Wagner: Siegfried (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)I don't agree with the previous review about Lance Ryan.
I was there, in Valencia. I attended to the performance. I went twice. I could see Lance Ryan live. He "was" Siegfried.
Maybe he is not the best heldentenor, but Siegfried is an exhausting role, a role that requires a physical strength and a stamina very difficult to reach. Maybe Ryan hasn't the most beautiful voice, but he is, from the beginning to the end of the performance, full of energy, he doesn't shrink back, and in the final duet he is as fresh as at the start. He manages to prevail over the orchestra, he sings without apparent effort. The role is a real threat, and Ryan, very young, a singer at the beginning of his career, assumes it unhesitatingly.
Also, he's quite athletic and good looking, which always helps.
I think that, for this role, stamina and control are more important than a "beautiful" voice (many heldentenors didn't have beautiful voices; Vickers, for example). Ryan sings with vigour and intensity, with self-confidence and authority, he acts properly, he can jump and leap like a boy. He's a very credible Siegfried. A great Siegfried.
In my opinion, Ryan in the lead role of this third part of Wagner's tetralogy is very fine indeed. Ryan as Siegfried is truly excellent.
The first act is sensational, specially when he forges Nothung, the magic sword. Ryan seems to have given everything in this first act, but he will keep the same strength until the end. In the second act he finds heartfelt and soft sounds. In the second and above all in the third act he displays exceptional high notes, a full-blooming tenor voice.
He can be lyric when he sings the questions of his mother, powerful in the forging and challenging in the confrontation with the wanderer. The forest scene is brilliant. In "I here, shall learn how to fear?" he is great.
He organizes his strengths so that for the strenuous finale duet, he still has enough resources. He finds plenty of heft for the final-act duet with Brunnhilde. In "Brunnhilde, heilige Braut", he shows how enormous these reserves are. After such a power-sapping role, it's stunning he still has such tones to offer.
Ryan as the title-hero seems to have nor self-doubt neither fear. He masters his part with musical fearlessness, with real authority. He has extraordinary resources, a great potential. In this gigantic, ambitious heldenrole, Ryan is an uncommonly resistant, powerful Siegfried until the last note.
Lance Ryan is so natural a Siegfried that it is fascinating. He sings without effort, with a powerful voice which leaves everything behind it. He never appears to get tired so the listener can relax, you don't have to wonder if he will get through the role. This is a delight.
He sings easy and secure in the upper register and powerfully steely in timber. His tone is steady, but at the same time he seems to discover all the time new shades of his voice.
It is a pleasing voice, a slender and intensive tenor voice, fine, solid and metallic, bright and natural, commandingly powerful. A voice that comes through extremely well, and that is overwhelming.
He has musical artistry and a extrordinary vocal capacity.
He is not a "classic" heldentenor, but nowadays are there any of them?
In his performance everything fits perfectly:
His acting is good. His body language works. He's totally engaged in the character.
It helps that he looks young and somehow guileless, a "child of nature", which is how Siegfried is supposed to be, and this is something difficult to find.
He has a powerful stage presence. He's dynamic, agile and sympathetic.
He can convey the development of the hero. In fact, he constructs a hero. At all moments he masters over his role, and he displays the many lyric sides of the hero.
I think Ryan is a great Wagner tenor. And Siegfried is "his" role.
In my opinion, he is, maybe, one of the most convincing Siegfrieds of our time, as if he was made for the role. It is, I believe, on of the best Siegfried that I have heard. Perhaps there is no present-day Siegfried who can equal him. In spite of possible weak spots, this is my favourite Siegfried.
In short: An extrordinary performance. (Well, I do like it).
If somethig is not well expressed, excuse me. I would explain it much better in Spanish!!


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