Grange Park Opera has embarked on a five-year journey to stage Wagner's entire Ring Cycle, with full cycles planned for 2030. The company's production of Das Rheingold, directed by Charlie Edwards, proves a promising start despite modest budgets and technical challenges.
Clear-Sighted Production Overcomes Technical Hurdles
The opera opens with aquatic scenes, magic tricks, and a grand procession across a rainbow bridge, posing considerable technical demands. Edwards's clear-sighted direction ensures the storytelling remains comprehensible, even when special effects hint at limited resources. His set designs, particularly the Rhinemaidens floating behind a scrim, pay homage to the 1876 Bayreuth premiere, while Industrial Revolution references evoke Patrice Chéreau's iconic centenary Ring.
Gabrielle Dalton's elegant Victorian costumes deck out Wotan and Fricka, who could be Richard and Cosima Wagner themselves, with the woman left to handle the bills. The possibility that the entire narrative might be Alberich's borderline psychotic fever dream adds a richly woven tapestry to the production.
Action Flows Organically, but Transitions Falter
Much of the production works well, with action flowing organically within scenes. However, transitions between locations sometimes feel like treading water. Dragon and toad projections, Donner's storm, and the rainbow switch-on appear pedestrian. The nod to electric lighting as a new phenomenon is clever, but the endless tinkering with a wall-mounted fuse box grows tiresome.
Musical Feast Anchored by Strong Performances
Musically, the performance is a feast. Harry Sever conducts a sure-footed and impressively detailed reading of the score, with fluid music and a secure structural arc. The English National Opera Orchestra relishes the Romantic-era material, with all departments on exemplary form. The performance is anchored by David Stout's heroically sung Alberich, whose transformation from bewildered prole to Victorian dandy is original, and his descent into madness promises more to come. James Rutherford is an authoritative Wotan, his ample voice filling the auditorium. Mark Le Brocq as Loge is vocally expressive, though his Dr Strangelove tic feels like an overly oblique in-joke.
Supporting Cast Shines
Christine Rice is a lyrical and surprisingly sympathetic Fricka, while Matthew Rose offers a rich-toned, touching Fasolt. Thomas Isherwood is a ballsy Donner, wielding a giant spanner, and Adrian Thompson makes more of Mime than most, delighting in wheeling the entire hoard on himself. Ailish Tynan, Olivia Rose Tringham, and Charlotte Bateman open the show in style as a classy shoal of Rhinemaidens. Despite the heat and excruciatingly uncomfortable seats, this Rheingold is a promising start to Grange Park Opera's Ring Cycle journey.
