Arizona Opera is closing out its 2017-18 season this weekend with Wagnerโs โDas Rheingold,โ the first installment of the German composerโs epic four-opera โDer Ring des Nibelungenโ cycle.
The production marks the anniversary of the companyโs milestone 1998 performance in Flagstaff of the full cycle that won the company, under then director Glynn Ross, critical acclaim and national attention.
This weekendโs production includes multimedia accents โ video sets and special effects that add depth to the staging and allows the audience to get lost in the forest and deep in the waters with Wagnerโs gods and demigods as they battle for control and power.
We caught up with Grammy-winning baritone Richard Paul Fink, who sings the role of Alberich, the spurned dwarf who sets off the power struggle after he steals the Rhinemaidensโ gold. The maidens had told him that the gold held magical powers, but only if you swore off love. Not a hard call for Alberich, who was not exactly winning the ladies over.
Fink, who guested with True Concord Voices & Orchestra in early 2017 to sing the lead in Mendelssohnโs oratorio โElijah,โ has sung the Wagner role no less than 130 to 150 times, he said during a phone call last week from rehearsals in Phoenix.
โI always find little new doors, little new ways of approaching and delivering a line,โ he said.
We asked Fink why we should take out 2ยฝ hours of our weekend to see this production, and he gave us a few pretty enticing reasons.
The full Wagner: Director Brian Stauffenbiel employs multimedia elements to create spectacular and sometimes dark and haunting effects that will make you feel like youโre at the bottom of the Rhine River or deep in a forest.
Close to the action: Stauffenbiel also places the full Wagnerian orchestra on stage with the actors, pushing much of the action stage front over the pit that normally houses the instrumentalists. โWhich makes it a great way to communicate with the audience.โ Fink said.
First came โThe Ring,โ then came โLord of the Rings,โ โThe Avengersโ and every Marvel Comics superhero to follow: You ask Fink and he will tell you that Wagner set the stage for all the comic book super heroes and mythological fantasies including J.R.R. Tolkienโs โLord of the Ringsโ trilogy. Wagner composed โDer Ring des Nibelungernโ 50 years before Tolkien wrote his epic tale, and while so-called Tolkiens will protest loudly, Fink said both works follow the same Norse mythology right down to similar names for their superheroes/gods.
โA lot of the Tolkien folks deny it and say there was no crossover at all,โ Fink said. โBut there are way too many parallels.โ
Then thereโs the music, the drama, the sheer crazy: โThe drama, the story, the power of the music, they are all there. Opera as the unifier of all art forms is in this piece and in this production, and itโs presented in a very, very powerful way.โ
Fink is in good company: โArizona Opera has amassed a phenomenal, phenomenal cast. ... You have cast members here that have done multiple, multiple productions of this opera and will be taking it to a whole other level. The talent on this stage is bar none.โ
