Barrie Kosky’s new Walküre, photo © Monika Rittershaus
Review by Colin Clarke
The first day of Barrie Kosky’s Ring (remembering Rheingold is the ‘Vorabend’) carried through various tropes from his Rheingold, of 18 months ago seen at Covent Garden: an environmental thread ,and the persistent presence of Erda (played here by Illona Linthwaite). At the opening of Walküre, she greets us again, a naked, wizened old woman who tends to rotate – the spinning of the earth, mirrored? – she is Gaia, the Earth goddess after all – and who in the final act inhabits a hole in the Yggdrasil, the World Ash Tree (prior to Brunnhilde’s installation therein). She might represent a dying Earth, but when she brings flowers to Siegmund and Sieglinde’s union, she reminds of the bountiful gifts of Nature. All is not yet lost.
Perhaps the most memorable image is not the denouement, that of the World Ash tree as immolatory ring of fire with Brünnhilde enclosed therein, but the set of fearsomely strong-voiced Valkyries carrying bodies of fallen heroes, charred, that disintegrate into ashes, a potent reminder of the transitory nature of the human condition. Nice, too, to see Katie Lowe as Ortlinde; her delightful Freia in Richard Jones’ production of Rheingold at ENO was impressive, too.
As an exercise in environmentalism, Stephen Langridge’s recent (2018-21) and awesome Ring in Gothenburg set new standards, and in comparison Kosky’s setting seemed well-intentioned but weak, and milquetoast environmentalism doesn’t cut the mustard. Act I shows us the back of the house before a drop, and then another, converts the space into a room, of sorts. A sword and a table appear – so the sword is plucked from the floor, not a tree. Yggdrasil comes into its own in the remaining acts, dominating the scenery; the idea of a tree burnt, dead, was inspired by images of burnt trees in news footage in Kosky’s native Australia. Hunding is a brutish policeman. The second act finds Fricka arriving in chauffeuse-driven limousine all fur coat and bling: the driver is Erda. Wotan is dressed in a suit, a symbol of superficial control that is soon to spin out of control.
Christopher Maltman and Marina Prudenskaya in Die Walküre © Monika Rittershaus
Lisa Davidsen must have been a huge draw for Sieglinde; her cancellation meant Natalya Romaniw took over in a generally terrific assumption of the role. After a somewhat quiet beginning, Romaniw’s voice offered all the heft required, revealing an upper extension that could soar, and did, particularly in the later stages. But of several impressive performances in the cast, it was Stanislas de Barbeyrac’s Siegmund that was the most notable. His Heldentenor status, matched with high sensitivity, is no surprise after his Florestan Fidelio (heard in both Paris and London in 2022). His voice is inexhaustible but never ugly, and he has a touch of steel when required, his cries of ‘Nothung’ (literally ‘needful,’ the sword) heartfelt and strong.
Elisabet Strid (Brünnhilde) and Christopher Maltman (Wotan) in Barrie Kosky’s Walküre, photo © Monika Rittershaus
Talking of the Gothenburg Ring, there Elisabet Strid had made for a show-stealing Sieglinde in their Walküre; here, she sings Brünnhilde, almost if not quite as impressive, her voice steely and yet, pardon the contradiction, she offers a very human Brünnhilde; Marina Prudensyaya, carrying on her role from Rheingold, was perhaps surprisingly not the most forceful nor memorable Fricka, vocally or dramatically.
Two characters were also found rather lacking. As Wotan, the besuited Christopher Maltman lacked the requisite gravitas for Head God, despite giving in the words the attention of a Lieder singer, his most notable trait here (and a very laudable one, at that). His farewell to Brünnhilde was astonishingly touching, though, and his second act inner psychological journey leading to cries of ‘Götternot’ carried real weight and understanding; a real result of his attention to the text. In recent years, it is Keel Watson’s astonishing Wotan for Regents Opera (in the Freemasons Hall performances) that remains indelibly lodged in the memory, a singer much missed and who should have graced the international stages much more; I doubt very much Maltman’s Wotan will echo on in similar fashion. Also, Solomon Howard’s Hunding seemed second tier against de Barbayrac and Romaniw, another assumption lacking in weight both dramatic and vocal; surprising, given the strength of his Covent Garden Ramfis Aida in 2022.
Illona Linthwaite, Stanislas de Barbeyrac and Natalya Romaniw in Die Walküre ©2025 Monika Rittershaus
There were some fascinating aspects to the performance, musically: occasionally, vocal delivery could move towards Sprechgesang, something encountered to fine effect (and historically justifiable) in the ongoing Dresden Ring under Kent Nagano, although there it was more pronounced in Rheingold. And the whole needs a master in the pit, someone who can see the large picture and who can drive the drama., that was certainly Pappano, at least the latter aspect: this was a Walküre that never dawdled, perhaps occasionally to a fault. And his Wagner has grown to see the bigger paragraphs; under him, the orchestra presented some astonishing moments of both power and delicacy, while the highlighting of Leitmotifs was faultless. Balancing this, the brass seemed to have something of an off night, at least initially, while the stings understandably struggled just a tad with some of Wagner’s admittedly more extreme demands. Pappano worked fully with his singers: there is a real argument that this was an ensemble Walküre, the whole greater than the sum of its parts. It is impossible not to be bowled over by the cumulative momentum of the final act, though; ovations were fully justified.
Seigfried is eagerly awaited.