Das Rheingold review – Opera North's back-to-basics Wagner feels like a liberation

Royal Festival Hall, London
This was a concentrated and riveting realisation of the first part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, with Jo Pohleim’s Alberich and Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke’s Loge particularly strong

During his visit to London in 1877, Richard Wagner was thrilled by what he saw of Victorian London from the river. “This is Alberich’s dream come true,” he enthused to his wife, Cosima: “Nibelheim, world dominion, activity, work, everywhere the oppressive feeling of steam and fog.”

Related: Exclusive: watch an animated guide to Wagner's Ring cycle

What perfect timing to bring this epic opera about power, greed, deceit, lies and self-delusion to London this week

Richard Farnes paces and moulds his Opera North orchestral forces with real mastery

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