On paper, it must have sounded audacious and more than a little thrilling, but perhaps it was one of those ideas that was just crazy enough to work: Tell the story of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle–one of the towering works of the Western musical canon—in a single evening, with only a quartet of singers, a few props, and a piano. It’s an especially appealing idea to round out a season devoted to myth and fairy tales, so Viswa Subbaraman and the Skylight Opera gave it the green light.
It goes without saying that this project, dubbed The Skylight Ring, would require an impressive quartet of musicians. Wagner’s music is formidable, and the cast here is up to the challenge. Colleen Brooks, singing Siegfried (among other characters) has the brilliant tone and dramatic control to evoke Heldentenor nobility. Erin Sura sings some of Brunhilde’s famous melodies with formidable power that occasionally overwhelms the intimate space of the Broadway Theatre Center Studio Theatre. Tim Rebers and Robert Frankenberry aren’t as vocally commanding as their female colleagues, but they get the job done.
The main idea behind director and adaptor Daniel J. Brylow’s adaptation is innovative and compelling—embody the “bad guys” of The Ring’s mythological saga (Alberich, Hunding, Mime and Hagen for those keeping score at home) in a single actor (Frankenberry), who also narrates the tale, highlighting the good vs. evil polarities of the story, which spans generations and all manner of gods, monsters and almost everything in between. As you might expect, Brylow’s sometimes approach is sometimes dramatic, sometimes playful. Playing Wagner’s stunningly vorspiel (prelude) on the piano, Frankenberry evocatively describes the music as it builds. His enthusiastic narration throughout even turns the story into something of a cliffhanger. By contrast, Brylow isn’t afraid to have fun with the story. The magic Tarnhelm, Wagner’s version of Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, here becomes a propeller beanie. And our hero, Siegfried, becomes a mildly insufferable Millennial, complete with a “Whatever!” swagger.
But the problem here is that The Skylight Ring isn’t really an opera—it’s a play. The sung musical numbers are really just a miniature Greatest Hits of Wagner’s magnum opus, interludes that make up at most 20 percent of the show’s two-hour-plus running time. That’s not surprising, since the story is not something you can parse in a quick sketch. So show depends a lot on the quality of the dramatic writing and the nonmusical acting talent of the cast.
Unfortunately, that’s the weakest element here. Operatic acting isn’t quite the same as stage acting, and the excellent singers here have a hard time turning Brylow’s spoken dialogue into something compelling. Dramatic moments sag; comedic timing is off kilter. The script itself is often meandering and unpolished—scenes sometimes simply fade without a sense of shape or impact. Frankenberry is the most engaging stage presence, infusing his narration with breathless energy. But there’s simply not enough drama in this music drama to make it more than a Cliff Notes summary of a monumental work.
