TULLY WALKER reviews: Die Walkure at the Royal Opera House: The costumes are a mess and there's a giant log in the middle of the set... but the singing and playing are glorious
Verdict: Well cast, well sung, well played
The new ROH Ring reaches its second evening with the best all-round cast I can recall in Die Walkure: the uniformly sonorous sounds emanating from the stage are matched by the glorious row coming from the pit.
As the scenery, costumes and production are execrable — Wotan, supposedly king of the gods, is a dead ringer for J.D. Vance ('Make Valhalla Great Again') in his suit and tie — perhaps I may more profitably dwell on the musical side for a while.
The incestuous lovers of Act 1, Siegmund and Sieglinde, are given life by the fresh tones of French tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac and Welsh-Ukrainian soprano Natalya Romaniw. American bass Soloman Howard's dark voice helps to make Sieglinde's husband Hunding a nasty piece of work.
As Brunnhilde, the Valkyrie of the title, Swedish soprano Elisabet Strid is vertically challenged — she needs some of the stature of Russian mezzo Marina Prudenskaya's fine Fricka (familiar from Rheingold in 2023), who has inches to spare — but she sings with power and intensity.
J.D. ... er ...Wotan is lent vocal heft and grandeur of phrasing by Christopher Maltman, who seems destined to impersonate politicians — he was Iain Duncan Smith to the life in Rheingold. I approve of his wearing a wig. I suppose the Orange One is being held in reserve for Gotterdammerung.
Sir Antonio Pappano and the orchestra generate tremendous power in such big numbers as the Ride of the Valkyries — a pity Barrie Kosky's production renders the scene pathetic to the eye.
Again the action is haunted by a SENOL (Symbolic Emaciated Naked Old Lady), meant to be the goddess Erda. I felt glad on her behalf that it was a warm night.
We get another massive log — I cannot tell you if it is the same one as in Rheingold: one log looks much like another to me.
The Magic Fire in Act 3 flickers in a dead tree.
Designer Rufus Didwiszus makes Hunding's hut an unimpressive wall, from a crack in which Siegmund draws the sword Nothung. I gained precisely nothung from this transaction.
Smoke drifts about the stage at times and the Valkyries unearth desiccated human skeletons from somewhere.
You want to know about the costumes. Sieglinde looks like a Melbourne housewife. Siegmund removes a large hoodie to reveal ... a smaller hoodie. Hunding seems to work as a security man. Fricka arrives in a Rolls-Royce. Anyone would think she was Dame Edna, only she sings better.
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