Die Walküre review – Opera North's orchestra are the true heroes

Royal Festival Hall, London
Lee Bisset’s Sieglinde excels out in a strong cast whose preparation and musical discipline pay fine dividends in this second instalment of Opera North’s semi-staged Ring

In Die Walküre, second instalment of Wagner’s Ring cycle, the orchestra really comes into its own. It’s as though, in the course of writing Die Walküre, and particularly in Wotan’s farewell, Wagner discovers the orchestra’s capacity to drive the drama and its underlying ideas. It was a lesson Wagner was never to forget, so it was fitting that the Opera North orchestra, again authoritatively conducted by Richard Farnes, were the true heroes of this Festival Hall performance.

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

Continue reading...