How I’m keeping up my chops for 15+ hours of Wagner’s Ring Cycle

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE


Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a marathon for audiences and performers. It features four individual operas with a combined duration of at least 15 hours. And when it comes to Brisbane — the city’s first fully staged production of this event — it will be performed three times. There’ll be concerts almost every day of the week between 1-21 December. (The longest is the fourth part of the Ring Cycle, Götterdämmerung, clocking in at 6 hours and 40 minutes with a couple of intervals.)

There are many heroes of this production, and we’re not talking about Wagner’s fantastical gods or Valkyries. We’re talking about the artists who will bring all this to life; their feat of endurance to play some of the most epic music ever composed.

Once we get past the confronting scale of the event, we can start to talk business. Queensland Symphony Orchestra French horn player Lauren Manuel knows exactly what’s needed to make it through each performance. After all, this will be her third time performing Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and she’s “pretty stoked” to be involved.

Lauren will be in the brass section for this massive production presented by Opera Australia. (Actually, a great deal of the state’s creative community is involved — Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Opera Queensland, Dancenorth, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Queensland Government, Brisbane City Council, and Lauren’s fellow QSO players have major roles to play.)

Lauren tells CutCommon how she’s preparing for the mammoth concerts ahead.

Thanks so much for chatting with CutCommon! I’m going to ask you a candid one, Lauren — when you first learnt you were going to be involved in the Ring Cycle, what was your immediate reaction?

Oh, honestly? Apprehensive in the first instance. Unfortunately, this particular production has been so fraught with Covid shutdowns and delays, I almost didn’t believe it would ever happen in Brisbane. But once I got past that, I’m pretty stoked to be involved in another Ring Cycle.

Being involved in a Ring Cycle means you’re immersed in a story, a sound, and a whole world for months, which is a totally different ‘beast’ to our typical programming.

Luckily for me, this will be the third time I’ve been involved in a cycle, having first performed a small off-stage role while still a student in Adelaide’s 2004 production. I got to watch the whole production either in the audience or side of the stage, and it blew my mind. 

In 2013, I got to play a bigger part and play fourth horn — out of eight — in the Opera Australia production with Orchestra Victoria in Melbourne.

You have a pretty full-on role in the cycles! How are you preparing this time when you have about 15 hours worth of music to play? How do you break all that down in your rehearsals — and your practice time at home — to ensure you’re dedicating enough attention to all the parts? 

The horns do get a bit of a leading role throughout Wagner’s score! But it’s actually not as daunting as sitting and trudging my way through 15 hours worth of music — and as they say, ‘this isn’t my first rodeo’.

Most of your readers will probably understand that Wagner employed the use of leitmotifs to indicate characters or objects. Those leitmotifs appear again and again, woven throughout all four operas. So 15 hours worth of music is actually a series of familiar themes presented in different ways. 

So how much work do you need to put into boosting your physical stamina ahead of the four concerts per cycle — especially when some of those individual concerts are more than six hours long?

Anyone who plays an instrument knows that preparation is a long game. So I think the key is to start early and work consistently to build stamina.

Having said that, we start rehearsals in October, which is eight months into a pretty busy year at Queensland Symphony Orchestra. So I’ll be approaching the Ring rehearsal period with a good level of ‘match fitness’.

Then, we have an eight-week rehearsal period to wrap our heads and bodies around the material before the first cycle begins on December 1.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge when playing these concerts?

I think for many players, it will be the physical stamina required. I’ve heard that Götterdämmerung especially is pretty brutal for string players.

But for me, it’s absolutely going to be getting my head around all the million-and-one different keys Wagner writes his horn parts in. One phrase may be in D, the next in C — and then 12 bars later, you’ll be transposing in B-flat.

But by far the trickiest is horn in B-natural, bass clef and hand stopped. Sometimes, I feel like I need 10 minutes, a coffee, and a calculator to work out what note I’m supposed to be playing.  

How will you make the most of the time in which you’re not playing — such as the intervals between hours-long performances, and the off-days between your three consecutive weeks of concerts?

I’m really looking forward to hanging out with my QSO friends and colleagues in the long breaks between acts; going out for lunches, dinners, walks along the river. It’s always fun debriefing with your mates who are sharing the same experience. 

I think my downtime will be pretty similar to what it is at the moment. I’m a big believer in keeping fit, and love popping to the gym first thing in the morning most days.

Then it’s getting through the normal ‘busy work’ of maintenance practice to keep in form, and life admin.

What are you most looking forward to when it comes to this first fully staged production of the Ring Cycle in Brisbane?

It’s really quite exciting and unique to be involved in an all-encompassing project for a few months. You really get to sink your teeth in and enjoy the experience. Usually, we’re busy trying to prepare for several QSO projects back to back, so there is definitely a bonus to having a single focus for period of time. 

The other really cool thing about playing the Ring is that the orchestra blows out in size, so we get to welcome loads of guest musicians — friends and colleagues from around the country, and even a few players from overseas. It takes on a festival atmosphere, and there is plenty of time for socialising — mostly at the pub after a long opera!

Before you get back to the practice room, any secret tips for brass players in particular on how to keep up their chops during Wagner? 

There is a saying in brass playing: ‘One day off playing, you notice it. Two days off, the band notices it. Three days off, the audience notices it.’ It’s pretty harsh, but there is some truth there. Consistency is key when it comes to brass playing. Couple that with a good warm up, hydration, and plenty of rest, and the chops will hopefully be in top form.

It all comes down to process and preparation. But if you know me, you know I don’t always practice what I preach — so sometimes, you just need to be kind to yourself.

Brisbane’s first fully staged production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle takes place from 1-21 December in the Lyric Theatre. More information about the program and creative team on the QPAC website.

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Images supplied. Credit Sarah Marshall.