Wagner's Die Walküre at Royal Opera: revelatory and apocalyptic

When Barrie Kosky’s new production of Wagner’s Ring opened in 2023 with Das Rheingold, the theme of ecological catastrophe was already abundantly clear. In the second instalment, Die Walkure, evidence of that catastrophe is ubiquitous. The huge horizontal, devastated fragment of the World Ash Tree seen in Rheingold returns here in Act 2, while the tree in Act 3 is hollowed out and shrivelled. The heroes gathered by the Valkyries in their infamous Ride have also been reduced to charred remains.

The naked octogenarian representing Erda, Mother Earth, returns (here played by the actress Illona Linthwaite) to witness with silent eloquence the despoliation of nature and the mutually assured destruction of the protagonists.