This second instalment of Barry Kosky’s Ring Cycle develops the fractured relationships partially glimpsed in Das Rheingold unveiled at the Royal Opera House 18 months ago. With his new staging comes both a return of the Ash Tree, reminding us of his preoccupation with what he sees as an ‘environmental apocalypse’, and a mute Earth Goddess (here a frail but dignified Illona Linthwaite), who appears naked on stage before the first stirrings of the Prelude to Die Walküre. Her recurring presence suggests an onlooker silently absorbing unfolding events, her initial look of despair telling its own story. Whether dreaming, reminiscing or blessing the incestuous love between Sieglinde and Siegmund with spring flowers, Kosky has created a multi-purpose role that extends the notion of a Wagnerian leitmotif. Erda even doubles as a (fully dressed) chauffeur at one point and, in one startling moment, she is the medium through which Siegmund draws the sword Nothung.
Set designer Rufus Didwiszus mostly offers a stripped back approach, merely adding table and chairs and a scorched wooden screen to an empty stage in Act 1, its cheerless domesticity suggesting the loveless marriage within Sieglinde’s and Hunding’s forest hut. Didwiszus waits until Act 3 to make the most visual impact. First is the arrival of the Valkyries, a mini chorus that soar with every rhythmic thrust from the orchestra’s brass section. These are no helmeted irons maidens, more grey-clad Ladettes on a bank holiday rampage, heaving trollies of dead warriors who’s charred remains turn to ash. And no less arresting is the burning tree that surrounds Brünnhilde in the closing scene – a coup de théâtre well worth waiting for. Striking a slightly odd note is the vintage limousine to transport Marina Prudenskaya’s imperious Fricka. She struts around in a purple dress with an air of entitlement comparable to Meryl Streep in The Devil Wear’s Prada. Her unyielding moralising, of the I’ll-not-take-no-for-an-answer kind, is all too vividly projected and underlines the steadily decreasing power of Christopher Maltman’s dapper Wotan, sadly looking more like a Chief Executive Officer than ruler of the Gods.
Elsewhere, casting brings together some memorable performances. Chief amongst these is the partnership between Natalya Romaniw – a truly compelling Sieglinde – and Stanislas de Barbeyrac’s harassed Siegmund. Both are superb singer-actors who command proceedings early on with the dawning realisation of their true relationship to one another and an all-consuming passion. We can sense Sieglinde’s growing awareness of her twin brother in Romaniw’s half knowing glances towards Barbeyrac, when not flinching from a malevolent Soloman Howard as Hunding, here a villainous-looking security guard. His sonorous bass is well countered by de Barbeyrac’s ardent tenor and the glorious tones of Romaniw who rises above the orchestra with ease, her soprano an ideal fit.
The terrific chemistry within Act 1 is never quite sustained thereafter, and the fraught relationship between Christopher Maltman’s lyrical Wotan and Elisabet Strid’s pleasing Brünnhilde lacking absolute conviction on opening night. However beautifully delivered, neither singer yet has the heft required for the heavy weight drama of these roles. Maltman’s conflicting emotions when exiling Brünnhilde from Valhalla and Strid’s subsequent distress left me unmoved. In the end it was left to Antonio Pappano to inject life into the closing pages, where there, and throughout, his grasp of musical architecture was unassailable, and knowing just when to push forward and relax and draw out some magnificent playing.
David Truslove
Die Walküre
Music Drama in Three Acts by Richard Wagner
Cast and production team:
Siegmund – Stanislas de Barbeyrac; Sieglinde – Natalya Romaniw; Wotan – Christopher Maltman; Fricka – Marina Prudenskaya; Brünnhilde – Elisabet Strid; Hunding – Soloman Howard; Gerhilde – Lee Bisset; Ortlinde – Katie Lowe; Waltraute – Claire Barnett-Jones; Schwertleite – Rhonda Browne; Helmwige – Maida Hundeling; Siegrune – Catherine Carby; Grimgerde – Monika-Evelin Liv; Rossweisse – Alison Kettlewell; Erda – Illona Linthwaite
Director – Barry Kosky; Designer – Rufus Didwiszus; Costumes – Victoria Beyer; Lighting – Alessandro Carletti; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House; Conductor – Antonio Pappano
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; 1 May 2025
Photos: © Monika Ritterhaus