★★★★½ Lise Lindstrom’s Brünnhilde crowns climax of Melbourne Ring.

Arts Centre Melbourne
November 28, 2016

Götterdämmerung may be the longest part of the Ring, but it’s also the fastest moving and musically most sweeping of Wagner’s epic tetralogy. As in the other parts of his cycle for Opera Australia, Neil Armfield views it as a stand alone drama, but also allows it to reintroduce themes and imagery from previous operas, leading to a visually sumptuous blazing finale that asks us to consider many of the great themes along the way, not least of which is what is our part in all this. The staging is also blessed with a fine cast of singing actors, crowned by the intensely moving Brünnhilde of Lise Lindstrom, and the magnificent playing of the Melbourne Ring Orchestra under Pietari Inkinen.

^{Jacqueline Dark as Second Norn, Anna-Louise Cole as Third Norn and Tania Ferris as First Norn. Photos by Jeff Busby}

In the opening scene, Armfield’s three Norns, dressed as factory workers, are trying to repair what looks like Wotan’s romantic vista –the one the giants ripped their way through in Das Rheingold. There is no way...