A major work of the lyric repertoire, Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen was designed as a dramatic festival with one prologue (Das Rheingold) and three days (Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung).

Given the sheer scale of the artistic and technical demands, not to mention the financial commitment, a complete performance remains a huge challenge for any opera house - big or small. But opportunities are rarely afforded for one to appreciate a complete cycle in a single setting and to discover the different works in their dramatic and musical continuity. However, Dijon Opera - in celebration of Wagner's bicentenary - did just that and their Ring was presented over two days and that, of course, meant for a good bit of editing to the score.

One of the noticeable cuts was Fasolt's killing of Fafner, the first to fall to the Ring's dreaded curse and another was the passionate and moving musical scenario surrounding Siegmund and Sieglinde's first encounter, while Hagen and the Vassals' Chorus - a big and exciting scene in Götterdämmerung - was but a distant dream!

As for casting, Dijon Opera's director, Laurent Joyeux, did extremely well. In fact, there wasn't a weak link in the whole of the performing chain. Sabine Hogrefe, was brilliant and astonishingly youthful and energetic in the pivotal role of Brünnhilde possessing a lovely rich and textured voice while heldentenor, Daniel Brenna, whose performances have ignited the British and German stages over the past few years, proved a worthy Siegfried and also took on the role of Siegmund as well. But full credit must go to Florian Simson as Mime. What a voice! So articulate and clear.

Francisco-Javier Borda and Christian Hübner (Fasolt and Fafner) sang with gusto and strength, too, and fitted their characters from head to toe while mezzo-sopranos - Manuela Bress (Fricka) and Katja Starke (Erda) - were simply divine not only in their singing but in their stage craft as well. In the second act of Walküre, Bress illuminated the stage in her tête-à-tête with Wotan giving him a good piece of her mind.

The staging and set design was not over fussy either. One was greeted by a snow-covered landscape in Das Rhinegold with the Rhinemaidens - Woglinde, Flosshilde and Wellgunde (Freia Hanne Roos, Anna Wall and Cathy van Roy) - not splashing about in the mighty Rhine and fooling and hiding behind rocks but enjoying a snowball fight robed in long-flowing white dresses and teasing Alberich (Nicholas Folwell) in their tantalising and usual way.

Thomas Bauer, gets full marks for his interpretation of Wotan which he sang with edgy nervousness and impatience which, I think, the role demands and Andrew Zimmerman craftily portrayed his scheming side-kick Loge. Both were turned out in long-bodied 19th-century style tailcoats complete with top-hats as befitting their standing in society as paper-mill bosses. Valhalla was seen as a well-stocked library harbouring, maybe, some of Erda's infinite wisdom and the Tarnhelm's magic was cleverly superimposed by video back-projection.

'Knowledge' was, indeed, the 'gold' of this production. Siegmund's broken weapons were books carried in a baggy-leather case, the Ring came from a book and the forest (the source of all paper) was represented as pages from a book. And Brünnhilde's rock suggested a large swan-like sculpture of origami that wouldn't be amiss in Lohengrin.

When one meets Brünnhilde in act two of Walküre she's having a ball diving into her 'dressing-up basket' pulling out (and donning) a 19th-century style winged helmet (of Wagner's day) and complete with heraldic shield rode into battle straddled across the basket as if mounted on her beloved stallion Grane while her sister Valkyries were dutifully turned out in gold-braided military-type uniforms. Fricka, on the other hand, could have stepped out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting attired in a long-flowing Burgundy-coloured dress adorned with flaming red shoulder-length hair.

The production was very enterprising in so many ways and although Götterdämmerung didn't have the big fiery ending that one usually encounters the simplicity in Dijon's staging proved to be truly rewarding. The Rhinemaidens were nowhere to be seen, the Ring found its way back to the book from whence it came with Brünnhilde offering it to a young boy - who in Siegfried was one of six boy trebles representing a flock of woodbirds complete with Peter Pan-type wings and white paper hats - to harbour its knowledge and counter its wisdom. The end comes as Brünnhilde rides with Grane into the flames of burning Valhalla but in this production she simply falls drained and exhausted to the floor, a bare stage. The twilight of the Gods is complete.

One of the highlights for me, however, was the forging of Nothung. The scene was as simple (and effective) as they come and it proved a nice innovative touch from a director who has to be congratulated every inch of the way. Mime was busy working from a big desk perhaps formulating the equation in which to forge an invincible sword to kill the dragon Fafner while Siegfried was dutifully placed at a much smaller desk completely bored and uninterested and up to his eyes in paper. The pupil always outstrips the master, so the saying goes, and for a brief moment Siegfried takes to the big desk while Mime's fate at his hand was as dramatic as ever I've seen.

And this was the first time that I have seen Dijon Opera and I must say that I was mightily impressed by what I saw let alone impressed by the simplicity and comfort of their 1987-built theatre which complements very nicely their smaller Baroque-designed house that lie in the heart of Dijon's old town. Simply referred to as 'The Auditorium', the deep-sunken orchestra pit reminded me so much of Bayreuth's pit while the stalls possessed a steep rake thereby offering perfect sightlines to the stage from all angles while comfortable and spacious seating made life watching opera, especially Wagner, true bliss.

Plus the all-important acoustics were impressive and second to none. In fact, they were so good that I thought (and I thought wrong) that the theatre was equipped with a sound reinforcement system aiding acoustic enhancement.

Daniel Kawka - whose Tristan und Isolde for Dijon in 2009 won enthusiastic praise from audiences and critics alike - was the man in the pit conducting the Richard Wagner European Orchestra and getting from his charges a strong, balanced and disciplined reading of Wagner's rich and colourful score while not overshadowing any of the stage action whatsoever.

Wagner's anniversary also provided a platform to place his music in perspective and examine what it represents in terms of material for a living composer. To this end Joyeux commissioned Dijon's composer-in-residence, Brice Pauset, to write two preludes each lasting about 20 minutes' long.

Das Rheingold was preceded by Die Alte Frau, a piece introducing the characters of the Ring and questioning one's relationship to this monumental work, the revolutionary spirit in which it was born and the traces it has left behind. Siegfried in turn was preceded by Die Drei Nornen, a piece based on a text from an initial version of a scene from the Ring dating from 1848 but never set to music by Wagner.

To mirror the cycle, Dijon Opera mounted an extremely interesting and detailed foyer exhibition devoted to the unpublished archives of Wagner's granddaughter, Friedelind Wagner, comprising letters, photographs and writings taken during rehearsals by Maestro Toscanini during the Second World War. Furthermore, in a laudable attempt to make Wagner accessible to a greater number of people and, indeed, as Wagner originally intended, the performances were reasonably priced with tickets ranging from 5€ to 25€ for a full cycle with top prices set at 150€. I'm glad to say that all of the performances had a good contingent of young people outlining the fact that Dijon's price strategy worked.