Ring leader

‘On Brünnhilde’s rock I drew the breath that called your name; so swift was my journey here.’ It’s Act Two of Götterdämmerung. Siegfried, entoiled in evil beyond his comprehension, has unwittingly committed the betrayal that will tip the whole vast drama into its final collapse, and at this point Covent Garden’s Ring cycle really does feel like it’s swept by in a breath. True, Keith Warner’s 2007 production is looking creaky. But there’s still no mightier assertion of an opera company’s ambition than to stage all four music-dramas of Der Ring des Nibelungen in the space of a week; and no artistic experience remotely comparable to witnessing it.

So, about that experience. First, there’s the sense of time simultaneously expanded and compressed; of epochs lived within the span of four short nights. I’ve heard Handel arias that felt longer than Wagner’s 16-hour saga. Second, and more prosaically, Network Rail caused me to miss Act One of Die Wälkure.