Victorian Values: Wayne Gooding admires a resourceful presentation of ‘Rheingold’ in British Columbia

Review of Das Rheingold, directed Trompert, conducted Vernon, Victoria, British Columbia, 2014.

March 2015, Volume 9, Number 1, 57–9.

Never mind complete cycles, stagings of individual Ring operas have been such rare events in Canada that Pacific Opera Victoria’s decision to open its 2014–15 season with Das Rheingold was as surprising as it was welcome. Under the leadership of founding Artistic Director Timothy Vernon, POV has built a reputation over its 35-year history as a risk-taker, with bragging rights for (besides two commissions of its own) the Canadian stage premieres of works as diverse as Weber’s Der Freischütz, Strauss’s Capriccio and Daphne, Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re and Blitzstein’s Regina. Victoria’s century-old Royal Theatre, however, tempers the company’s ambitions. It’s intimate (just over 1400 seats) and acoustically very friendly, but the pit was designed for a vaudeville band rather than an opera orchestra. As a result, Vernon has had to resort to orchestral reductions to mount some of those Canadian premieres.