American Gods: Simon Williams is enthralled by Santa Fe’s ‘Walküre’

The Santa Fe Opera’s long-delayed inclusion of Wagner into its repertoire continued this season with its first-ever production of a Ring music drama. Given Santa Fe’s earlier success, especially with Tristan und Isolde (2022), the production of Die Walküre was awaited with excitement, but at first sight, the permanent setting, designed by Leslie Travers, seems disappointing and prosaic. The entire stage is backed by a high wall with all the allure of monotonous façades common in 1960s public buildings, topped by a platform marked by red posts and festooned in a mishmash of red yarn, representing Valhalla; the stage below is littered with stained and rusty kitchen appliances. This Walküre, it might be feared, could turn out to be a dreary tale of grinding poverty and mean-spirited government, far from the exhilarating but anguished spirit of Wagner’s drama. Such fears, however, are unfounded. By the end of a thrillingly staged and sung first act, the set throbs with life.