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The audience for Götterdämmerung from Austrian director Valentin Schwarz’s infamous Ring cycle demonstrated the Bayreuth audience shows no fear in overdoing the booing for the creatives and lavishing too much praise on the singers. It seems something of a sport.

This fourth section of the Ring Cycle is undoubtedly an unsatisfying take on the great epic and the very final act leaves you shuddering from its awfulness. But then that is partly what Bayreuth is about, it has created a reputation for itself that balances very fine musicianship with out-there productions. Sometimes they work, take the huge success of Kratzer’s current Tannhauser, and sometimes they are just okay, including the current Tristan und Isolde. This time their Ring is dramatically a stinker.

The great concept is that the gold is a child, and children are key to the story as they are, of course, the next generation. The conception of children largely by Wotan is at the heart of the entire cycle’s raison d’etre so why not go one better and have even more children being procreated. The Ring has begun with Wotan and his brother Alberich (really?) fighting as twins in the womb, and the whole sorry affair ends with them seemingly reconciled back in the womb. 

By the time of Götterdämmerung, Siegfried and Brünnhilde are living in a comfortable house with their daughter who, it appears, has visions which she draws, is obsessed with horses and cherishes a toy horse. Brünnhilde’s own horse Grane is in this production an old man servant. All is not well in this household and Siegfried is bored with domestic life and goes off for some reason. The visions or maybe reality, who knows, include an appearance by the Norns and Alberich and a water pistol appears from under the child’s bed.

The Gibichungs are portrayed as ghastly nouveau riche occupying Valhalla. On their wall is a hunting trophy photograph with the zebra whose skin is on their floor. Gutrune resembles Stifler’s mother from American Pie while Gunther resembles a blinged up version of Riff Raff from the Rocky Horror Show, wearing a Who the XXXX is Grane t-shirt. A Christmas tree (nature corrupted?) is discarded in a fireplace and a good time has clearly been had by all. Hagen is a thug with a shiny knuckle duster more of which we will see later. When Siegfried appears, he is gagging for Gutrune and Brünnhilde is forgotten. The magical Tarnhelm that changes the wearer’s appearance is a yellow baseball cap and with this modern-day conceit of young people and contemporary teenage garb it must remain present throughout the production.

It is bedtime for Brünnhilde and her daughter, but their domesticity is interrupted when the disgraced Valkyrie’s sister Waltraute appears to warn her that she must return the ring, so presumably child, to the spooky-looking Rhinemaidens who have also now joined the party through a window. Next comes Gunther with that baseball cap, miming to Siegfried’s singing. For some reason he tied up the child before abusing Brünnhilde. Siegfried, too gets in on the act, appearing as himself in the closing minutes of the horrible rape and abduction.

Cut to a white box where Hagen is exercising with a punch bag and his father Alberich comes to see him. Along comes Siegfried with the captive girl and the Vassals then appear holding red masks (think scary Vikings). Still in shocking pink nightwear, Brünnhilde and Gunther enter the melee and she and Siegfried give their version of events, swearing on Hagen’s spear. The drama is very specific now, so Schwarz enables

Brünnhilde to swear vengeance for Siegfried’s betrayal, Hagen reminds us he wants the ring/gold/child while the still besotted hero is still transfixed by Gutrune. The director has to have some fun here, so he has a plastic bag with something in it for Gunther and the child, presumably now damaged goods, is rejected by Brünnhilde.

The final act is so disappointing it is an operatic crime. Siegfried has taken his daughter fishing with a cool box full of beer only they are at the bottom of a discarded swimming pool, presumably at Valhalla, with a dirty puddle of water and odd creatures making appearances. They are, of course, the Rhinemaidens.

Hagen joins Siegfried while his men, and Gunther with that carrier bag, look on from behind a fence around the pool.  Eventually Siegfried starts to remember what has happened, but it is too late, and Hagen kills him presumably with that knuckle duster. The child takes the baseball cap and goes off with Hagen. Much wailing and moaning comes from Gutrune who is joined on the pool’s edge by Gunther, the Rhinemaidens and the daughter reappears there too. The carrier bag?  Gunther throws it down to Brünnhilde who by now is dousing herself from a petrol can (fortunately she does not light the petrol but an odd small glass box with a white sort of pyramid in it and that is the Immolation Scene), takes Grane’s head out of the bag, lies down next to Siegfried and expires.

Of course, Hagen still wants the ring, but we know it is all going to end in flames. Only it doesn’t, instead we get a video image of twin foetuses hugging – very Stanley Kubrick – and that is the end.

You rather got the impression that the real drama of the night was yet to unfold i.e. the curtain calls which go on for ever and ever and ever at Bayreuth. So huge applause etc for the singers and conductor and, yes, vast booing for the creatives as they braved the audience.

The singing was largely strong, from a mixture of Bayreuth favourites, such as Christa Mayer singing Waltraute (the next night singing Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde), and established Wagnerians on the German circuit including a bright and young Siegfried from Klaus Florian Vogt, paired with a ravishing Brünnhilde from Catherine Foster.

We had captivating theatrical performances from Michael Kupfer-Radecky and Gabriela Scherer as Gunther and Gutrune, the latter clearly revelling in the outlandish characterisation.

 Engaging trios of singers exceled despite the grim costumes and stage direction given to them as Norns and Rhinemaidens.

Mika Kares sang as dark and thuggish a Hagen as you could wish for with a bass that resonated through the sweltering festival hall auditorium. Similarly, well sung and acted, the Alberich from Olafur Sigurdarson seemed almost like a presence that refuse to go away throughout the Ring story.

Conductor Simone Young makes her orchestra the stars of the show, drawing out delicate and distinctive sounds at times while at others allowing the momentum and sheer force of the score to take control. There may have been little to delight the eye in Act Three but my goodness this was heavenly on the ear.

https://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/en/

Tannhäuser. Bayreuth Festival, 2024 review : https://operascene.co.uk/reviews/a-refreshingly-intelligent-and-entertaining-tannhauser/

Tristan und Isolde, Bayreuth Festival, 2024, review:https://operascene.co.uk/reviews/a-tristan-und-isolde-death-cult-bayreuth-festival/