The Valkyrie will be given in the new theatre

Imagined that Richard Wagner enter a day in the Court of the Archbishopric, iconic place in Aix-en-Provence, fee Mozart is It is made with a new production of "The Golden Rhine", opening of the 2006 festival and the first part of an ambitious undertaking carried out in cooperation with the Salzburg Easter Festival, and will continue until 2009 (read "Les Echos weekend" from June 30).

The day fades to sentence that initial agreements of the score rise, sounds serious and deep, dark and dramatic, intrigue and sufficient to create the queue. In the pit, one of the best orchestras of the world, the Berlin Philharmonic, and his music director, Sir Simon Rattle. How not to give in to this instrumental nominally, these string, clear and bright, these coruscants brass, these dazzling colors. God knows if Rattle will never succumb to the temptation to sound hedonism. Refinement, for him, is not synonymous with preciousness nor elegance of sophistication. The tempos are generally slow, its wide phrasés; He succeeded mainly, including in the most responsible moments and the strong to find fair proportions that respect the singers and would never cover. A cry from the thundering and massive approaches his Wagner is intimate, almost chamber musician, immediately attractive because in human size.

The same concern for balance has presided over the choice of the distribution. More power, it is the expression that account here. The three daughters of the Rhine are excellent musicians (Sarah Fox/Woglinde, Victoria Simmonds/Wellgunde, Ekaterina Gubanova/Flosshilde), Lilli Paasikivi (Fricka) class, and impeccable vocal line, if not sufficiently vehement, Anna Larsson (Erda) has wanted to be affable rather than disturbing, and Mireille Delunsch camped a vibrant Freia. Effective, Detlef Roth (give) and Joseph Kaiser (Froh) are head Giants Alfred Reiter (a no râpeux Fafner) and Yevgeny Nikitin (sumptuous Fasolt).

The proximity of the plateau allows to fully appreciate the direction of actors strict and thorough of Stéphane Braunschweig, where the impact of each gesture seems cleverly calculated. The Mime of Burckhard Ulrich benefits, and even more the Robert Gambill lodge and the incredible leaping Dale Duesing Alberich, the latter two providing their character point distance and humour which makes them even more real. Willard White embodied Wotan; its timbre is a little grey, but its presence reduces the lack of brightness. Down from his pedestal, the God is more affecting.

Wotan and the boundaries of desire

It is true that the staging of Braunschweig shows under one day nothing less than heroic. Asleep, to curtain Sunrise, Wotan dream. Reality will catch up with, him, as Alberich, wants to possess gold (a moment their two faces, projected on the merits of the decor, overlap) but, unlike the dwarf without love.

In a story where the tale guard its rights the décor, designed by the Director, transforms and animates with projections used wisely and sparingly, flames, waters of the Rhine, clouds where the protagonists, dressed in contemporary by Thibault Vancraenenbroeck costumes, express eternal passions (greed, power, treachery), the master world wants everything, but quickly understands the limits of his desire. Braunschweig, without detour, depicts the trials and tribulations of the artist, Wagner, everything everyone in the world that surrounds it. A simple, clear, reading, a show that is not without a certain coldness, but which clearly is necessary. Expected next year, the remainder of this "Ring". "The Valkyrie" will be given in the new theatre. In the meantime, the gods have bread on the plate..