Fringe Benefits: Richard Laing gets up close and personal to two productions in London

When mounting a production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, it does no harm to hire a venue which bears more than a passing resemblance to Valhalla itself. Freemasons’ Hall, just a couple of hundred yards from Covent Garden as the raven flies, is an art deco palace fit for any number of gods. For Die Walküre (Das Rheingold having been staged in November 2022) the self-styled ‘fringe’ company Regents Opera has wisely made no attempt to up-stage the building, with all its brass and golden pomp. Isabella van Braeckel’s designs feature the essentials – a sword, a rocky mountain-top – and little else, while Caroline Staunton’s nuanced direction brings the dynamic and troubled relationships between characters to the fore.