Arts Centre Melbourne
November 23, 2016

Die Walküre, the first part proper of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, is the most romantic of the four Ring operas and the one where the composer first overtly states his purpose. That love is his theme – between siblings, between father and daughter, even marital love (or the absence of it) – is set out loud and clear, not just in the passionate intensity of the many long scenes, but in the number of new musical leitmotivs devised to accompany each character and their feelings for their fellows.

^{Lise Lindstrom as Brünnhilde and James Johnson as Wotan. Photos by Jeff Busby}

In Neil Armfield’s production for Opera Australia, things shift a gear. It may be cold and isolated in Hunding’s claustrophobic hut, but far from the madding crowd frolicking on beaches or pressed into labour by Alberich, love may in fact blossom. Armfield’s Walküre symbolically begins with ice and ends with fire. Living in a wasteland of inhospitality and snow, Sieglinde’s marriage may be barren, but the capacity for love burns bright. In this eco-conscious staging, even the trees have been culled. There’s nothing...