It’s pretty difficult to judge whether or not a high concept production of Wagner’s Ring cycle is going to work or not just from Das Rheingold but I thought Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production for Staatsoper unter den Linden recorded in 2022 was pretty promising.  His world is a large research complex designated ESCHE for reasons that aren’t clear.  The time period seems to be 1970s or thereabouts.  The research is essentially psychological and the characters are variously executives, scientists and experimental subjects.

The set appears to have four levels with multiple rooms on each level.  Only two levels are visible at a time; the whole set being raised or lowered as necessary.  It may also revolve but that’s hard to tell from the video.  It must have cost a fortune!

We start in the “Stress Lab” where the Rhinemaidens are carrying out some sort of, apparently, VR experiment on Alberich.  They are observing with clipboards while he is clearly experiencing the things described but, of course, we don’t see them.  Eventually he goes rogue, breaks out of his restraints, wires etc, smashes lots of stuff and runs off with the rest.  We can tell this is the gold because two scenes later the headset he’s wearing will reappear as the Tarnhelm.

The negotiation between Wotan and the giants takes place in a fancy boardroom on an upper level.  Then Wotan and Loger take the elevator down to Nibelheim though not before the Rhinemaidens have exited the elevator to sit around smoking in some sort of reception area.  Down we go through a level stacked with caged rabbits to the lowest level the “Study of Behavioural Models” where Alberich is being appropriately brutal.

Alberich’s Tarnhelm transformations are indicated by the reaction of the watchers.  We really don’t see anything which seems to be a theme.  We don’t actually see the gold in the next scene either.  When we get back to the upper levels (the Rhine Maidens are still hanging about) it’s strangely low key.  Alberich’s curse is rather matter of fact.  There’s some energy between a very distressed Freia and the giants and a moment of violence when Fafner shoots Fasolt.  But then the final scene has both Donner and Froh as sort of conjurors and Wotan making what seems like a boardroon speech or one of those pro-forma speeches one hears on first nights.  “I’d like to thank our season sponsor Riesenheim Financial and the Nibelheim Arts Council…”

Bottom line, it’s really quite intriguing and I want to see where Tcherniakov takes the other three operas.  It’s also visually stunning.  But it’s not as obviously playful and clever as Herheim’s version down the road at DOB!

The performances though are superb.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Rheingold with better singing and acting.  Michael Volle is extremely solid as Wotan; a commanding presence on the stage.  The real star though is Rolando Villazón as Loge.  Often Loge is not really sung but comes over in a kind of Sprechstimme.  Here it’s proper full on tenor singing coupled with splendid acting that makes Loge a really intriguing character.  Rather a brilliant bit of casting.

The giants are terrific too.  It seems almost ridiculous to describe Mika Kares as dreamy but there’s something very touching about his obvious affection for Freia and it contrasts with the much more menacing Peter Rose as Fafner.  Annett Fritsch’s Freia is very appealing too; a touch of vulnerability in the bullying and bluster.  Claudia Mahnke is a pretty dominating Fricka.  She should be interesting in the next instalment!  Lauri Vasar, as Donner, and Siyabonga Maqungo, as Froh both sing lyrically and I guess give the director what he wants which is a couple of rather wimpy blusterers.  There’s also a very measured and assured cameo from Anna Kissjudit as Erda.

There’s some startlingly vivid acting from Johannes Martin Kränzle as Alberich especially in the first scene.  He’s fairly lyrical too.  Not too much snorting and snarling.  The same is true of Stephen Rügamer as Mime.  Finally, there’s some pretty singing at the beginning and the end from Rhinemaidens Evelin Novak, Natalia Skrycka and Anna Lapkovskaya.

The orchestra has a big part to play in Rheingold and the Staatskapelle Berlin sounds splendid.  It’s imposing and menacing when it needs to be and beautiful where that’s appropriate.  No real surprise with Christian Thielemann conducting.  Not only does he get into the structure of the music but he appears to be on the same page as Tcherniakov in wanting a more lyrical approach, especially with some of the characters, that one might not expect.

Andy Sommer does the filming and it’s pretty good.  He mostly focuses on the one room where the action is in the moment and I did wonder if more was going on than one could see in the video but he does also give a good picture of how the set is constructed as a whole.  The sound on Blu-ray (as usual DTS-HD-MA and 48kHz PCM stereo) is very good and so is the picture.  There are some trailers on the disk but no other extras and the booklet isn’t very helpful about the production.  The introduction is mostly about the history of the piece with one short paragraph on this production.  The synopsis too is the Wikipedia version.  Subtitle options are German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Korean and Japanese.

This is a very promising start to the Ring and I’m looking forward to see how Tcherniakov’s concept develops.  Berlin has certainly been fortunate with this cycle in the last couple of years.

Catalogue information: Unitel Blu-ray 809904