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Opera

Our half-time scorecard on the Royal Opera’s Ring cycle

The urgency and scope of the latest production outweighs the missteps. But if you want your German opera less serious, less dark and much shorter, head to the Linbury Theatre

Richard Bratby
German noir: Elisabet Strid (Brünnhilde) and Christopher Maltman (Wotan) in Die Walküre ©2025 MONIKA RITTERSHAUS
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 17 May 2025
issue 17 May 2025
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  • Die Walküre

    Royal Opera House, until 17 May

  • Pimpinone

    Linbury Theatre, until 17 May

With Die Walküre, the central themes of Barrie Kosky’s Ring cycle for the Royal Opera are starting to emerge, and one of them seems to be wood. Not trees, so much; at least not as a symbol of life. After the rapid assembly of a world from theatrical nothingness (a bare stage), Hunding’s forest hall is simply a wall of blackened planks, with no World Ash Tree in sight.

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