Bayreuth outside the moat at the Palau de la Música

Concert ending with an encore: the instrumental version of the piece known as the ride that opens the third act of Die Walküre. It was the closing that paid tribute to the stones of a Palau de la Música of Wagnerian architecture, with the sculptural group of the Valkyries on the proscenium arch. A closing, also, to a much-anticipated concert, the final point of the 4th edition of the Festival de Peralada. Over the next few days, Madrid, Valencia, and Seville will enjoy the same program.The main attraction was the presence of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, known for its excellence. And so it was, although the ensemble’s sound is not the same at the Festspielhaus, where the ensemble remains hidden beneath the stage, which favors a unique sound.The third visit of the Bayreuth lords to Barcelona (after those in 1955 and 2012 at the Liceu) will not have been the best. And it must be explained: the acoustics of the Palau are not those of a theatre, let alone those of Bayreuth. Pablo Heras-Casado, who has proven to be a good Wagnerian conductor and who in 2028 will take charge of conducting The Ring of the Nibelung at the German theatre, did not sufficiently control the sound planes of the selected pages from the Wagnerian tetralogy. Besides some very slow tempos, the brass and percussion drowned out the strings at the end of Das Rheingold and Siegfried’s funeral march in Götterdämmerung also suffered from that acoustic lack of control, with sonorities resolved for show and without attention to the nuances of the score. Much better, on the other hand, were the murmurs of Siegfried’s forest, which did have the subtlety and detail that the score demands. Siegfried, which did have the subtlety and detail that the score demands.

The selection also included passages for vocal soloists. Nicholas Brownlee was the one who indisputably shone above the rest. His voice is authoritative, with just the right darkness but with the musicality required for Wotan’s farewell at the end of Die Walküre. The American singer, moreover, conveys the expressive meaning of each phrase, attentive to the emotional intensity of the character.A good performance also by Klaus Florian Vogt, a tenor much booed by some sections of the public, but who at 56 continues to demonstrate that he is an all-rounder and knows all the tricks, with effective versatility. A pity, however, that the final scene of Siegfried alongside Catherine Foster evidenced the more than questionable vocal state of the soprano. And this meant that the immolation scene of Brünnhilde at the end of Götterdämmerung was marked by the interpretive discretion of a singer who, setting aside the fact that her instrument is seriously worn out, does not sufficiently convey the meaning of the Wagnerian word.Concert, ultimately, very expected and longed for, but which fell by the wayside. A pity.