Detached Observations

In the first two instalments of the new Ring cycle at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Dmitri Tcherniakov’s fascinating, unpredictable staging was very much the dominant factor. Despite the assembled vocal riches – including Michael Volle’s consistently incandescent Wotan – and the quietly superlative musical direction of Christian Thielemann, both Rheingold and Walküre were extended exercises in universe-building, in which the governing logic of the E.S.C.H.E. institute (the fictional behavioral research facility in which the cycle is set) was established. For Siegfried, which had its première a mere three days after Walküre, Mr. Tcherniakov took a graceful step back to allow the music to occupy centre stage. Although the individual scenes remained meticulously directed and the mysteries of the institute continued to accumulate around…