Where to place Wagner’s first opera Die Feen? Not a typical comedy, but it’s also not a tragedy. Meyerbeer’s grand opera comes closest to the epic scope of this underrated masterpiece. Sure, it’s not in Wagner’s mature style, but with tonight’s ingredients, I fell in love with Oper Leipzig’s powerful production. It contains dazzling sets, refined musical accompaniment (the sublime Gewandhaus Orchestra!), and gripping vocals. Although Wagner never heard Die Feen performed – it premiered after his death – the impressively directed balance between fairy tale Romanticism, medieval conflict and a cleverly modern approach might just have swayed his own dire opinion of the opera. Any Wagnerian who dismisses this piece will miss spectacular magic.
Lost in the wilderness (here ironically a modern family household), Arindal looks for his love Ada, the Fairy Queen, who disappeared on him after he asked her about her past. After eight years of absence, two subjects persuade him to return to save his kingdom, Tramond, from siege. Although Ada reappears, two fairies want Ada to return to remain immortal as fairy queen. They demand Ada tests Arindal’s love for her. If he doesn’t curse her, Arindal will have proven his love.
The next day during the tests, Ada appears to burn their two children and to defeat his army. Arindal curses her, and Ada turns into stone thereby remaining immortal. But the fairies want to get rid of Arindal (by now gone mad) forever, so they challenge him to save Ada. Except, he defeats the underworld demons, wakes her up and is granted immortality by the fairy king. Yes, the story gets quite confusing.
Director Renaud Doucet and set and costume designer Andre Barbe create three worlds: the modern day Everyman’s perspective, Wagner’s Romantic fairy world and the medieval setting of Tramund. They seamlessly flow into each other, so modernists, traditionalists and Romantics should all be satisfied.
After dinner in a modern household, a father watches a television transmission of Oper Leipzig’s Die Feen. As his kids leave to play and his disinterested wife departs for the gym, the overture begins, and he is carried away by the music. The father becomes Arindal, King of Tramond, and so the story commences. A spectacular set change occurs as the façade of his house elevates to reveal a Fairy Kingdom with a giant tree, a swing, two semi-clad, blindfolded young men surrounded by giddy fairies with glowing light bulbs. Utterly enchanting!