Barrie Kosky’s Walküre sets Covent Garden aflame
Royal Opera House, 1st May 2025
It was nearly 20 months ago that the curtain came down on Das Rheingold, launching The Royal Opera’s new Ring cycle. But it seems like only yesterday, particularly when director Barrie Kosky picks up where he left off, a naked Erda (this time played by 80-year old Ilona Linthwaite) standing on a mini-revolve, hands clasped over her face in despair, just as she had done when Wotan & Co, showered in glitter, entered Valhalla.
We’re in the same studio, a blank (black) canvas for Kosky and set designer Rufus Didwiszus to play with, later populated by the same charred World Ash Tree, logging in another appearance, a giant climbing frame belching fog. Where previously molten gold had seeped from its decayed trunk, Siegmund’s blood now pours.