April 26 & 29, May , 2 & 4, 2025
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
Atlanta, Georgia – USA
Richard WAGNER: Siegfried
Roberto Kalb, conductor; Tomer Zvulun, production director; Richard Wagner, composer & librettist. Cast: Rodell Rosel (Mime), Stefan Vinke (Siegfried), Greer Grimsley (Wanderer/Wotan), Zachary Nelson (Alberich), Alexander Köpeczi (Fafner), Amber Norelai (Forest Bird), Lindsay Ammann (Erda), Lise Lindstrom (Brünnhilde). Atlanta Opera Orchestra. Creative: Erhard Rom, scenic & projection designer; Mattie Ullrich, costume designer; Robert Wierzel, lighting designer; Jason Hines, puppet designer; Anne Nesmith, wig & makeup designer; Ran Arthur Braun, live action designer; Jacobsen Woollen, assistant conductor; Gregory Luis Boyle, Elio Bucky* & Emma Grimsley, staging staff; Lauren Carroll, assistant projections designer; Erin Teachman, projection programmer. (* = Studio Artist)
Mark Gresham | 28 APR 2025
When the curtain rose Saturday night on Siegfried at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, the gods themselves seemed to conspire against The Atlanta Opera. Greer Grimsley, the towering bass-baritone slated to embody the Wanderer—Wotan in his final, fateful guise—was sidelined by allergies due to Atlanta’s merciless spring pollen. In an extraordinary pivot, Kyle Albertson was flown in at the eleventh hour to sing the role from behind a scrim, cloaked in black, while Grimsley silently walked the stage, embodying Wotan’s doomed gravitas in pantomime. Though rare, such a dual performance is not unprecedented in opera when the stakes are high and the character’s presence indispensable. Grimsley hopes to recover in time to sing the second of four performances on Tuesday, but what could have spelled disaster on opening night instead became yet another testament to the company’s history of resilience—and set the tone for a Siegfried that pulsed with urgency, invention, and raw emotional force.
As the third and most transformative installment of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Siegfried stands apart from its darker siblings in spirit and style. It is a hero’s journey that lifts the cycle from the claustrophobic gloom of Die Walküre into a realm of discovery, humor, and dangerous innocence—but it does not escape the shadow of inevitable doom. Here, the old world crumbles as the new hero forges his path, unknowingly sealing the gods’ fate. To navigate Siegfried successfully demands not only monumental vocal endurance but an acute grasp of the psychological tensions brewing beneath its brighter surface. The Atlanta Opera achieved a production that honored both the exuberant and the ominous currents of Wagner’s epic.
One could almost imagine Siegfried as a kind of “Concerto for Tenor and Opera Company,” and Stefan Vinke, one of today’s leading heldentenors, delivered a titanic performance in the title role. His voice, shining and inexhaustible, retained remarkable flexibility throughout the opera’s punishing demands, from the boyish curiosity of Act I to the triumphant awakening of Brünnhilde in Act III. Vinke’s Siegfried was no mere muscle-bound simpleton; he conveyed a hero of impulsive wonder, often dangerously unaware of the consequences of his power. Opposite him, Rodell Rosel offered a masterclass in character singing as Mime. Rosel’s bright, cutting tenor and meticulous diction captured Mime’s venomous cunning without tipping too far into caricature, grounding the dwarf’s deception in all-too-human desperation.
Despite his inability to sing live, Greer Grimsley’s portrayal of the Wanderer radiated authority through his physical presence, and Kyle Albertson’s noble, world-weary vocalization from behind the scrim was admirably secure and commanding given the last-minute circumstances. Together, they forged a surprisingly seamless portrayal of Wotan’s twilight struggle: the once-mighty god reduced to a seemingly powerless observer, orchestrating his own obsolescence.
Zachary Nelson brought a brooding Alberich to life, a sharp counterpoint to the decaying grandeur of Wotan. As Fafner, Alexander Köpeczi summoned a cavernous, menacing bass, enhanced by Jason Hines’ imaginative, atypical dragon puppet design, which cleverly balanced mythic terror with visual immediacy. Soprano Amber Norelai lent her light, silvery voice to the Forest Bird, projecting clarity and a touch of mischief. Mezzo-soprano Lindsay Ammann delivered a weary and sorrowful Erda in her brief but pivotal scene.
The moment of Brünnhilde’s awakening remains the emotional and dramatic fulcrum of Siegfried, and soprano Lise Lindstrom did not disappoint. Best known for her fearsome portrayals of Wagner and Strauss heroines, Lindstrom summoned a radiant, deeply human Brünnhilde. Her voice, ranging in tone from steely to tender, gloriously unfurled as she charted Brünnhilde’s tumultuous journey from divine being to mortal woman, culminating in an ecstatic union that nonetheless foreshadows the end of gods and heroes alike to come in Götterdämmerung.
The production, directed by Tomer Zvulun, embraced a cinematic, symbolically charged aesthetic. Scenic and projection designer Erhard Rom crafted a mutable visual world enhanced by Robert Wierzel’s dramatic lighting and Mattie Ullrich’s costumes.
The Atlanta Opera Orchestra, under Kalb’s steady and probing leadership, delivered Wagner’s vast, sinewy score with emotional depth and sweep. Kalb maintained a taut dramatic arc; even the opera’s more expansive passages never sagged into indulgence.
Ultimately, this Siegfried was a triumph born not just of talent, but of adaptability, perseverance, and a profound commitment to Wagner’s monumental vision. In facing down adversity both within the story and upon the stage, The Atlanta Opera offered its audience a rare kind of operatic experience: one that mirrored the myth it set out to tell, where heroism is not the absence of struggle, but its brave and brilliant embrace. ■
SLIDESHOW:
- The Atlanta Opera: atlantaopera.org
- Roberto Kalb: robertokalb.com
- Tomer Zvulun: tomerzvulun.com
- Erhard Rom: erhardrom.com
- Stefan Vinke: cademi.eu/stefan-vinke
- Greer Grimsley: greergrimsley.com
- Lise Lindstrom: liselindstrom.com
- Rodell Rosel: rorothetenor.com
- Zachary Nelson: fletcherartists.com/zachary-nelson
- Alexander Köpeczi: mwamanagement.com/artist/alexander-kopeczi
Rodell Rosel as Mime. (credit: Raftermen)
Stefan Vinke as Siegfried and Rodell Rosel as Mime. (credit: Raftermen)
Stefan Vinke as Siegfried fights Fafner the dragon. (credit: Raftermen)
Alexander Köpeczi as Fafner in his dying moments with Stefan Vinke as Siegfried. (credit: Raftermen)
Rodell Rosel as Mime with Zachary Nelson as Alberich. (credit: Raftermen)
Stefan Vinke as Siegfried with Lise Lindstrom as Brünnhilde. (credit: Raftermen)
Stefan Vinke as Siegfried with Lise Lindstrom as Brünnhilde. (credit: Raftermen)EXTERNAL LINKS:
Read more by Mark Gresham.
