Grange Park Opera has acquired a new chandelier for its theatre at West Horsley; a jumble of foliage and fairy lights that ascends into the roof pre-curtain, like in The Phantom of the Opera. It’s a fun addition, and very on-brand. This stockbroker-belt festival knows its audience. It raises and splashes cash with equal gusto, and it doesn’t overthink things. A Ring cycle – opera’s ultimate status symbol – has been on the cards at GPO for a few years. Now it’s arrived and the opening gambit, Das Rheingold, looks and sounds impeccably high-spec.
It’s designed and directed by Charlie Edwards, and the visuals are familiar but effective. Wotan (James Rutherford) and the gods are Victorian aristocrats dressed in tasteful monochromes, and their Valhalla is a realm of gleaming black floors and spotless white classicism. Between its stiff inhabitants and the droogish, top hat-wearing Fafner (David Shipley) poor Fasolt (Matthew Rose) in his plain brown suit stands no chance. The notion that Freia (Rachel Nicholls) actually prefers him to her own family is not a new or particularly subtle one but Nicholls, fearless as ever, plays it to the hilt.
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