Hojotoho! Heiaha!

           Well, we discovered how Frank Castorf intends to cope with weaving his story together – he doesn’t. At all. In any way. Hunding and Sieglinde’s hut, we at first assumed was in some Louisiana backwoods or Texas oil-patch wasteland. It did boast a large cage with live turkeys – They squawked at Hunding’s entrance and couldn’t take their eyes off Sieglinde as she explained about Notung. Who could? She was spectacular – this was the absolute best Siegmund ever and Sieglinde is at least a tie for first. They were unbelievable. Hunding was excellent as well, so we were assured of that whatever went on visually.

           When the stage rotated for the next act, we discovered it was some Central Asian/ Russian oil field. We were never clear on who/ what the Valkyries were supposed to be. Wotan is now a Russian oil baron/ gangster – oddly when he first appeared with Frika (appearing as Lady Macbeth now) he was wearing a bizarre beard that looked like an elementary school prop made from yarn. When he appears again, it is (thankfully) gone.

           More magnificent Siegliende and Siegmund in the next scene. Brunhilde who had underwhelmed in her first appearance was better here in her scene with Siegmund. The fight between Hunding and Siegmund was off stage – shown in Blair Witch cam on the on-stage screen. This whole part was strangely incoherent (much like the whole production, really)

The noble dead are oil field workers killed in industrial accidents, except that some of them get up and wander off to perform various strange and distracting actions like reading a book in the turkey cage, locking someone into the turkey cage and attacking it with a flag, and finally, cutting the trapped person out of the turkey cage – lots of this action was broadcast on a big screen in case it hadn’t taken enough attention away from the actual story in real time.

            The Valkyries entrance seriously disappointed – the iconic “Hojotoho!” was lackluster and their amusing banter about the dead somewhat low energy. They appeared variously as Clara Barton?, Lady Capulet at the tomb?, Pre-Raphaelite militant nuns? Brunhilde ran onto the stage as Cruella de Ville – not really, but in a huge grizzly of a fur coat and a tall, spiky, silver Mohawk cap. The Valkyries stripped off their top layer and stood around the tall wooden derrick in shiny evening gowns with an array of strange sparkly headdresses. We were not impressed with Brunhilde. She lacked intensity and power for the most part – her scene with Sieglinde (who was again marvelous) was an exception and showed what she could do if she wanted.

            The final scene between Brunhilde and Wotan had real moments of pathos and beauty – but only moments and that was infuriating as the whole scene is supposed to be immensely powerful and heartbreaking. I really feel like the action interfered with the focus of the scene. A particularly infuriating example of this is at one point, while Brunhilde is singing, Wotan is mincing around in the background. He finds a bearskin rug that he starts dancing with. It seems that is saying to the audience that the story and the singers should not be the center of attention.  The stage direction, which has everyone pointedly ignore and/ or mock whomever they are singing with seems a proxy for the director’s attitude to the entire project.

Here is what we wish we had heard: