SIEGFRIED • LONDON
★★★★★★
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
REVIEW: SIEGFRIED—A NEW ARTISTIC TRIUMPH FOR BARRIE KOSKY
In a brilliant opening scene, Erda, the goddess of the earth, swings naked, long-haired, and emaciated from a charred ash tree, where Mime lives with the young Siegfried in a shattered forest hut among the bare branches. Barrie Kosky has staged the third part of the London Ring with a string of scenic surprises that blow the audience away.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
The opening is spectacular and unfolds as the magic sword Notung is recreated from metal scraps from the battlefield in Die Walküre. With the help of a gigantic Tinguely-like forging machine made of rusty gears, metal rods, nuts, springs, and scrap from a stripped-down bicycle, Siegfried succeeds—creating the largest, most magnificent, and most gleaming Notung sword I have seen to date. He raises it toward the sky amid a burst of pyrotechnics that brings the first act to a close to thunderous applause in a packed Royal Opera House.
And so we’re off. What’s unfolding is, quite simply, outstanding, and critics from the international opera press are remarkably unanimous: Barrie Kosky’s Siegfried at Covent Garden is an artistic triumph—visually, musically, and dramatically.
It is a production with mythical-psychological depth, dark humor, and fairy-tale fantasy, in which the character of Erda serves as a silent, observant presence and a central focal point throughout.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
A device introduced in the first parts of the Ring, and which is further developed here in a way that makes the opera’s long scenes vivid, intense, and surprisingly emotional.
In the title role, Andreas Schager is a powerhouse of energy and vocal prowess. With his interpretation of the bright, naive hero type, he is rightly regarded as the world’s leading Siegfried right now. Peter Hoare makes Mime psychologically complex—at once evil, pitiable, and strangely moving. Christopher Maltman portrays Wotan superbly as the supreme god who knows full well that everything is crumbling through his fingers.
Kosky’s set designer Rufus Didwiszus receives massive praise for an innovative, striking visual language.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
Act 2 takes place in a suburban-style housing development during an hour-long, uninterrupted snowstorm, lit only by an almost Edward Hopper-esque streetlamp.
Here, Siegfried slays the dragon Fafner—in this version, a formidable, human-like specter in a wonderfully Voodoo-esque costume of gold shards.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
In Act 3, the traditional rocky landscape gives way to a hypnotically enchanting flower meadow, allowing the finale to hit the mark perfectly in a hyper-romantic, almost self-deprecatingly effusive rendition of the meeting between Siegfried and Brünnhilde—with subtle nods to both Wuthering Heights and The Sound of Music.
Six stars from GOT TO SEE THIS for a fabulous Siegfried in London. The fourth and final part of the Ring, Götterdämmerung, comes to Covent Garden in 2027.
