Review of Das Rheingold 14 June 2016

DAS RHEINGOLD  Opera North, The Lowry

At last it’s here – the full Ring Cycle from Opera North, performed inside a week as Wagner originally intended. Richard Farnes’ interpretations of the four great music dramas, staged with real-time film backdrop, simple lighting and symbolic costuming by Peter Mumford, along with orchestra on stage and soloists at the front, have been widely praised since they began their year-by-year journey in 2011.

At The Lowry, although we’re in a theatre anyway, the enhanced concert-style presentation works if anything better than it does at Leeds in the town hall. Sightlines are easier, for one thing, and with this presentation they matter. And sound balance last night was excellent, the singers projecting straight into the auditorium and Farnes’ control of the orchestra ensuring that, while frequently thrilling and stentorian, it never overwhelmed the voices.

One thing I think was a mistake was to perform the work, all two hours and 40 minutes of it, without an interval. Opera North seem to have decided that if they were going to suffer for their art then we were, too. There was a clear impression at the beginning that the brass players had not even warmed their instruments up – since they knew they were in for a long session anyway – and by the end that they, and others, were beginning to flag. A break would have helped everyone.

The casting was not vastly different from the first time. Jeni Bern and Sarah Castle, returning as Rhinemaidens Woglinde and Flosshilde, were joined by Madeleine Shaw (Wellgunde), and the combination worked beautifully. Michael Druiett was again the imposing yet world-weary Wotan, in excellent voice. Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke once more sang and acted a remarkable, nervously deal-fixing, constantly scheming Loge. Yvonne Howard was lovely to hear again as Fricka, and Richard Roberts mean-minded Mime once more.

The newcomers (not to the Ring project, but to us for this piece) were powerful additions, all enhancing the performance. Jo Pohlheim, as Alberich, had possibly the best voice on stage and put so much into his character I almost liked him. Giselle Allen gave her panicking Freia a voice of inflected passion that was wonderful to hear. James Creswell, a bass of superb tone, was full of presence and swagger as the giant Fasolt, and Mats Almgren’s darker, sinister sound as Fafner complemented him perfectly.

There were moments of pure gold in this performance, some from lovely voices such as Ceri Williams’ Erda, some from Richard Farnes’ instinct for the lyrical amid the declamatory and the dramatic, some from the orchestra when it put its mind to it, that bode very  well for the remainder of the Salford Ring.

****

Robert Beale