The Valkyrie
London Coliseum Until December 10
Rating: 
Not only is this Valkyrie a damp squib because the Magic Fire Music was banned by Westminster Council, but also because the Fire Effect from it. It also contains very little magic.
English National Opera’s music director, Martyn Brabbins, is no Wagnerian. His tempi can be unpredictable and his conductorship lacks the power of Wagner.
For once, the ENO’s singers were all British. However, not everyone is covered with glory.
Rachel Nicholls (above) is an interesting Brünnhilde, but why is she dressed up like an American teen off to a baseball game?
Brindley Sherratt is a rock-solid Hunding, which he certainly is despite the gratuitous physical violence that he must give to Sieglinde (Emma Bell)
Bell can sing well, but he lacks any vocal talent or sensuality. Nicky Spence, a promising Siegmund is yet to find chemistry with Sieglinde.
Rachel Nicholls is an interesting Brünnhilde, but why is she dressed up like an American teen off to a baseball game? Her command of the stage is not easy.
The major disappointment is Matthew Rose’s Wotan, who, though a credible hen-pecked failure, doesn’t project any of the nobility Wagner also intended.
Jones may not like Wagner. His Act 1 introductions of spurious characters are a constant. Act 2 has people riding pantomime horses. This is not the kind of fresh thinking that a director his size should present.
Act 3’s absence of a fire makes the ending pure bathos. Wotan spends much of his time hooking up Brünnhilde to a hoist so she can be raised 10ft off the ground (why?).
In the next five year, a new ENO Ring will be created. If this is as good as it gets, perhaps they shouldn’t bother.