Friday 10 June 2016

Article published in Manchester Evening News 10 June 2016


OPERA NORTH brings its complete cycle of Wagner’s four-part Ring Of The Nibelung to The Lowry on June 13, 14, 16 and 18. It’s a marathon, with start times of 4.30pm or 3.30pm for the second, third and fourth sections – and that’s how Wagner wanted it to be, a music festival in its own right.

The company’s achievement in putting a Ring cycle on the road – it’s already been seen in Leeds and Nottingham and goes next to the Southbank Centre in London and then Gateshead – is extraordinary, as is the fact that this Ring was born in four painstaking years, one part at a time, as the climax to a full opera season.

In theory it’s ‘in concert’, but Opera North hit on a way of presenting Wagner with more impact by avoiding traditional staging and scenery than many have by using them. They use film projection to conjure up the magical world of giants and dwarfs, gods and heroes, warrior maidens and lands beyond view … plus clearly captioned story-telling and visible translations of the texts, so audiences know exactly what is supposed to be happening.

There is also theatrical lighting and symbolic costuming, so the actor-singers can give their roles real character – and the orchestra (and chorus, when needed) are centre-stage, not just to do justice to the music but to make it clear that it’s the centre of it all.

Retiring music director Richard Farnes is the star of the show: remarkably, Opera North found at the end of his highly versatile time in charge that he was a genius in this style. Staging, design, lighting and projection are all by Peter Mumford.

The quality of singers is what makes Wagner work, and Opera North’s team, built over those four years, have proved a magnificent mix of youth and experience. Casts for the complete cycle are based on those for the original separate parts, though some changes have had to be made (even to the last minute – such is the perilous world of opera singing).

Among them I’m particularly looking forward to hearing again Michael Druiett (Wotan in Das Rheingold), Jo Pohlheim (Alberich), James Cresswell (Fasolt), Ceri Williams (Erda), Kelly Cae Hogan (Brünnhilde), Mati Turi (Siegfried) – and of course the amazing octet of Valkyries.

If you couldn’t get tickets this time, it will all be on Radio 3 in July and video-streamed later in the year.

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