Just so much more fun than Valkyrie…
Despite all the gloomy news about ENO funding, they still managed to stage their Rhinegold (Das Rheingold) at the Coliseum – the first in Wagner’s Ring Cycle and the second to form part of the ENO’s planned Cycle (!?) – Valkyrie was last year.
Directed again by Richard Jones, this has an entirely different vibe than Valkyrie – costumes more JD Sports and Man at C&A than the earlier Millets; this has scenery, and effects and everything.
It’s also far less grim (though perhaps more Grimm) with elements both of humour and even satire (well – ish). A very clever closing scene which created the rainbow bridge to Valhalla spectacularly - and a pleasant change from the lack of fire (they kept setting alight to the theatre in technicals) with Brünnhilde at the close of Valkyrie.
The orchestra played very well (4 harps – but unlike the Opera North production on the South Bank a few years ago, no real anvils at all!) and the singers were all solid, particularly Frederick Ballentine as Loge, John Relyea as Wotan and Leigh Melrose as a frightening Alberich clearly modelling himself on civil servant leaks about Dominic Raab.
The giants, Fasolt and Fafner (Simon Bailey and James Creswell) are the most human of all the players (until the last moment).
This is so much better a production than its predecessor that its unbroken (no interval) two hours and 45 minutes was almost bearable.
Part 3 (Siegfried) has now been postponed (what with the Arts Council funding debacle and all) – it’s not my favourite of the cycle; but I’m sadly a completist…