At least, given his apparent access to the fountain of youth, he has plenty of years left to come back with a stronger set.
MUSIC
Simone Young Conducts Siegfried
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Sydney Opera House, November 13
Reviewed by PETER McCALLUM
★★★★★
After splintering a sword, killing a dragon and scaling a fire-covered mountain, not to mention waging a stentorian battle against 100 instrumentalists for 5½ hours, Simon O’Neill, as Siegfried, rose quietly to a top E, the orchestra now silent, to tell us that Siegfried had finally learnt the meaning of fear.
You would not have guessed it from his pure pitch and tone, which was as radiant as in the great forging song he had sung in Act 1, where he had adorned the necessary lustiness that the rugged, folk-like lines demand with smooth strength and musical shape.
Warwick Fyfe’s voice as Alberich seems to grow in elemental wildness and stature.Credit: Daniel Boud
This was a performance of astonishing stamina and commanding maturity that tempered power with lyricism, but, as the remaining half hour with Miina-Liisa Varela as Brunnhilde was to show, that was not all.
Varela’s awakening lines over the hauntingly still, simple chords Wagner writes after so much crazed chromaticism, glowed with resplendent warmth, and she retained that lustre in each moment of the duet that followed. With intertwining phrases of fiery exultance, she and O’Neill brought this superb performance of the third instalment of Simone Young and the SSO’s concert presentation over four years of Wagner’s Ring cycle to an overpowering close.
The quality of the singers Young has assembled has been an outstanding feature of the cycle to date, and Siegfried continued this with a cast that blended experience and freshness. Gerhard Siegel as Mime subtly burnished the edge of his voice towards malevolence, comedy, anger or oleaginous obsequiousness as needed, creating a mercurial gem out of the character’s sometimes tiresome peevishness.
Conductor Simone Young’s experience with Wagner was clear right from the opening prelude. Credit: Daniel Boud
As the world-wearied Wanderer (Wotan), Wolfgang Koch conjured a rounded nobility of tone in Act 1, inscrutable control in his standoff with the dwarf Alberich in Act 2 and a fiercely impassioned edge in his two great valedictory scenes in Act 3.
Warwick Fyfe’s voice as Alberich seems to grow in elemental wildness and stature each time he appears in the role, and, with assistance of wonderfully dark, polished textures from the SSO brass, he and Koch created a formidable confrontation.
Wotan’s scene with Erda embraces resignation rather than confrontation, and Noa Beinart sang this role with statuesque reserve and a shrouded tone of unvoiced mystery. If there really is an earth-goddess, one would want her to sing like that.
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As the slumbering dragon, Fafner, Teddy Tahu Rhodes created cavernous echoes from the back of the stage and, after being slain, disarming directness from the front. Samantha Clarke sang the part of the Woodbird, the voice of nature that directs the naive Siegfried, with richly coloured silken sound, a refreshing change from the bell-like quality often used for this part.
The other great glory of Young’s Ring presentations is to hear the orchestral part on full stage lavished with all the expertise, polish and care of the SSO under concertmaster Andrew Haveron. Horn player David Evans delivered Siegfried’s dragon-wakening call from the high organ loft with a coloured velvety finish, and throughout the wind and brass created many-shaded timbral complexity with moments blazing brilliance and fleeting brightness.
Violas and lower strings brought even-toned depth to the important role Wagner gives these instruments in the opera’s darker textures, and the violins were both brilliantly energised in climaxes and admirably disciplined in quieter passages.
The percussion players contributed piercing anvil sounds offstage and ominous and thunderous timpani.
Young’s experience with this work was clear right from the opening prelude as she calibrated the pace to draw out tension and expressive moments, all the while maintaining magisterial continuity and flow. These Ring performances have been among the finest I have heard in the Opera House throughout its history.
MUSIC
Addison Rae
Enmore Theatre, November 17
Reviewed by NADIA RUSSELL
★★★★
Judging by the reception for the first of her two Sydney shows, it’s clear Addison Rae is well on the way from TikTok star to pop princess.
It’s a tough transition and she’s far from the first social media star to try to make it in the mainstream – many have stumbled – but this viral TikTok dancer and former Hype House member with millions of followers has talent and charm to burn.
It hasn’t been a smooth transition. She tried acting, reality TV, make-up and clothing lines, and her initial music releases didn’t resonate. But last year’s hit single Diet Pepsi broke through and she followed it up with the album Addison earlier this year. Now, she has been nominated for a Grammy (best new artist) and her first headlining tour has produced mesmerising choreography and plenty of viral moments.
Addison Rae is well on the way to making it in the mainstream. Credit: Gabrielle Clement
If the silhouette of Rae coming out for the opener Fame Is a Gun with her headset mic doesn’t immediately evoke Britney Spears, then that is cemented by the second track I Got It Bad, which actually includes elements of Spears’ …Baby One More Time. Scantily clad in black lingerie and donning a newscap over her pigtails, for a moment Rae seemed to perfectly channel Spears but without taking away from her own artistry and performance.
Rae may have made her mark as a singer but here she shows her range as a dancer; her vocals take a back seat during the more energetic numbers especially.
At the start of Summer Forever her voice falters in the higher register, and Headphones On is weak at times. But there are also strong vocal moments.
When Rae closes the show with Diet Pepsi, the stage is all hers. Wearing a white tutu with a long train, she knows how to own the stage without all the polish – and it would have been nice to see more of that. However, one thing is for sure: Rae knows how to get eyes on her and keep them there, whether that be on a screen or on stage.
