No Toast for Melba: David Breckbill appraises the final instalments of the Australian ‘Ring’

The truism that the Wagnerian experience is fundamentally a theatrical one might well be trotted out to denigrate the worth of any audio-only recording of his ‘music’. On the other hand, it seems excessively blinkered to suggest that Wagnerian ‘listeners’ have no interest in the theatrical, or at least dramatic, dimension of Wagner’s works – they most decidedly can, and often do. Unfortunately, a situation in which all dramatic components must be realised or suggested sonically seems unnaturally restrictive and exacting for performers accustomed to working in a theatrical environment, where effects can be achieved in (and through the interaction of) a variety of parameters, many of them visual rather than aural. Thus a recording made at a live, staged performance is bound to reflect the theatrical experience imperfectly.