English National Opera's new Ring cycle is still very much a work in progress and should, perhaps, be evaluated as such. The operas won't go into production until after ENO's return to the Coliseum next year. The Barbican semi-stagings, meanwhile, have shown us the company finding its musical and dramatic feet, sometimes with variable results. Last year's exceptional Valkyrie was followed by a Siegfried that failed to scale comparable heights.
Twilight of the Gods, however, proves to be a formidable experience. The only flaws are those of detail - they don't detract from the cumulative power of the whole, and there is time to iron them out before the cycle is complete. Much of its success is due to conductor Paul Daniel, whose handling of the vast paragraphs of Wagnerian structure is tremendously assured, and whose understanding of the music's visceral, narcotic qualities is impeccable. This is high-voltage, violent Wagner, played to perfection by the ENO orchestra, though there are a couple of moments when the intensity evaporates. The love duet between Siegfried and Brünnhilde is beautiful but never ecstatic. Later on, the scene in which the disguised Siegfried wrenches the ring from Brünnhilde's hand fails to plumb the requisite depths of horror.
Daniel may be holding back at both points to help his singers, Richard Berkely-Steele and Kathleen Broderick. Berkely-Steele, his voice strong and penetrating, is new to the cycle, and a vast improvement on Stephen O'Mara who sang the title role in Siegfried last year. Broderick, impassioned as ever, sounds steadier than on previous occasions, though she inexplicably cuts a couple of phrases in the immolation scene.
The towering achievement, however, is Gidon Saks's Hagen, a Mephistophelian figure, half-human, half-monster, who hatches his plots with disturbing glee and summons the Gibichung hordes with disquieting, quasi-fascist gestures, though he crumples in terror when faced with Andrew Shore's malign Alberich. As a totality, the performance bodes well for the cycle as a whole.
· Repeated on Saturday. Box office: 0845 120 7500.
