This was an exciting and very promising start to the new Kosky/Pappano/ROH Ring cycle. And having seen the first part in the cinema, I am going to enjoy seeing the rest in that format.
The main visual image on the stage is of the (fallen) World Ash tree – here blackened and twisted – and the figure of Erda is omnipresent throughout – a very effective and dramatically appropriate idea, being the all-knowing one of what has happened and what is to happen. It was effectively used by the Rhinemaidens and, for once, Alberich’s attempts to capture them was reasonably convincing. The representation of the gold was very fine. It was shown as a viscous liquid that could be poured (it spilled out of the World Ash tree) and, gruesomely, in Nibelheim, it seemed to be pumped from Erda as she was there attached to the World Ash tree with tubes and metal bands. Its use elsewhere was also excellent – something that Alberich could squeeze over himself from a sponge/brain-like looking object in Scene 1, that he could lick and taste in Scene three and, in the last scene, something in which Freia could be covered (in a bathtub!)
The Rhinemaidens, with their smoky-eye makeup and black lace and mesh costumes were darker and edgier than usual and I was not disturbed by the lack of a clear representation of the watery Rhine. Alberich (almost a visual double for Wotan, both being heavily built, bald and generally thuggish in appearance was a smart and dramatically convincing idea, even if it did not allow for a clear representation form the parts of the world from which they came. He was very fine as a singer and actor (and the quality of acting and singing was exemplary throughout as it needed to be). Likewise the giants – not so physically but certainly, in their gangsterish, heavily tatted appearance was more than effective – and I loved the way they casually helped themselves to the ever-flowing drinks that the gods surrounded themselves with. This Valhalla, it seems, runs largely on alcohol. The Gods’ patrician polo-playing, jodhpur-clad ‘look’ gave an effective visual image as to how they regarded themselves (and implicitly others). Loge (is this part ever less than very well done?) was a twitchingly effective performer with the right degree of distance from the other gods.
There were a number of scenes and details of performance that were particularly memorable – the capturing of Alberich as a toad in a twitching bag was an effective solution to a tricky piece of stagecraft even if the dragon/serpent transformation was rather underwhelming. And the scene of Erda’s warning to Wotan was very powerful - something that it innately is and always should be. Here, only with the actress and the singing from offstage, the fact that she did not mime the singing was very effective and their embrace with her hands on his head suggested that she was communicating purely through her mind. The Nibelheim slaves were also a gruesomely effective picture, having exaggerated whole-head masks which looked burnt and scarred.
The entry into Valhalla was (almost) as powerfully overwhelming in its staging as the music tells us it is – although, while the falling multi-coloured glitter pretty much worked, it would have been even better if the spotlight high up at the rear of the stage had had more of a rainbow characteristic – but this is a very minor quibble.
Musically it was of a very high order. No one stood out as utterly exceptional – but no-one was anything less than highly effective and masterly. Pappano controlled superbly -and it was good to see so many of the orchestra wearing Musicians Union Fair Pay t-shirts.