Opera singer Michael Druiett will be climbing a personal Everest on Tyneside tomorrow night, as David Whetstone explains.
AUDIENCES at The Sage Gateshead have got used to big concerts and high profile performances but as people gather in Hall One tomorrow night, hopes will be high that new musical heights are about to be scaled.
Wagner’s ‘Ring’ cycle – Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) – is reputedly a monster: four operas telling an epic tale of gods and dwarves and giants through music which, once heard, is never likely to be forgotten.
Opera North have embarked on a major project to perform all of the operas in concert format over four years, with tomorrow’s instalment, Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), first up.
It took the 19th Century German composer Richard Wagner 26 years to compose his masterpiece, says the Sage website, adding teasingly that Opera North’s project “is brief in comparison”.
Das Rheingold, to be sung in German with English translation on screens, is the shortest of the four. But it’s still two and a half hours without an interval, so not to be undertaken lightly or without a little forethought.
But how is this for the singers, for whom tomorrow’s will be only the second performance since the premiere in Leeds?
“It’s the Everest,” says Michael Druiett without any hesitation whatsoever.
Cast as Wotan, ruler of the gods, he goes on to explain that this, far from being just another role, could be the start of a lifelong adventure.
“My particular role, like a lot of the Wagnerian roles, is something you grow into as you develop. Wotan is the King Lear of opera in a way.
“This is a huge monster of a work charting the development of this god’s life. It is a wonderful challenge and something very, very special.”
As well as a challenge for the ambitious opera company, it is also a personal challenge for all involved.
“This is my first go at this and I’m still learning,” says the 43-year-old Londoner. “It’s something I could spend the next 20 years developing and discovering.
“The first person who said ‘I think you’ll end up singing this part’ was back in about 1990 when I was studying at the National Opera Studio. It’s something that has been inside me for a long time.
“I’ve now been given the chance to start to build and create something with it and it’s all very exciting.”
Wotans, it’s clear, don’t grow on trees. Michael says it is important for anyone tackling the part to have “the raw materials”. At 6ft 6ins, he has the physical stature but he also has the voice.
“It has to be a big voice because it has to carry over a 100-piece orchestra with all the louder instruments playing. They always accompany me because they are the ones associated with a god.
“So I have to compete with the brass in the orchestra and it can’t be done by bawling or shouting. The voice has to swell up inside you and it takes a long time to develop that.”