English National Opera’s Ring Cycle, the first in over 15 years, is a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. It got off to a disappointing start in 2021 with The Valkyrie.
ENO is in financial straits and needs a success; and everybody who loves opera will want it to succeed. I hoped The Rheingold would be better. It isn’t. Once again, I missed the eloquence, the beauty and the majestic, epic Wagnerian splendour.
Richard Jones directs and Martyn Brabbins conducts. 2 hours and 40 minutes without interval is a long time.
The clothes look all wrong. The gear the Rhine-daughters wear in the opening scene, are particularly off-putting. The Rhine-daughters (no longer maidens) look like they are performing in a rock concert.
Wotan, the chief god, you will remember, steals the gold from Alberich in order to pay the two giants for the castle they built for him. Wagnerians who need a regular fix of The Ring Cycle will be amazed to find Valhalla is a cheap shed. A highly visible fire-extinguisher on its walls is the best joke of the evening.
John Relyea is Wotan. Leigh Melrose is Alberich. Christine Rice is Erda. Frederick Ballentine is Loge, John Findon is Mime. The production does the singers no service. They are badly directed, diminishing their performances and the impact of their singing.
The Rheingold ends with the promise of more darkness and destruction. ENO has already had to cancel Siegfried. The whole cycle is now up in the air.
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