A Wagnerian Mecca in Yorkshire: Anastasia Belina-Johnson joins the pilgrims in Leeds for the conclusion of a semi-staged ‘Ring’ cycle

Review of Götterdämmerung (concert perf.), directed Mumford, conducted Farnes, Leeds, 2014.

November 2014, Volume 8, Number 3, 67–8.

In the last four years, Leeds has become a kind of English Bayreuth, where Opera North has presented in yearly instalments its semi-staged interpretation of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Leeds Town Hall, an impressive 19th-century building constructed when Wagner was already at work on the cycle, was the only stage in Leeds large enough to fit his expanded orchestra. Three large screens hanging from the roof constituted the stage set. From the Norns’ twisted and broken rope to the roaring fire in Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene, Peter Mumford’s images, together with economical surtitles, guided the audience through the intricacies of Wagnerian drama.