One hundred and fifty years on, Wagner's Ring Cycle remains the most ambitious project an opera company can undertake. It doesn't seem to have phased Grange Park Opera, however, as the company embarks on a five-year odyssey with full cycles in the diary for 2030.
Technical Challenges and Clear-Sighted Direction
With its aquatic opening, magic tricks and grand procession across a rainbow bridge, Das Rheingold poses a considerable technical challenge. All credit to Charlie Edwards's clear-sighted production then that the storytelling remains comprehensible even if the special effects hint at modest budgets. His set designs, especially the scene where the Rhinemaidens appear to float behind a scrim, pay homage to the 1876 Bayreuth premiere, while Industrial Revolution references bring to mind Patrice Chéreau's iconic centenary Ring.
Decked out in Gabrielle Dalton's elegant Victorian costumes, Wotan and Fricka might be Richard and Cosima Wagner themselves, especially as it's the woman here who's left to deal with the bills. The possibility that the whole thing might be Alberich's borderline psychotic fever dream makes for a richly woven tapestry indeed.
Pacing and Effects
Much of it works extremely well with the action flowing organically within the scenes. Getting from one location to the next, on the other hand, sometimes feels like treading water, while the dragon and toad projections, Donner's storm and the switch-on rainbow seem pedestrian. The nod to what was then the new phenomenon of electric lighting is clever, but the endless tinkering with a wall-mounted fuse box wears thin.
Musical Feast
Musically it's a feast. Harry Sever conducts a sure-footed and impressively detailed reading of the score, the music moving fluidly and the structural arc secure. The English National Opera Orchestra clearly relishes getting its teeth into some Romantic-era red meat for once, with all departments on exemplary form.
The performance is anchored by the heroically sung Alberich of David Stout. His transformation from bewildered prole to Victorian dandy is an original idea; his descent into madness a promise of things to come. James Rutherford is an authoritative Wotan, his ample voice pinging off the walls of the auditorium. As Loge, Mark Le Brocq is vocally expressive even if the Dr Strangelove tic feels like an overly oblique in-joke.
Cast Highlights
Among the rest of the cast, Christine Rice is a lyrical and surprisingly sympathetic Fricka with Matthew Rose a rich-toned, touching Fasolt. Wielding a giant spanner, Thomas Isherwood is a ballsy Donner while a hard-working Adrian Thompson makes more of Mime than most (with no extras, he takes great delight in wheeling the entire hoard on himself). Opening the show in style, Ailish Tynan, Olivia Rose Tringham and Charlotte Bateman are as classy a shoal of Rhinemaidens as you'd find anywhere in the world. Despite the heat and excruciatingly uncomfortable seats, this Rheingold is a promising start.
