How to make a German sound

Alexander Soddy, born 41 years ago in Oxford, will share the rehearsals and performances of Das Rheingold with Simone Young at La Scala. Now a permanent fixture on the podiums of orchestras and theatres in Europe and the United States, Soddy is no stranger to Wagner's tetralogy, which he first took on as collaborating maestro at the Hamburg Opera, then again at Bayreuth from 2013 to 2015 as Kirill Petrenko's assistant, and finally conducting it in its entirety at the Mannheim Nationaltheater, where he was general music director for six years. The La Scala production comes as a surprise and precedes his Teatro alla Scala debut by a year, bringing him to Italy between rehearsals and performances in Berlin and London, where we caught up with him by phone.

AT Your arrival at La Scala for Rheingold was rather sudden.
AS It all happened so quickly that I'm still surprised it worked out. I could never have imagined that between a Fidelio at Covent Garden and Die Meistersinger and Kurtág's Fin de partie at the Berlin State Opera, I would have been able to fit in preparations and performances of Das Rheingold.

AT It was also made possible by your valuable collaboration with Simone Young.
AS Yes, it really was a stroke of luck. Suffice it to say that I began my career more than 20 years ago as a collaborating maestro, then assistant and finally Kapellmeister at the Hamburg Opera under the direction of Simone Young, who is a colleague and a friend, but at that time, she was a true mentor to me. It was with her that I first tackled the Ring, and we have a natural affinity in vision that makes it much easier to take on this project.

AT Isn't it a challenge to divide the rehearsals and performances between two people?
AS I don't know if it would be possible in other situations, but in this case, we can rely on our mutual understanding and experience working together, as well as agreement on the basic principles that should guide the preparation of Das Rheingold and the Ring in general. In addition, since the start of this project, we have been talking almost daily to discuss any problems, to divide up the work in rehearsals and to move forward together to build it brick by brick.

AT You talked about the basic principles of making Rheingold. What are these for you?
AS If I had to list them, I would say paying attention to the construction of a German sound in the orchestra, the quality of the legato, the space given to the words and, above all, the sense of phrasing. Simone Young and I both come from a piano background, and we work meticulously with the singers, paying attention to both the music and the text. This care is essential with Wagner and even more so with Rheingold, which for me is a real conversation piece.

AT What do you mean by that?
AS In Rheingold, as in many German operas in particular, the form of a musical phrase is always determined by the meaning of the text. It is the dialogue that dictates the tempo, despite the dense symphonic texture of Wagner's operas. Not least because Rheingold introduces and lays the foundation for the entire Ring, so the audience is given a lot of detailed information and it is important that it comes across clearly and effectively, keeping the pace of the many dialogues tight.

AT So a more transparent and dramatic vision than a misty and lyrical one.
AS Exactly, which then corresponds to Wagner's own demands. He is the one who always insists in his notes that the music must flow, that one must not stop the flow, that one must not indulge in the more monumental aspect of the sound, nor in the overly lyrical. It is very difficult, of course, because this music is so beautiful that you spontaneously stop and think about every single measure, but then you lose the naturalness of expression.

AT And yet this monumental aspect you speak of has remained associated with Wagner and with the Ring in particular.
AS There is certainly a grandiose element to the Ring, both musically and logistically. Just think of the commitment it takes for a theatre to stage all four operas. If you imagine a theatre in the middle of a production of the entire Ring, with the need to double or even triple to accommodate the whole piece, even the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn't seem that impressive!

AT Speaking of a central element in the preparation of the Ring, how do you follow the singers for Das Rheingold, considering the impact of this opera on the remaining chapters of the tetralogy?
AS It is not an easy task, and the road is full of obstacles. The first is the fragmentary nature of the four different operas, written years apart, each presenting a different challenge to the conductor, orchestra and singers. When working on Rheingold, you always have to keep an eye on what will happen next, and much of the responsibility lies with the individual performer, who must always be aware of how each gesture fits into the whole tetralogy. That is why it really helps to have an excellent cast, with singers who have already done the whole Ring at least once, as is the case with the cast we will have at La Scala, and who therefore already know how they fit into the overall picture.

AT I suppose it is easy to be intimidated by the scale of such a task.
AS Ah, very easy. But when you start working on it, you realise that working on the Ring is not so different from working on a Mozart opera. The level of detail that you have to look for in the orchestra or in the singers is the same, because it is only by looking at these many small elements, such as a rhythm, a phrasing, a sound, a transition, that the structure of all four operas holds together.

AT The La Scala orchestra has the experience of the Gurre-Lieder with Riccardo Chailly and an excellent Rosenkavalier. Do you think it is still a challenge for an Italian orchestra to find the "German sound" you mentioned?
AS Absolutely not, the musical environment is now completely international. I am an Englishman who lived in Germany for 20 years and grew up with Belcanto, Verdi and Puccini. The level of musicians in a theatre like La Scala is so high that the orchestra can instantly capture the style and character that this music requires. Of course, there are things to work on, such as the cavata of the strings, the attention to long phrases, the emphasis on broad symphonic structures, but the flexibility, the listening, the sense of drama that comes from a long familiarity with the Italian repertoire should not be underestimated.

AT It seems to me that, in your view, theatre and symphonic development are equally important in Wagner.
AS Because it was one of Wagner's own aims to find a way for the symphonic development not to differ from the semantics of the spoken theatre. Just think of how he shapes the different leitmotifs, how he models them so that they fit together, combine and talk to each other like in a prose drama. If you try to approach Wagner, and Das Rheingold in particular, solely from a symphonic-musical point of view, you will lose yourself from the start. For example, there are whole sections in which the singers are completely alone, with only a few chords in the background. That moment is inseparable from what precedes and follows it, and as a conductor you can't just let the singer sit there and sing his aria unheeded, you have to make sure that the same dramatic rhythm is maintained, otherwise the structure doesn't hold.

AT After Wagner, what will it be like to return to La Scala next season with Mozart's Così fan tutte?
AS This Rheingold has been a surprise and a blessing, because if there is one thing I love about conducting, it is that you have to build a relationship with the musicians, little by little, in order to get the best out of them. So, I am even happier to have the opportunity to take a second step and do it with Mozart, which is a return to the roots, to the basics of everything we do in the theatre and as musicians.

Alessandro Tommasi
A journalist and organiser, he studied cultural management and piano, writes for Amadeus, Quinte Parallele, Le Salon Musical and is a member of the Music Critics Association.

Translation by Alexa Ahern