Bayreuth is not all Wagner. Norse Gods, heaving bosomed Valkyrie, magic swords, filched rings, Rhine Maidens, Val and sidekick Halla may all strut their Gesammkunstwerk stuff (note: pretentious use of Wagner’s peculiar spelling of his term for the complete artwork that was his Ring Cycle) all they like in that famous Festival Temple on the hill. It is a totemic, annual pagan ritual.
Jephtha at the ROH: compromise is not in Oliver Mears’s dictionary
In the closing moments, Mears delivered a coup de théâ which left his audience visibly shaken.
