Well run-in after several revivals, the Vienna Bechtolf/Glittenberg Ring returns with two cycles to close this season – albeit with a couple of blips affecting the scheduled participants.

Firstly, Nina Stemme was forced to withdraw from Die Walküre in the first cycle due to ill health - to be followed by Jeffrey Tate, whose planned Ring debut at the State Opera also bowed to indisposition and whose role in the pit was subsequently shared between Cornelius Meister and Adam Fischer.

On this particular evening Fischer conducted, and Stemme returned to the role (Brünnhilde) she created in this Ring cycle back in 2008, joined by several leads from the original cast including Stephen Gould (Siegfried) and Herwig Pecoraro (Mime).

The Vienna Opera Orchestra was in fine fettle on this occasion, with some remarkable work in the brass section (only one minute fluff), displaying an overall homogeneity which earned well-deserved ovations at the final curtain. Fischer treads a conservative path in tempi, and (where possible) is considerate to his cast in dynamics. Overall  - as expected - this was a solid and highly competent reading.

Herwig Pecoraro’s Mime remains the most powerfully conceived figure in the piece, wonderfully multi-facetted, and indeed a towering achievement for this valued ensemble member. He was matched in clarity of diction and intent by Jochen Schmeckenbecher (Alberich), who was in excellent vocal form and who displayed his customary ability to penetrate the character and transport his message across the footlights
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Ain Anger returned as a sonorous Fafner, and
Janina Baechle gave a cultivated and unusually bright-toned Erda. 
Iride Martinez joined the cast as the latest Waldvogel.

Stephen Gould appears to go from strength to strength - his mid-range almost baritonal in weight and colour with an extension to a stentorian upper register in which only a couple of extreme moments appeared to tighten. His portrayal of the young Siegfried is also both charmingly and convincingly acted.

Nina Stemme, looking almost slinky in her silver off-the-shoulder satin costume gave a well-paced reading, with some lovely phrasing and piano moments. However, under dynamic duress and at the extreme top of her range, citric acid enters the milk pail revealing an instrument unhappy with Wagner’s demands.

The original Alberich in this production, Tomasz Konieczny, has now progressed to The Wanderer. Vocally impressive, with seemingly endless stamina and volume this interpretation must unfortunately be faulted on the diction side (an issue which in odd moments is also a Gould failing), and for a certain lack of unity between sheer vocalizing and the task of acting - detracting from an otherwise potentially monumental figure.

Nevertheless, an impressive evening all-round in which the 1st Act staging still steals the show.