Die Walkure from Opera North

Richard Wagner Die Walküre

Kelly Cae Hogan Brünnhilde
Lee Bisset Sieglinde
Michael Weinius Siegmund
Robert Hayward Wotan
Yvonne Howard Fricka
James Creswell Hunding
Katherine Broderick Helmwige
Kate Valentine Ortlinde
Giselle Allen Gerhilde
Sarah Castle Siegrune
Madeleine Shaw Rossweisse
Heather Shipp Waltraute
Fiona Kimm Grimgerde
Claudia Huckle Schwertleite 

Orchestra of Opera North
Richard Farnes conductor
Peter Mumford director
 
Royal Festival Hall, London, 29 June 2016 
*****************

A fabulous evening and affirmation of the tremendous power wielded by Wagner's music.

Michael Wienius and Lee Bisset as Siegmund and Sieglinde

This was the much praised production  from Opera North, delivered in concert performance with generalised imagery shown on 3 large screens behind the orchestra.  These were mercifully abstract, close ups of running water, tree bark, rocks, while of course providing some flickering flames for the culmination of the Magic Fire Music.


Of the singers, the women were the trump cards: Kelly Cae Hogan's Brünnhilde treading a good line between strength and youthful high spirits, and Less Bisset's Sieglinde projecting a compelling vulnerability.  The assembled valkyries in the famous Act 3 were as near ideal as one could imagine.

Robert Hayward as Wotan

The staging was certainly simple but yet again one feels Wagner's Ring is better like this than fully staged.  In the early minutes one feared an entirely straight concert performance, with Siegmund and Sieglinde staring straight out at the auditorium.  However this was not to be the case.  Indeed the singers as a group were excellent in physically relating to each other and portraying the human drama.  Richard Farnes took a flexible approach to tempo to match the acting.  It had its down side in conveying Wagner's long arcs, but more than made up for this in supportign the emotion of the dramatic performance.  And his forces were in great form by the time of Wotan's Farewell and the sublime orchestral conclusion.