Götterdämmerung

I love all four parts of the Ring Cycle, and Gotterdamerung is just as thrilling as the other three parts before it. This 1992 production is truly excellent, with my only real complaint being the very end, what was thrown in here seemed so superfluous that it pretty much single-handedly ruined the effect of the scene. Otherwise, it is a production that is impressive in visual scale, and musically magnificent with the orchestra playing with lushness and power and Daniel Barenboim providing an enigmatic reading. The singing is wonderful. Siegfried Jerusalem's Siegfried is both heroic and tender, and Waltraud Meier's Waltraute shows why she is today among the finest female contemporary Wagnerian singers(with the best Isolde and Kundry on DVD). Bodo Brinkmann and Eva Maria Brundschuh sing Gunter and Gutrune excellently, evocative and amusing, Phillip Kang is evil-incarnate as Hagen and Gunter Von Kannen is in booming form as dwarf Alberich. Anne Evans is a vocally and dramatically thrilling Brunnhilde, really coming into her own in her final scene. Overall, excellent even with the ending. 9/10 Bethany Cox

How do you review perfection? Wagner's achievement in The Ring of the Nibelung is unequalled. He wrote the music, the libretto and created the mythology. No-one else has ever come close to performing such a feat single-handedly. This Götterdämmerung is the end of my third time round this particular ring cycle from Bayreuth in 1992. It seems to me to be as close an embodiment of Wagner's vision as it is possible to get. Siegfried Jerusalem is again peerless as Siegfried and I particularly enjoyed Waltraud Meier as Waltraute. Obviously their parents knew that they were born to play these parts. Bodo Brinkmann and Eva Maria Brundschuh are amusing as the craven Gunther and his sex-starved sister Gutrune. Philip Kang, after playing the dragon in Siegfried, is suitably evil as their half-brother Hagen. But, after 15 hours of opera, Wagner saves his best until last and Anne Evans is simply magnificent in Brünnhilde's immolation scene. Then, in the final magnificent chords we see the twilight of the Gods as the Nibelung, Alberich, stares ruefully at the new, human order.

Oh well, after seeing this Götterdämmerung for a third time, I suppose I am entitled to nitpick just a little bit. The first scene, with the three Norns is just "Previously on the Ring of the Nibelung…" It is Wagner's way of bringing latecomers up to date on the story so far. Also Wagner is over-fond of love potions in his plots. Maybe, in a more innocent age, love potions were more acceptable. They were used in comedies such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and L'Elisir D'Amore. But in these days of date-rape and Rohypnol we are less inclined to find such ideas funny.

Brünnhilde weaves protective spells around Siegfried but, assuming that he would never turn his back on an enemy, she omits to protect his back. This appears a bit slapdash to me. Still, after Siegfried is duly speared in the back by Hagen, she makes amends by throwing herself on his funeral pyre. She exhorts her horse Grane to follow her into the flames. In one of the few moments where the production baulks at taking Wagner's directions literally, animal lovers will be pleased to see that no horses were immolated during the making of this film.