Royal Opera House; Asylum Chapel, London SE15
Keith Warner’s Royal Opera Ring cycle is back and newly pertinent – and blazing with star performances
Sailing up the Thames from Greenwich in 1877, a year after the Ring cycle had its premiere in Bayreuth, Wagner told his wife, Cosima: “This is Alberich’s dream come true – Nibelheim, world dominion, activity, work, everywhere the oppressive feeling of steam and fog.” It’s not a particularly flattering view of the capital. Alberich, the dwarf of German heroic legend, is the leader of the Nibelungen race. He renounces love and steals the all-powerful gold from the Rhinemaidens. His treacherous act sets in motion the Ring: four operas, 15 or so hours of music, and properly titled Der Ring des Nibelungen.
If London, and the UK, have changed since Wagner’s visit, they have also changed since 2012 when the Royal Opera last staged the Ring, and yet more radically since Keith Warner’s production was first seen, beginning in stages in 2004. It’s back in its entirety, reportedly for its last revival. Once again, ROH music director Antonio Pappano conducts. Never before has Wagner’s fantasy of gods, giants and dragons seemed more pertinent. Spitting-image parallels aren’t required. The single imperative, to disastrous end, is to get the gold, deal or no deal.
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