Bayreuth's 'Siegfried' marred by patchy singing

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

BAYREUTH, Germany (AFP) — Tankred Dorst's uninspiring production of Richard Wagner's four-part "Ring" cycle, being revived here for the first time, continued here on Monday with a performance of "Siegfried" that was marred by patchy singing.

While German maestro Christian Thielemann continued to work magic in the unseen pit with the glorious Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the singing onstage was anything but world-class.

US tenor Stephen Gould in the title role hit most of the right notes, but his one-dimensional acting and flat, superficial tone is world apart from the burnished golden timbre demanded by Wagner's "Heldentenor" or heroic tenor.

US soprano Linda Watson, no stranger to the role of Bruennhilde, has clearly come to Bayreuth a few years past her...