By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 27 July 2006]

A casually dressed man wanders across the stage, snapping some of the graffiti that litter the gods’ urban walkway. A factory worker takes a meter- reading in the power plant that is Nibelheim, oblivious to the presence of Mime and Alberich. Three children lark about as the gods enter Valhalla, playfully re-enacting the violence that saw Fasolt murdered and the ring wrenched from Alberich’s finger.