Lost in the Set: The giant high-tech set is not the problem with this ‘Götterdämmerung’, argues Wayne Gooding of the Met’s concluding ‘Ring’ instalment

Facing more hostile reviews of Götterdämmerung, the final instalment of the Metropolitan Opera’s new Ring cycle, director Robert Lepage and Met General Manager Peter Gelb were both in uncharacteristically defensive mode. Just before the production opened, Lepage wanted it on the record that he had done more detailed character direction than he was being given credit for in the earlier instalments. And after the opening, Gelb, in a remarkable interview about his regime at the Met with the New York Times chief music critic Anthony Tommasini, conceded that ‘revolutionary’ was after all probably not the right descriptor for the new Ring, and noted that he had been ‘complaining bitterly’ about the unmusical noises made by the huge scenic set all along.