Wagner at Longborough: ‘Siegfried’ and ‘Twilight of the Gods’

Wagner’s Ring cycle ends with the Twilight of the Gods (its fourth and final opera Götterdämmerung). As Brünnhilde rides her horse onto Siegfried’s great funeral pyre, the Rhine overflows its banks, and the Rhinemaidens reclaim the Rhinegold represented in the all-powerful Ring, created by Alberich. Wotan stole the gold from Alberich, who stole it from the Rhinemaidens. Wotan’s plan, insofar as he has one, is to pay off the giants who built him Valhalla, and create a free hero who will put everything to rights, returning the gold and the ring to the Rhine.

His first attempt to create the necessary agent is his son Siegmund by a mortal woman. This fails, as Wotan’s wife Fricka compels him to see that the young man is not free. The god is in a trap, so he breaks the sword he made for Siegmund, allowing him to be killed by Hunding in the second opera. But here is discord already. When Brünnhilde, daughter of Wotan and the Earth goddess Erda, appears to Siegmund to warn him of his impending death, she tries to reinstate Wotan’s original plan, and the furious god intervenes and shatters the sword he made for Siegmund, resulting in his death. Yet he and his sister Sieglinde, separated since childhood, have become lovers, and before Wotan can banish Brünnhilde to a high rock surrounded by fire she has enabled Sieglinde to escape along with the shards of the sword, telling her she is pregnant and naming her future son Siegfried.

In the third opera, Siegfried, Wotan (disguised as the Wanderer) visits Alberich’s brother Mime, who has been bringing up the young Siegfried in the hope that the youth will kill the dragon who guards the ring, and Mime will get it by trickery. Yet Mime’s trickery is his downfall. He forfeits his head by playing a game with the Wanderer, where each must answer three questions set by the other. Mime spurns this heaven-sent opportunity to ask the one question he really needs answering: how to reforge the sword. It is left to Siegfried to do this himself, dispatch Mime, awaken Brünnhilde, make her his wife, with the Ring as a wedding band, and then set out on a great journey.

The final opera, Götterdämmerung, starts with the Norns, weaving the web of fate before turning to the Gibichungs: Gutrune, Gunther and their scheming half-brother Hagen (son of Alberich). Hagen brews a potion for the visiting Siegfried to remove Brünnhilde from his mind, and he falls for Gutrune. Hagen then uses Siegfried to help Gunther win Brünnhilde, gulling him into pretending to be Gunther. In this disguise, which was very effectively achieved on stage in this production, he passes through the fire and takes the ring from a horrified Brünnhilde. She has been unwittingly betrayed by Siegfried, and is now entirely confused. They swear opposing oaths on the tip of Hagen’s spear.

Out on a hunt with the others, Hagen gives Siegfried a second potion to recover his memory, and encourages him to tell the assembled hunters about the Woodbird (very well sung by Fflur Wyn) who led him towards Brünnhilde. This is news to everyone else and gives Hagen an excuse for killing him for perjury, and reclaiming the Ring that his father Alberich made. But as he reaches for it, the Rhine overflows, the Rhinemaidens take back the Ring and Valhalla comes crashing down. The best laid plans of mice and men, and even gods, are brought to nought under the forces of nature.

Such is a very brief outline of this immense and multifaceted story. Putting on all four operas in a season is a great achievement for a country festival such as Longborough. Indeed, it is a small miracle for which the main credit must go to conductor Anthony Negus. He gave coherence to the whole and great clarity to the musical detail, while encouraging superb performances from the singers.

In my earlier review of the first two operas here, I admired Julian Close as a strong Hunding in Walküre, and in the final opera he gave a gripping portrayal of the cleverly scheming Hagen. After he has set his machinations in motion in the second scene of Götterdämmerung, Brünnhilde’s sister Waltraute (a robust Claire Barnett-Jones) arrives from Valhalla to try and persuade her to give up the ring, but to no avail. For Brünnhilde the ring represents her love and union with Siegfried. She is blind to the fact that Siegfried’s death has been well and truly set in motion, helped on by Hagen’s unwitting half siblings Gunther and Gutrune, extremely well sung by Benedict Nelson and Laure Meloy. Siegfried is encouraged to swear blood-brotherhood with Gunther and choose Gutrune as wife-to-be. Bradley Daley sang this role as a true hero, rather than appearing the silly ass he can sometimes seem. In the early scenes of Siegfried, Adrian Dwyer made a splendid Mime, and as the Wanderer, Paul Carey-Jones took up his earlier role as Wotan and was magnificent.

Apart from Hagen begging the Rhinemaidens to keep back from the Ring, the final words of the Ring cycle go to Brünnhilde. She finally comprehends what has happened, and Lee Bisset completed a stunning series of performances as she appears to plunge into the cleansing fire along with her horse, represented by an actor.

With a simple staging, Longborough has realised Wagner’s entire Ring cycle showing that great opera is alive and well in modern Britain, as are the singers who can give it life. Under Anthony Negus with the Longborough Festival Orchestra, this is a truly breathtaking achievement.

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