A 'Ring' Divided

In a rare public airing of artistic differences, the two leading singers in the Los Angeles Opera's costly and ambitious staging of Wagner's “Ring" cycle have harshly criticized the director, saying the production is artistically flawed and physically dangerous for performers.

In separate interviews, British tenor John Treleaven, who plays the hero Siegfried, and American soprano Linda Watson, who plays Brunnhilde, said German director Achim Freyer's avant-garde staging which features a steeply tilted stage, bulky costumes and oversized masks interferes with their acting and singing and poses excruciating physical burdens.

“I'm not going to pull any punches here, and I want to tell it like it is. This entire production has been a trying and difficult time," Treleaven said. “The character development that I bring to the part is almost expunged by this clown-like makeup," he said, adding that he has sustained two minor injuries on the angled stage.

Watson called the set “the most dangerous stage I've been on in my entire career.Your whole neck is tipped wrong. It's very painful to do it for hours."

The soprano said that at one point, she became so frustrated with the production's lack of character development that she told Freyer to “buy one of my CDs and put it on instead of me."

The public criticism comes at a crucial time for L.A. Opera, which is spending $32 million and has put in 10 years of planning for its first complete staging of “Der Ring des Nibelung." It is the centerpiece for Ring Festival L.A., a countywide arts festival with more than 100 participating artistic companies, museums and universities. It's also awkward for general director Placido Domingo, who is the public face of the L.A. Opera but often is absent from the company as he continues his singing career around the world. Domingo has a supporting role in one of the “Ring" productions.

L.A. Opera declined to make Freyer, 76, available for interview because he was in rehearsals. In the past, Freyer has expressed detachment when asked about public reaction to his work. “Not my problem," he told The Times in 2009, when asked about the public's expectations.

A painter as well as a director, Freyer also has told The Times that he sees himself primarily as a visual artist. His stage productions, which are well-known in Europe, are highly abstract interpretations.

L.A. Opera defended Freyer. “The psychological dimension is outsourced to other forms of expression, like the lighting. It's hard for singers to understand the context of scale of what he's doing," said Christopher Koelsch, the head of artistic planning. But Koelsch acknowledged that “it seems like [Freyer] has not done the best job in selling that" to the cast.

Koelsch also said that the safety of the stage is a “huge priority" and that injuries are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Domingo was out of town and unavailable to answer questions. Instead, he issued a statement saying that a singer's concept of his or her character sometimes doesn't work within a director's framework. “That doesn't necessarily mean that anyone is wrong, since there is never just one way to interpret any given role," he said. “I happen to admire Freyer's interpretation of the 'Ring,' but there have been plenty of other times in my long career when I didn't agree with a director's concept of a piece."