In all my grown days, I have never encountered a Siegfried such as George
Gray.  Tonight, it was his single turn, against Wolfgang Schmidt's three
appearances, in the San Francisco Opera's four complete `Ring' cycles.

Sonnet No. 18 comes to mind, not to compare him to a summer day, but to
grope feverishly in a vain attempt to describe this nature's changing
course untrimm'd.

Work with me here and let's do some visualization together:  Think of a
jovial, incongruous cross between Burl Ives and the happy-face character
in Jack in the Box commercials.  A man with an alarming tendency to jump
up and down with both feet, child-like (you still have Uncle Burl's image
in mind?), Gray is surprisingly nimble for his age and girth.  His is a
Mayberry version of Siegfried, encompassing Opie, Gomer *and* Barney.

Where things really get strange, however, is the voice.  Yes, there is
music in `Siegfried' also, although the once brilliant orchestra was merely
sawing away at it, under the direction of Michael Boder who not only knows
better, but *knew* better the first two nights of the cycle.

Gray's singing runs from raspy, demi-inaudible, occasionally strangled
notes to sudden bursts of glorious sunshine with true heldentenor high
notes that are as sweet as any lyric tenor can possible produce.  The
inconsistency and the weirdness of it all seemingly unnerved even one
of the true heroes of the production:  Gary Rideout, whose Mime is still
well worth the price of admission.

Rideout was fabulous again, but as Nothung came out of the oven, Gray
dropped it as if it were really hot, picked it up tossing it back and
forth, hot-potato like, and as that climactic high note came up with all
the shtick going on, not only Gray but Rideout too slid all over the notes.
It was a visual and aural Disneyland, and I bet Wagner was fast revolving
in his grave.

The new Wotan and Alberich -- Alan Held and Peter Sidhom -- maintained
a measure of dignity and competence, but both were more adequate than
thrilling -- too high a standard, you say? this is the `Ring,' remember?
Held didn't do as well as before; his voice was in a really narrow range
tonight, without highs and lows.  Power and projection were less impressive
than before, especially in `Rheingold.'

I am sure Frances Ginzer's Bruennhilde was the same nice lyric-soprano
sound she's been substituting for what the voice should be.  I cannot be
certain, however, because my quota for open-mouth enjoyment of Gray's
weirdness was up after two acts.

And here comes the really amazing part:  so short is the world on
heldentenors that Gray has performed Siegfried, Lohengrin, Tristan,
Siegmund, Florestan, Enee (of `Les Troyens'), and Otello all over the
world with small and medium-size companies.  His recent engagements
include Tristan with ENO, the Arizona `Ring'; upcoming:  Siegfried in
Dallas and Graz, `Wozzeck' and `Goetterdaemmerung' in Aspen, and `Die
Tote Stadt' (Paul) in Buenos Aires.

Just think:  a viable alternative is...  Schmidt!  Poor, poor Wagner.

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