Richard Wagner - Siegfried - Treleaven, Gasteen, Tomlinson - Pappano 2005BBC
Cast: Wanderer - John Tomlinson, Lisa Gasteen - Brünnhilde, Mime - Gerhard Siegel, Siegfried - John Treleaven, Alberich - Peter Sidhom, Fafner - Philip Ens, Woodbird - Sarah Fox, Erda - Jane Henschel
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Antonio Pappano
Siegfried is perhaps the most taxing tenor role in the Wagner repertoire, not least because he is on stage most of the time. So it would have been reasonable for John Treleaven to flag towards the end. Instead, his performance in Act III was towering, at last giving forth a true Heldentenor power.
He was perhaps inspired by the first appearance of Lisa Gasteen as Brünnhilde, whose long wait until the opera's final scene allowed her to channel her full resources into a full-blooded and feisty assumption of the role of the famous Valkyrie.
In both his commanding projection and witty acting, Gerhard Siegel was ideal casting as Mime. He seemed to relish Warner's concept for the unusual opening scene, in which we see Siegfried as a baby, a young child and a teenager, at every age frustrating Mime's attempts to reconstruct the magic sword which will allow him to steal back the Ring. --musicomh.com
