War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
June 13, 2018

If the decimation of nature and the power of gold dominate Das Rheingold, it’s love and family that are the overriding concerns in Die Walküre, ‘Day One’ proper of Wagner’s epic operatic tetralogy. And whereas the previous day’s ‘Prologue’ packs a great deal of action into its two-and-a-half hours, its sequel takes its time to ponder deeply the matters at hand. Dramatically, it certainly runs the gamut, from a pair of loveless marriages, to a child’s first rebellion against a parent, with incest, a magic fire and an octet of flying Valkyries thrown in for good measure. As a work of art, it borders on perfection – not one of its many, many bars ever feels superfluous – and Francesca Zambello’s handsome production for San Francisco Opera certainly steps up a gear to encompass its manifold beauties.

Brandon Jovanovich as Siegmund and Karita Mattila as Sieglinde. Photo © Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Like Das Rheingold, Die Walküre also begins with water imagery, this time with a storm, eerily reminiscent in S. Katy Tucker’s bold projections of the kind of Gulf or East Coast hurricanes that...