Putting the knife in ... Peter Coleman-Wright (left), John Tomlinson (middle)
and John Treleaven in Götterdämmerung
Photograph: Tristram Kenton
Keith Warner's staging of Götterdämmerung, the conclusion of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, is on at the Royal Opera House until May 6. The ROH's music director, Antonio Pappano, conducts. According to the ROH website, "a ring has no end: the emotionally draining but exhilarating culmination of Wagner's great tetralogy this season also looks forward to the complete cycles to follow." The opera's "philosophical themes are matched by intense scenes of revelation, triumph, menace and the ultimate sacrifice". The Telegraph's Rupert Christiansen has called the production "a jumble of ideas that splurges and confuses and backtracks on itself". Tom Service deemed it "occasionally illuminating but mostly baffling".
Dave Murphy, Cambridge:
It made me think of sleep. It was overblown, badly staged and blowsy, to say the least. Beautiful music underneath it and some great singing.
Vanessa Green, 44, Belgrade:
This was an anti-climax. It didn't make me think about much. I actually feel that I've wasted four hours.
Richard Evans, Cambridge:
It was at least acceptable. I thought they messed up the flooding scene: it wasn't clear what had happened. And nobody can understand who the guy with the ginger wig who came on at the end looking like a mad professor was. Götterdämmerung is about sex and death. As with all Wagner, it's basically just a huge orgasm.
Joseph Oppenheimer, London:
The staging was pretty awful. Keith Warner has neither stage sense nor taste. Apart from that, he's all right. Mihoko Fujimura [as Waltraute] was the discovery of the night. Wagner is a curious mixture. When you get down to it, the ancient myths are merely a chance framework for very down-to-earth domestic passions and drama. It's about emotion. The best bit of tonight's production was Brunnhilde's bewilderment over her betrayal: "What's my man done to me? I can't believe it, it isn't true". Even though Brunnhilde was sitting in a ridiculous barbed-wire basket, the simplicity of the sentiment came through.
Peter Oppenheimer, London:
The director [Keith Warner] has an unerring ability to pick that which is least suitable and most literal. His staging is clunky, fussy and awful. But the woman who played Waltraute [Mihoko Fujimura] was fantastic. Unfortunately John Treleaven doesn't have the voice for Siegfried and has the stage presence of a gnat. I couldn't begin to tell you what this production is about other than an overuse of screen savers from the overhead projector. It's over-intellectualised. Götterdämmerung is a combination of old-fashioned myths that Wagner fell in love with in the same way that small boys fall in love with Lord of the Rings and a Nietzschean philosophy that doesn't really apply to modern audiences. But it's a good yarn and the music is wonderful.
Christine Corton, Cambridge:
This is the first Ring cycle I've seen. It rather made me think that actually woman rules and that she's the stronger partner, in the sense that Brunnhilde kind of takes over and controls Siegfried. He seems the weaker character and one wonders whether Wagner was a feminist.
Freya Edwards, London:
The end of the opera is the end of the Gods. It should be a tremendous finale, but somehow it was a damp squid [sic]. I had such high expectations and I'm very disappointed.
Erica, London:
We weren't too sure about the symbolism of the ring rising at the end. That seemed a little contrived. But it was spectacular and the music is very stirring.
Anonymous woman:
The whole thing was quite stunning, especially the pyrotechnics, and very emotional. I don't know the opera and I purposely didn't read the synopsis, so I wasn't sure how it was going to unfold. It was wonderful: a kind of fairy story.
Second anonymous woman:
The staging didn't appeal to me. If you could tell me what Götterdämmerung is about I'd be very glad, because I've seen it many times and I still don't know.
