Keith Warner’s erratic, largely incomprehensible staging of Wagner’s tetralogy concludes with a Gotterdammerung whose imagery and unfolding narrative barely dignify the music and libretto.
That the Tarnhelm is an impractical glass-panelled cube is, however, finally explained. It prefigures the Gibichung Hall, where Gunther is a spineless, red-suited ninny, sister Gutrune a slinky temptress involved with Hagen, an executive type with a penchant for garrotting and asphyxiation as sexual stimulant.
Hagen, apparently all-knowing, choreographs events, yet the New Age folk lurking at the drama’s periphery seem to disconcert him. They execute Brunhilde’s funeral instructions during Starke Scheite, upstaging the Immolation and finally inheriting the land. The meek perhaps?
Bizarreries en route to this rum closure include an ailing Alberich appearing to Hagen in an airborne row-boat, the latter inconsequently fiddling with red tie and red ribbon echoing the Norn’s red rope, Rhinemaidens as bag-ladies and Gibichungs sporting horned riot-helmets. Characterisation falls victim to visual silliness - who is Hagen? Inept stagecraft vitiates important moments.
However, Lisa Gasteen sings off words and colours the voice meaningfully, shapes Wagner’s long-breathed lines with consummate artistry to project a Brünhilde of commanding presence and sympathy - despite a hideous costume. John Treleaven’s engagingly boyish Siegfried was vocally somewhat hit and miss at the second performance.
Yvonne Howard, the excellent Second Norn, should rightfully be singing Waltraute, here undercast. Antonio Pappano’s conducting sacrifices the score’s architecture to momentary effects and fails utterly to integrate tempos. Siegfried’s funeral music becomes a crude quick march. This ROH Ring is a mess best swept away fast.
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