The Valkyrie ENO at the London Coliseum

ENO’s The Valkyrie at the London Coliseum is a performance of stark contrasts. From the orchestra pit we have Ben Hur, Braveheart, The Return of the Jedi and on stage we are submerged in some boggy youth hostel where the ramblers are refreshing themselves with bottled water and tinned meat.

Sieglinde, no good can come from summoning a man, a self-professed loser who resembles your brother, out of your domestic fireplace…

Sieglinde’s (Emma Bell) voice carries the first act, with rich qualities of love, desperation and urgency. Siegmund (Nicky Spence), a malty tenor with befitting melancholy tones, puts on a brave performance battling a heavy cold. Hunding (Brindley Sheratt) is a man’s man, burly, powerful, intriguing with vocal prowess. It’s a shame he is a bit of a neanderthal wife beater. Why are you in this hippy commune when you could be auditioning for Apocalypse Now?

In Act Two, we meet our flawed gods. The one-eyed Wotan (Matthew Rose) puts on a bravura show but is let down by his red anorak and dodgy glasses. He aimlessly paces about, lacking the menace and grandiose gestures that are required of the leader of the gods. Please give this man a full-length gold cape, or at least a padded metallic coat!

Fricka (Susan Bickley) also unwell, walks her role with conviction, while Claire Barnett-Jones capably sings the part from a side box, her voice bold and colourful as she pleads with Wotan to spare Siegmund who he has condemned to die for incest. The pyjama-ed daughter of Wotan, Brunnhilde (Rachel Nicholls) is lyrical but her vocals are occasionally thin for the size of the auditorium.

The set has some nice touches, the cabin with a large girthed trunk housing the sword “Nothung”, the skeletal trees, the blanket of black ash and the suspended bodies… but it falls short. We need more bodies! More blood! More guts! We want our gods to be gods with authority and majesty! We want to be frightened! The pantomime horses and green waterproofed Valkyries just don’t cut it despite their obvious singing prowess.

Richard Jones’ (Director) modern, minimalist staging is at odds with the demands of the music. Martyn Brabbins proficiently conducts a mammoth orchestra with instruments and musicians flowing from every orifice – the pit, the boxes. The Ride of the Valkyries is a joy to witness; emotional, warlike, musical pyrotechnics at their best.

Westminster Council unhelpfully played the health and safety card and put the kibosh on the fire in the powerful final scene. We are left with the sleeping Brunnhilde, suspended from the ceiling, stripped of her god-like powers, without the ring of fire to defend her from being claimed by the first cowardly, namby-pamby man to come across her. Amp up the lights, project flickering flames, “Alexa, play crackling fire sounds”.

The Valkyrie is a performance of parts, massive colour and drama from the pit, some excellent vocal performances counterbalanced by damp and dreary staging. I am reminded of that urban idiom, “Go big, or go home”.

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Tickets for The Valkyrie can be purchased from the ENO website.

Maxine Morse  wrote this review of The Valkyrie as part of her opera critics training at the English National Opera. To see other reviews from her training see Satyagraha, HMS Pinafore, The Handmaid’s Tale, Cosi Fan Tutte, The Cunning Little Vixen and La Boheme.

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