First Night: Das Rheingold, Royal Opera House, London

The overture to Das Rheingold is one of classical music’s boldest strokes, as a single bass note slowly expands upwards into a vast major chord, whose eddying ramifications remain static and unchanged for 136 bars. Under Valery Gergiev’s febrile beat, the Mariinsky orchestra beautifully realises this effect, and for the next 150 minutes faithfully reflects every colour-shift in this opera’s majestic musical journey. As the first full Russian production of ‘The Ring’ since 1914,…
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