I hope meanwhile that the Royal Opera's management will allow Jones and his designer Nigel Lowery more time and money to finish the job and I hope that they in turn realise what a lot of work remains to be done. I reserve all judgment until, God willing, I see the complete cycle in a year's time. Yet there was no sense of the imagery accumulating to a great climactic statement, and other ideas seemed literally makeshift: why, for instance, should the hall of Gibichung be barricaded by a wall of large cardboard boxes (the stage directions indicate an open view of the Rhine this is not a society under siege) and why should Briinnhilde's appearance in the third act precipitate its collapse? The Norris are three twitchy Hausfrauen, ner- vously trying to decipher the runes on a great blind painted in Jackson Pollock scrawls when Hagen summons the Gibichung, they rush on like the Home Guard in their pyjamas and tin helmets the Rhinemaidens are emaciated creatures, limping around in shoes too big for their shrunken feet, enfeebled by the loss of their treasure - all this and more is origi- nal and illuminating. I felt cheated.ĭoubly so, as there were also scenes that were arresting and witty and powerful. duet for Siegfried and Briinnhilde, the journey down the Rhine, Waltraute's visit to Briinnhilde's rock, the murder of Siegfried and his funeral march, nor the fmal apocalypse had real life or coherence: drop curtains and blackouts are all very well, and I know that Wagner's music paints a vivid enough picture as it is, but we had come to see the Ring as well as hear it. Some of it was plain bor- ing - not an accusation often levelled at Jones' style, which usually errs on the side of being too frenetically interesting. Much of the time we seemed to be watching a blank canvas wait- ing to be filled in. At least I hope that's why the staging seemed so curiously downbeat - one which never matched the exuberant inventiveness which had characterised the previous episodes and one which disappointingly failed to reach the end of its several elabo- rately laid trails.
I'm not sure how much it's worth saying about the final instalment of Richard Jones' new production of Wagner's Ring, simply because I don't think he's finished it. Gotterdammerung (Royal Opera House) Jenufa (Opera North)
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