Sparkling cast lifts Wagner’s Götterdämmerung to new heights

“Bayreuth comes to Longborough”. An idle boast? Bravo chutzpah from a tiddler opera company cocking a snook at its globally famous rival? Overreach from “The Little Opera Company That Could?”

Not a bit of it. Longborough Festival Opera shot the lights out with a stunning production of Wagner’s masterpiece in the douce Cotswold countryside, only a stone’s throw from Chipping Valhalla, 2016 setting for that Brexit production, Twilight of the Prime Minister. David Cameron was not in the audience. Nor onstage.

This was my first visit to Longborough – and I’ve been missing out. The setting is magnificent, but elegant and not over-grandiose. Martin and Lizzie Graham, owners of Longborough House and founders of the festival, originally Banks Fee Opera, (a place, not a funding device) in 1991 are, to put it mildly, Wagner fans. Their daughter, Polly Graham is artistic director, with a sure touch that brings Wagner grandeur to an intimate setting. If anything, she uses that intimacy to add massive impact to the onstage drama.

I was reminded of Glyndebourne pre-refurb. A small, spare, auditorium, 500, the well-worn seats bought from The Royal Opera House in a yard sale; a decent orchestra pit allowing the sound of the in-house orchestra to reach every nook and cranny; well-considered sight-lines, the stalls sufficiently raked to afford an unobstructed view from Row N; a stage depth sufficient to lend perspective; excellent catering; and sufficient garden space for that English opera festival picnic. Good luck. The weather was freezing. I used the restaurant.

The feel was of an eclectic, loyal audience, keen to see opera. Conversation with fellow opera goers was welcome. Sadly, unusual. At Glyndebourne the impression is too often that it’s the audience that is there to be seen.

Dress code was mixed, from Cotswold farmer Barbour, through snappy white tuxedos, to yours truly’s favourite tartan trews. My Billy Connolly tribute-act outfit, unceremoniously banned in New York by the Metropolitan Opera Club on grounds of good taste. Theirs, not mine.

Götterdämmerung, although the last opera in The Ring Cycle, was written in 1848 as a stand-alone, but premiered at Bayreuth as the last of the cycle in 1976. I think it is musically the most beautiful of the four – others being, of course, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried. There is a freshness to Wagner’s recurring leitmotifs percolating the whole work, but no Ride of the Valkyrie overwhelming moment.

Except, perhaps in the closing scene, as Brünhillde mounts her trusty steed, Grane, and rides into Siegfried’s funeral pyre, consuming Valhalla, allowing the cursed ring to be taken from her ashes and returned to the Rhine. We are back at a fresh beginning for the world. The whole, relevant point of this opera cycle. Would it were that easy!

For readers unfamiliar with the plot, here is Longborough’s synopsis. Director, Amy Lane, made much of the roles of Hagen, the evil son of Alberich, the original poisoned dwarf who stole the gold from the Rhine maidens in the first place, and Brünnhilde. I overheard cognoscenti conversations at dinner criticising that approach, but it made sense to me.

Hagen is the arch manipulator. He moves the action forward. And having him as a looming presence onstage for most of the action added tension, working well. The justification for Brünnhilde’s prominence was down to inspired casting. Scottish soprano, Lee Bisset, thrives on “difficult” roles.  Liza in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades, Jenufa, Isolde, Kat’a Kabanova, Tosca. Bring it on!

On the night she was a mesmeric presence with a commanding voice underpinning her determined character. No fancy helmet needed and only a passing nod to the notorious Valkyrie body armour. She occasionally fingered a leather corset bought from a local saddlery. Never put it on.

Her performance in the final scene was stellar. Arms akimbo, symbolically astride Grane – thankfully only a projected image on screen – bathed in firelight as the world burned and the music soared.

This was a moment defining what opera is all about. The audience was wound up like a tight spring. So much so that a deep, barely contained silence greeted the dimming of the fires. Every closing second was to be savoured. Then, the spring was released. Mayhem. 

Hagen was English Bass, Julian Close, a rich, penetrating voice coupled with intense acting ability. He was partnered by Australian tenor, Bradley Daley, as Siegfried. If anything, Daley was insufficiently “serieux”, bouncing through the ups and downs of poisoning, posing as Gunther to free Brünnhilde, marrying Gutrune under false pretences, being speared to death in the back by Hagan. Bojo at a Downing Street Covid party, not really a hero of heroes.

But, Daley’s voice was true and he delivered high drama, particularly in the final scene when his raised dead hand, wearing the all-powerful ring, disposes of Hagan once and for all.

I take issue with the interpretation of Siegfried’s Tarnhelm, the magic helmet that allows characters to transform themselves and travel at will to other destinations. Much in demand in this era of rail strikes and border e-gate meltdown. Here, Siegfried sported a sparkling, brownish top hat. The sort of thing favoured by the Mad-Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.

Now, Tarnhelms are serious bits of kit. As important as Nothung swords and shiny gold rings. I see Longborough is promoting a Ring Cycle Quilt Raffle. I’m happy to sponsor A Ring Cycle Tarnhelm Drive, hosted on Diablo Wiki. No kidding.

Malcom Rivers, the company’s casting director, is a founder of Mastersingers. Their purpose is “to continue and develop the tradition of British Wagnerian singing at the highest international level. We take our inspiration from the celebrated conductor Sir Reginald Goodall, whose pioneering work at English National Opera in the 1970s and ’80s laid the foundation of great Wagner interpretation in this country.”

Rivers has a keen eye for talent and the whole cast of this production could have stood their ground on any international stage. His long experience in the world of Wagnerian performance is the stuff of an opera in its own right.

The thread of Goodall is bound as tightly into Longborough’s DNA as the Norn’s Rope of Fate is connected to the future of the world in the Götterdämmerung Prelude. That is largely down to the conductor. Anthony Negus, who has worked with Longborough for over ten years, is a Goodall disciple and an acknowledged Wagner expert.

In the 2024 season Longborough is mounting three “rounds” of the complete Ring Cycle, in June and July. This brings Bayreuth to the Cotswolds in spades. Bayreuth has always approached its performances of The Ring Cycle from a “political” perspective. Post-war guilt over the Wagner family’s history of cosying up to Hitler’s regime has resulted in productions being – to put it politely – untraditional.

Their infamous Rheingold featuring the Rhine Maidens as Edward Hopper motel chambermaids and the ring as a yellow rubber duck in the swimming pool, springs immediately to mind.

Negus and the Longborough production team are unburdened by such Bayreuth baggage. He approaches Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk – great artwork – not as a rebranding exercise but seeking to maintain “the humility of a great work of art”. His Ring will have no politically correct strings attached. Back to Wagner and the Goodall tradition.

And it will sound majestic. Negus’ ability to find spacious tempi to reflect the melodrama onstage from his top-class orchestra was amply demonstrated in this performance.

So, in 2024 Bayreuth – or what Wagner meant it to be – will indeed come to Longborough. This Ring Cycle promises to be an unmissable epic.

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