Grim Tale Told with Dark Humour: Simon Williams is enthralled by the final instalment of the Los Angeles ‘Ring’

If there was an abiding fault in the first three instalments of Achim Freyer’s production of the Ring at the Los Angeles Opera, it was his failure to tell the story clearly. He addressed this problem directly in Götterdämmerung, and the result was a production of great concentration and power that at last fulfilled the high expectations created in many when his direction of the Ring was first announced. Although it was not an unqualified success, this was one of the most exciting productions I can recall in twenty-five years of regular attendance at the LA Opera.