The Valkyrie

by Richard Wagner

seen at the London Coliseum on 4 December 2021

English National Opera is embarking on a new Ring cycle in a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and this is the first offering though it is the second work in the cycle. Richard Jones directs a production designed by Stewart Laing, with Nicky Spence as Siegmund, Emma Bell as Sieglinde, Brindley Sherratt as Hunding, Matthew Rose as Wotan, Rachel Nicholls as Brünnhilde and Susan Bickley as Fricka, and Martyn Brabbins conducting.

Wagner's music is intense, demanding, sometimes overwhelming, somethimes surprisingly intimate, and the overall complexity of the Ring narrative can be daunting; The Valkyrie is often seen as the most approachable opera since its narrative development is so compelling. Nevertheless there are practical difficulties, once hilariously lampooned by Anna Russell in an attempt to explain it all to a novice audience. There is, for example, a dwelling with a tree growing through it; later something has to be done to deal with not only nine valkyrie sisters in full cry, but also by implication the dead warriors they are bringing to Valhalla, and possibly the horses they ride, and finally Brünnhilde is put to sleep while Wotan calls up walls of impenetrable flame to protect her from all but the most valiant hero.

Musically the standard was good if not totally electrifying as it should be: the opening storm music was rather muted. The singing was clear (particularly important when delivering an English translation) and the often tense dynamics between the various characters were well conveyed. Visually however this production was surprisingly austere. In the first act there was indeed a house with a tree in it, surrounded by a few other leafless and wind-blasted trees sketching in the idea of a wild forest, but there was no pretence of realism overall as the limits of the stage were bounded by featureless grey curtains. The whole edifice of Hunding's house was at one point wheeled around by black-clad stagehands presumably representing Hunding's vassals, to provide a different space for Siegmund and Sieglinde's rapturous welcoming of spring. Of course the house need to resume its original space in order for the sword to be retrieved from the tree.

In the opening scenes of the second act the human plane is left behind for Valhalla, where Wotan instructs his daughter Brünnhilde, argues ineffectively with his wife Fricka, then changes his instructions to Brünnhilde with a lengthy explananation of his quandary. It was disconcerting to see Brünnhilde in a strangely patterned outfit that might have suited a beach holiday, and Wotan in a scarlet shellsuit with a plaid shirt, but this rather suited the evocation of Valhalla itself as an overblown log cabin stretched across the whole width of the (large) Coliseum stage. Fricka, in immaculate white, was a far more classy dresser, emphasising her imperious moral authority in contrast to the wily but inadequate self-deceptions of her husband. In the concluding scenes of the act, back in the human realm, the bleakness of the situation was again emphasised by the wind-blasted trees, and the disturbing presence of raven-like figures, perhaps Wotan's messengers, or perhaps the Norns witnessing the ineluctible fate unwinding before them. Again the austerity of the design was emphasised by the ever present grey curtains at the edges of the stage.

In the third act there was really nothing on the stage to distract from the final confrontation between Wotan and Brünnhilde. The valkyries (in vivid green shellsuits clearly linking them to Wotan) had attached their fallen warriors to ropes which raised them off the ground and finally out of sight above the stage; the horses were strange prancing figures, dancers with large horse heads (and on this occasion one was missing), their momvements occasionally distracting. The awkward disappointment was the matter of the protective fire, since Westminster Council and the safety officers of the theatre had forbidden the extensive use of naked flame (although there were small domesticated fires in the previous acts). An announcer at the beginning of the performance begged our indulgence for this omission of stage spectacle, but it was remarkable that neither the director nor the designer had seen fit to offer or imagine any sort of substitute. Instead, while Brünnhilde herself was raised above the stage in slumber, there were no lighting effects at all, and the massive expanse of grey curtains was all we could contemplate as the magic fire music dwindled to its conclusion.

Considering that the Met in New York currently has a visually sophisticated Ring cycle making full use of elaborate stage machinery and dazzling video projections, it is hard to see that they will be enthused with this far more subdued vision, even supposing that it proves to be coherent when the entire cycle is ready in 2025.