An iconic staging of Wagner’s Die Walküre
The cast in this 2018 staging would have been the envy of every world class opera company. The result is just short of perfection
Published:
Wagner
Die Walküre (DVD)
Nina Stemme, John Lundgren, Stuart Skelton, Emily Magee, Sarah Connolly, Ain Ainger, Lise Davidsen; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Antonio Pappano; dir. Keith Warner (London, 2018)
Opus Arte DVD: OA1308D; Blu-ray: OABD7270D 240 mins
‘The cast in this 2018 staging would have been the envy of every world class opera company. The result is just short of perfection. What Warner shows us is the frailty of these characters. Emily Magee’s Sieglinde is terrified as well as in love, while Stuart Skelton’s Siegmund seems a kind of little boy lost. Sarah Connolly is a conflicted Fricka and John Lundgren a magisterial Wotan who cannot control his volcanic anger as he loses control of his project to save the Gods. But it’s Nina Stemme, as it should be, who defines this production. Generously voiced, she is essentially a lyric Brünnhilde, most moving when she tells Sieglinde that she is bearing Siegmund’s son and there’s that swell of symphonic sympathy in the pit.’
Authors
Freya Parr is BBC Music Magazine's Digital Editor and Staff Writer. She has also written for titles including the Guardian, Circus Journal, Frankie and Suitcase Magazine, and runs The Noiseletter, a fortnightly arts and culture publication. Freya's main areas of interest and research lie in 20th-century and contemporary music.