A new Ring cycle at Grange Park Opera

In their La Scala style auditorium Grange Park Opera have just inaugurated a Wagner Ring Cycle. The Bayreuth festival in Germany was designed to stage this remarkable set of four operas, and in England the Longborough Festival have already given a complete Ring. It is a cycle well suited to summer festivals, and now Grange Park Opera have joined in with the first opera, Das Rheingold, which turned out to be a stunning success.

Alberich, the dark hearted Nibelung who has foresworn love in favour of power, and stolen the gold from the Rheinmaidens, appeared very dapper in a tailcoat. The staging showed his coming mastery with a set of huge meters measuring who knows what in four different locations: Nibelheim (the abode of the Nibelungs), Riesenheim (the abode of the giants), the river Rhine itself, and the Gods. Clearly Alberich (an excellent David Stout) intends to rule over them all, having forged a ring of power from the stolen gold, though at the end of the cycle of four operas the Rheinmaidens will recover it.

The key thing is the music itself, very well played here by the English National Opera orchestra under the baton of young conductor Harry Sever, a composer himself who has already conducted two of the Ring operas at Longborough. The production by Charlie Edwards, who also designed the set, is really rather good, and I loved the way the gods fall asleep when deprived of Friea’s golden apples. Wotan, the ruler of the gods, looks the part in almost every production, though his wife can look like a harridan. Here Christine Rice was the most elegant and self-possessed Fricka I have ever seen, and she sang divinely. Her husband Wotan was superbly sung by James Rutherford, and Freia the goddess of love and beauty was dramatically performed by Rachel Nicholls. The giant Fasolt (an excellent Matthew Rose) adores her and doesn’t want to let her go, but is murdered by his brother Fafner (David Shipley), who takes all the treasure and later becomes a dragon in order to guard it, ring included.

When Wotan and Loge capture Alberich in order to steal everything and pay the giants for building Valhalla, Erda (Sara Fulgoni) appears moving through one row of the audience — a small coup de théâtre — to warn him against retaining the ring. Adrian Thompson was very effective as Mime, the brother of Alberich who actually made the ring, and the gods Donner, Froh and Loge were extremely well sung by Thomas Isherwood, James Shouten and Mark Le Brocq.

It is astonishing how well, and how simply, Grange Park Opera have produced this first part of the Ring. Although Wagner himself imagined an elaborate staging, it can be produced much more simply, particularly with modern lighting, and one may well prefer simplicity to the re-imaginings of expensive stage directors who want to make a name for themselves by doing something original and often quite bizarre. This production, however, was a joy to watch and hear. It also prepared us for the next opera in the cycle right at the end, when Erda presented Wotan with a sword — an unusual but powerfully symbolic addition.

A Message from TheArticle

We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout these hard economic times. So please, make a donation.