THE VALKYRIE • ROYAL OPERA HOUSE LONDON
★★★★★☆
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
REVIEW THE VALKYRIE: DAZZLING KOSKY CONTINUES AT COVENT GARDEN
Following the fabulous reception of Barrie Kosky’s production of Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera House in London last season, there has been hysterical interest in the sequel, Die Walküre, with all performances sold out shortly after tickets went on sale in January. Together with conductor Antonio Pappano, Kosky lives up to expectations and delivers a dazzling staging of the second part of the Ring, blowing both the audience and the opera press away with five hours of musical drama of the highest international standard.
After a teasingly expectant, tantalising first act, which showcases the singers and orchestra but holds back a little on the stage design, with a huge, bombastic, soot-blackened castle wall as the only set piece, Kosky shows his class and strikes with the most beautiful second act of Die Walküre I can remember seeing.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
The scene opens with a menacing, foggy car park with no props other than five gigantic streetlamps in a stunningly beautiful lighting design, where Wotan is joined by Brünnhilde, before his wife Fricka trills onto the stage in an enormous Rolls Royce and steps out in a fashion-splash of dark purple evening gown with floor-length mink fur draped over her shoulders. The image is a flashy modernist crowd-pleaser, highly reminiscent of a frozen glimpse of an Edward Hopper painting.
It is now that Frika checkmates Wotan and shows who is really in charge when she demands that Wotan put a stop to Sigmund and Sieglinde’s incestuous love affair and clean up the mess.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
As in the first act (and the rest of the production), Earth’s guide Erda is aged, emaciated and stark naked, present as a witness to the truth as the story unfolds towards the Valkyrie ride, we will experience later in the performance.
The soloists and orchestra are formidable under Pappano’s baton, filling the hall with such a rich Wagnerian sound that you would think you were listening to a studio recording of the highest Dolby quality.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
What is happening is, quite simply, outstanding, and the audience does not hold back with thunderous applause and cheers when the lights go out after Sigmund is struck down with an axe by Hunding, ably assisted by Wotan’s despicable intervention.
Wotan is sung with great energy and stage presence by Grammy-winning baritone Christopher Maltman, while Fricka is delivered with icy superiority by Marina Prudenskaya.
Above them all shines Swedish audience favourite Elisabet Strid in the key role of Brünnhilde. A huge victory for the young Wagner specialist, who can also be seen in November/December in Christof Loy’s production of Tosca at the Helsinki Opera, which promises to be a journey worth taking.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
Australian Kosky has reportedly drawn inspiration from the scorched remains of his homeland’s apocalyptic bushfires in his interpretation, which intelligently plays on signature elements of the scenography from Das Rheingold 2024, including the reference to the ash tree from which Wotan once broke a branch for his spear, thus setting in motion a cycle of disorder that seems to have no end.
The climate agenda lurks as an underlying theme throughout the performance, without materialising in concrete calls to action or self-important agitation. The entire production is so imbued with artistic quality that one almost feels that the ticket prices up to around £300 per ticket are approaching reasonable levels.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
The Ride of the Valkyries has been seen in many strange versions, but in this take it is performed without horses, as Kosky has chosen to focus on the Valkyries’ mission rather than their means of transport. (Nothing beats Coppola’s combat helicopters from Apocalypse Now anyway.)
The Valkyries roll seven hospital double beds filled with the charred corpses of fallen war heroes in metre-high piles onto the stage before returning to Valhalla, where the dead soldiers will join Wotan’s special forces. The iconic, swirling music is, of course, performed to perfection.
Soon after, the famous final scene begins, in which Wotan condemns Brünnhilde to eternal sleep on a cliff ledge surrounded by flames that only the bravest man can penetrate. (Siegfried is scheduled to premiere in March 2026.)
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
The fire is set in a giant hollow tree in which Brünnhilde is hidden before the tree bursts into roaring flames in a technical bonanza that took Kosky’s set designer Rufus Didwiszus and his team of technicians almost two years to develop. It is absolutely crazy.
A poignant finale and a phenomenal ending to this highly hyped production, which remains faithful to its classical source material yet is interpreted and executed in a way that feels refreshingly fresh and modern, leaving no doubt about the five stars awarded by GOT TO SEE THIS and unanimous international press.
