'Der Ring' is dazzling OPUS: Production is is the company's most ambitious to date.

Byline: Jim Farber, Correspondent

Portentous events occurred Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as Los Angeles Opera took its first long-awaited, highly anticipated step in presenting Richard Wagner's four-opera magnum opus, "Der Ring des Nibelungen." Dazzling to the eyes, resounding to the ears, this $32 million project represents the company's most ambitious undertaking since its founding in 1986.

The full realization of the "Ring," however, will not occur until May and June of 2010 when the entire cycle is presented sequentially as Wagner envisioned it. By then, what is now a work in progress should be razor sharp.

Like a preview of coming attractions, Saturday's performance introduced us to the auteur Wagnerian wonderland that is being envisioned by German director-designer Achim Freyer. It was also a musical performance (despite some initial nervous flutters from the horns) that shone golden bright under the baton of music director, James Conlon.

"The Ring" (which has its premiere in 1876) represents the ultimate expression of what Wagner termed the "gesamtkunstwerk" - an all-encompassing fusion of music, drama and stagecraft. Freyer's concept holds to that tradition, presenting a complex, painterly vision that is simultaneously mythic in scope and strikingly contemporary in its look.

Freyer's "Rheingold" also projects a decidedly timely political message. When the power-crazed dwarf, Alberich (Gordon Hawkins), dressed ironically like a Swiss Banker, proclaims, "You will be enslaved by your greed for gold," the indictment seems particularly apt in the era of Bernie Madoff and all the other greed-driven godheads of corporate finance.

Performed without intermission, the two and a half hour opera unfolds as a seamless example of miraculous stagecraft, as the submarine world of the Rhein Maidens (Stacy Tappan, Lauren McNeese and Beth Clayton) gives way to the airy realm of the gods. And just as Wagner created musical motifs to represent thematic elements within the opera, Freyer creates recurring visual motifs, as well as alternate physical personas in the form of dancers and puppets, to represent the opera's principal characters. It can be a bit confusing at first.

But once you make the visual connections, the scheme proves fascinating.

The costumes, conceived by Achim and Amanda Freyer are a tour de force on their own, from the bulbous wire mesh heads of the dwarfs, Alberich and Mime (Graham Clark) to the mighty laborer giants, Fafner (Eric Halfvarson) and Fasolt (Morris Robinson) in their grimy dungarees and hard hats.

The brilliance of Freyer's visual scheme would mean little, however, if the singers, led by Vitalij Kowaljow as the one-eyed god, Wotan, were not up to their tasks. But Los Angeles Opera has assembled a superb ensemble capable of bringing both the music and the drama to life.

Hawkins, as the love-renouncing dwarf who steals the gold and wields power over the hapless minions of his underground kingdom, is fantastic. His magical transformation into a mighty, hissing serpent in pin stripes is one of the high points of the production.

In the character of Loge (the fire spirit) Wagner created a devilish equivalent of Shakespeare's Puck. And Arnold Bezuyen plays the role for all its Puckish punch. He's a cynic, a trickster and a master of the lie.

Other key performances are turned in by Ellie Dehn as the fecund Freia whose golden apples give the gods their vigor. Michelle DeYoung plays Wotan's domestically challenged wife, Fricka. Wayne Tigges brings on the thunderclaps as Donner, while Beau Gibson paints the Rainbow Bridge as Froh as his aviator alter-ego soars overhead.

With the orchestra pit covered (in the style of Wagner's Bayreuth opera house) you never actually see conductor James Conlon. But his unseen presence is the driving force behind this production. Saturday he offered a masterful interpretation of Chapter 1. Chapter 2, "Die Walkure," opens April 4.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) From left, Vitalij Kowaljow (Wotan), Gordon Hawkins (Alberich) and Arnold Bezuyen (Loge).

Monika Rittershaus

(2) "The Ring" is what composer Richard Wagner referred to as an all-encompasing fusion of music, drama and stagecraft.

Box:

Das Rheingold - Four stars