Wagner’s Valkyries ride again in the Cotswolds

When Wagner inaugurated his own opera house in Bayreuth, it was for a performance of his Ring of the Nibelung in 1876. Built for him by King Ludwig of Bavaria, its acoustics are world famous, and  perhaps the closest we can get to it in Britain is the opera house in Longborough, where this year they are putting on a fully-staged Ring.

There is a tendency among non-cognoscenti to imagine that Wagner’s music is loud and powerful, but in fact much of it is gentle and lyrical. The reputation of loudness comes from such orchestral pieces as the Ride of the Valkyries. This appears in Act III of Die Walküre (the second opera in the four-part Ring), just before an angry Wotan reappears, furious that his expressly stated wish (that Siegmund must lose his battle with Hunding) has been countermanded by his favourite daughter Brünnhilde, one of the nine Valkyries (Walküren).

She, however, is merely carrying out his original intention: that his son Siegmund will be the hero able to return the Rheingold to the River Rhine (Rhein). Wotan unwisely stole it from Alberich, who in turn stole it from the Rheinmaidens and created the all-powerful Ring. In the first opera, Wotan and his partner in crime, the fire god Loge, trick Alberich, seizing the gold, the tarnhelm (a helmet that can hide its wearer in any desired disguise), and most importantly the Ring. They need the treasure to pay the giants Fasolt and Fafner for building their palatial home Valhalla, seen here in the distant background.

The production at Longborough shows projections on a backdrop within a picture frame — a simple staging that eschews the clever ideas of directors who want to tell us how imaginative they are. This is the composer’s creation, as he intended it, under the baton of the Wagner expert Anthony Negus. He is clearly intimately involved in everything, and they have put together a wonderful cast. Paul Carey Jones made a superb Wotan, dramatically expressive and showing the turmoil he is in after the earth goddess Erda has warned him to give up the Ring, which the giants demand as part of their payment. When the giants argue about dividing their payment, Loge (a very fine Mark Le Brocq) advises Fasolt to claim only the Ring. His brother Fafner immediately kills him for it, demonstrating to Wotan its ferocious power. As Fasolt, Pauls Putnins fully showed the feelings that this giant is capable of, as he regrets the loss of the goddess Freia, whom the giants had held as surety against non-payment of their dues.

In the second opera Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), Siegmund and his sister Sieglinde, twin children of Wotan, who were separated when young, meet again and fall in love. This fulfilment of Wotan’s intentions draws determined opposition from his wife Fricka, strikingly well sung and portrayed by Madeleine Shaw, who points out the futility of creating Siegmund as a free hero. She wins her argument, leaving Wotan bereft. He agrees to change his instructions to Brünnhilde, telling his daughter to support Sieglinde’s husband Hunding (a suitably nasty Julian Close) in the coming battle, but when she appears to Siegmund to tell him he will die, his reaction moves her beyond words. Brünnhilde decides to disobey Wotan’s new instructions, until Wotan himself intervenes and Siegmund is after all killed by Hunding. Yet he cannot abide the continued presence of Hunding, and his “Geh, Geh” (begone, begone) was given a strong emphasis on the second “Geh” (there is always a choice which it will be) and Hunding falls dead. Sieglinde is well rid of the husband she was once forced to marry, but having lost her beloved Siegmund she would be happy to die herself.

Brünnhilde won’t allow it, telling her she is now pregnant, and her response: “Rette mich Kühne! Rette mein Kind!” (Rescue me, brave one! Rescue my child!) showed fierce passion and was only superseded later when Brünnhilde names the unborn baby Siegfried, and Sieglinde sings “O hehrstes Wunder! Herrlichste Maid! …” with enormous power and feeling. This is Wagner’s lyricism at one of its highest points, beautifully expressed by Emma Bell, who was outstanding in the role. As for Brünnhilde herself, Lee Bisset was magnificent, and she and Paul Carey Jones as Wotan gave a beautiful rendering of their father/daughter relationship in this opera, particularly  towards the end when he bids her farewell. I shall await Lee Bisset’s performance in the final scene of the final opera, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), with bated breath.

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