According to the sleeve notes, the two concert performances of Wagner’s most compact and regularly performed stage work that Edward Gardner conducted in Oslo last year are likely to be the only occasions on which Lise Davidsen will appear as Senta, since it’s not a role that she intends to sing on stage. That alone will make the set – taken from the two concert performances – a compulsory purchase for Davidsen’s many admirers, and certainly her performance is the main attraction here, though the feisty playing of the Norwegian National Opera orchestra, one of its first collaborations with Gardner after he became the company’s music director, is first-rate, too.
But from the moment that she launches into Senta’s ballad in the second act, colouring it to spine-tingling effect, Davidsen holds the stage, and makes every set-piece compelling, putting Gerald Finley’s Dutchman entirely in the shade as she soars through their great duet. Yet her intensity is not sufficient for their pairing to strike real dramatic sparks. Alongside Davidsen’s larger-than-life quality, Finley’s portrayal seems rather small scale; his singing is as elegant and intelligently shaped as ever, his bass-baritone richly burnished, but the crucial heroic dimension is missing.
Alongside them, both Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Erik and Brindley Sherratt as Daland give fine performances; de Barbeyrac clearly relishes his cavatina in the third act and Sherratt’s wonderfully even tone is always beautifully controlled. There are certainly more pluses than minuses in this performance, though in the end it seems just a bit less than the sum of its parts.
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