Chen Mei-ling (陳美玲), too, was a major surprise, and wonderful as Sieglinde. We’d heard her in Rheingold as Freia, and she was to reappear in Gotterdammerung as Gutrune (as well as the Third Norn), but her Sieglinde was her masterpiece. She’s surely destined to sing a lot more Wagner now.
Of the men, Wu Bai Yu His (巫白玉璽) made a capable Gunther (he’d earlier been heard as Donner) and Liau Chong-boon (廖聰文) was very forceful as both Fafner and Hunding. As for Lin Chien-chi (林健吉), he was probably the most amiable Mime ever. Many people over the years have felt uneasy with Siegfried’s treatment of him, and this interpretation was this especially welcome.
The problem with this Ring, very memorable though it undoubtedly was, was that the foreign soloists, who had sung their parts countless times before and so knew them by heart, were able to move about, and act, in a way the local singers, forced to stay by their music-stands, were unable to do. This created an imbalance that wasn’t fair to the locals, who in one or two cases were nearly the equals of their distinguished visiting counterparts.
The production of Wang Jun-jieh (王俊傑) and Li Huan-hsiung (黎煥雄) was probably as good as could be managed in the circumstances — with the orchestra on stage there was little room for much else. Costumes would have added a lot, but in the space available scenery was scarcely possible. The projections that took its place were adequate, though raising laughs on a couple of occasions, probably when people recognized the images as those of their own domestic screen-savers.
As for the NSO itself, it played with extraordinary clarity and even fervor. Wagner likes to mix sadness and high-pitched drama, but they were up to even this trick. As for maestro Chien himself, he shaped every phrase, hour after hour, with loving concentration and care. He knew the music intimately, and breathed its very spirit. He has a great future ahead of him, and one day he will conduct one of the truly great Ring cycles. Unfortunately, that event is unlikely to take place in Taipei.
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