchestra.

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