Watching Tim Albery's Scottish Opera production of Das Rheingold, we find ourselves siding, unusually, with Wagner's underdogs and villains. We sympathise with Anne Mason's proud, twitchy Fricka when we realise what an appalling husband Wotan must be. Alasdair Elliott's exemplary Mime, filled with frustration and timorous longings, hits painfully raw nerves.
Above all, however, we find ourselves aligned with Peter Sidhom's Alberich against Matthew Best's Wotan. This is partly because Sidhom gives the stronger performance, partly because Albery unflinchingly stresses the opera's crucial point: that Wotan and Alberich are essentially alter egos and that neither has moral right on his side. They look oddly alike as they pore over their rickety symbols of power: Valhalla is a precarious skyscraper, and Alberich constructs useless pyramids from the stolen gold. The difference lies in the fact that Alberich can enact what Wotan can only imagine.
Sidhom, keeping us just the right side of empathy, reminds us of humanity's tragic potential for monstrosity. In contrast, Best's Wotan, perilously reliant on Peter Bronder's spin-doctor-ish Loge, dithers in vicarious inaction. Gloriously conducted by Richard Armstrong, this is forceful, searching stuff - a formidable start to what promises to be an exceptional Ring.
· Further performance on August 25. Box office: 0131-473 2000.
