A Triumphal Tribute: Richard Laing relishes a semi-staged but fully satisfying ‘Siegfried’

At their best, semi-staged performances of Wagner can combine visceral music-making with simple stagecraft and thoughtful Personenregie while allowing the audience’s imagination to fill in the blanks, making for a richly rewarding experience. On other occasions they can be dull and plodding, and the lack of dramatic vision can make for frustrating viewing. Happily, the London Opera Company’s performance of Siegfried at Smith Square Hall fell squarely in the former category: largely impressive musical standards were combined with efficient use of space and simple but clever direction to create something rather special, a fitting tribute to tenor Ben Thapa, Siegmund in the company’s Walküre last year, to whose memory the performance was dedicated.