Aix-en-Provence 2007

In July 2007, Die Walküre  premiered in Aix-en-Provence, an extraordinary event. Not only was it Simon Rattle’s (and Aix’s) first Ring, it also marked a truly sensational debut of ‘our’ Eva-Maria Westbroek at the festival.

Stéphane Braunschweig’s production was highly ingenious, with lots of glass and steel. And yet nowhere did he break with tradition. Wotan (a beautiful, very humane and fragile Willard White) was very much like a spectator from the very first scene, literally watching everything and everybody and sort of playing a game of Stratego with his ‘pawns’ at the beginning of the second act.

The young Mikhail Petrenko (Hunding) bore a strong resemblance to Putin, adding to the grim character of his role.

After a firm start, Rattle kept the orchestra supple and light. It gave the beautifully sung ‘Winterstürme’ by Robert Gambill an almost belcanto-like character, and the love duet that followed sounded naturally innocent.

Eva-Maria Westbroek and Robert Gambill

Westbroek’s voice – radiant, voluminous and yet very lyrical – has thousands of nuances, giving a different colour to all of her character’s feelings (love, sadness, joy, innocence and longing) (BelAir BAC 034).

Calosc TUTAJ