Die Walküre is the second of four operas that make up The Ring of the Nibelung. Act Three runs 70 minutes, which is less than a tenth of the fourteen hours of music in the entire cycle, but it is a good introduction to two of the major characters: Wotan, ruler of the Norse gods, and Brünnhilde, a Valkyrie (battle maiden). She was once Wotan's favorite daughter, but now she is estranged for disobeying his command. Wotan would rather not punish her, but his hands are tied by the treaties he has forged to gain power.
The act begins with Wagner's most recognizable music, The Ride of the Valkyries. NEC's sopranos and mezzos took on the roles of Brünnhilde's battle sisters, who carry fallen heros to glory in Valhalla. The first voice we hear ("Hoyotoho!") is Gerhilde; soprano Cheyanne Coss had a shining and secure voice that boded well for the rest of the evening. The eight women made a formidable ensemble.
There is one more person in Act Three: Sieglinde, Wotan's daughter by a human mother. Sieglinde is fleeing man and gods because she is carrying her dead twin's unborn child. (It's complicated.) Wotan is hunting down Brünnhilde for aiding and abetting Sieglinde's escape. Graduate student Kirsten Hart was commendable as the half-human outcast, but her character departs early in Act Three. Her brief outing could be seen as role-building for a dramatic soprano; the bulk of Sieglinde's music is in the first two acts.
Jane Eaglen has performed Die Walküre onstage 85 times (by her husband's reckoning). She is a muscular soprano, still able to sustain an act as Brünnhilde, but she is at a point in her career when it is time to pass along her wisdom in the role to others. She is currently on staff at New England Conservatory, and several of this evening's sister Valkyries were her students.
Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley is a lean man who generates an improbably huge amount of sound. Wearing tuxedo tails for this benefit performance, he commanded the stage and showed why he is the actor's singer of choice for Ring cycles around the world.
Conductor Spano started with a cautiously controlled reading of the first few pages, but he guided the student orchestra admirably through Wagner's superhuman score. During the bows he singled out the English Horn and Bass Clarinet soloists to roaring applause.
Postscript – Die Walküre ends with Wotan taking away Brünnhilde's immortality and sending her to sleep within a ring of fire. In the next opera Sieglinde's grown son will brave the fire and awaken his mother's half-sister with a kiss; Brünnhilde takes her nephew as husband. (It's complicated.) The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra will perform Act Three of Siegfried with guest soloists in the spring ... stay tuned.
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