For Siegfried, under the platforms was a mass of cardboard boxes (linking back to the set for Das Rheingold), out of which everything came.
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John's set was simply a series of platforms, stacked up across the stage and linked by ladders. And everything happened, all the necessary details from the libretto, but without any of the theatrical dazzle that larger budget Rings find necessary. This was a deliberately low-fi production, still very much a Fringe Ring, but the strengths of Burbach and John's approach was the clarity and directness of the story telling. Wagner: Götterdämmerung - Lee Bisset in Act Two - Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival at Hackney Empire (Photo Alex Brenner)
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This was particularly true of Lee Bisset's glorious Immolation Scene where she was able to be quiet, intimate and thoughtful in a way that the full version would not allow, almost taking us into Brünnhilde's thought processes. Dove's orchestration is highly imaginative and whilst one or two moments lack the sheer depth and richness of Wagner's full version, for nearly all of the time we had the weight and depth of colour that we wanted, and what we lost in sheer magnitude we gained in moments which reach almost chamber intimacy. We thus had over four hours of music, and the young players of the Orpheus Sinfonia (just 18 of them) performing a truly heroic service. The two operas were performed as a double-bill (as Vick and Dove originally intended with City of Birmingham Opera) Siegfried in a single span of two hours, with Götterdämmerung in the evening with an interval. Designs were by Bettina John, and lighting by Robert Price.
#GUNTER ADVENTURE TIME PLUS#
Lee Bisset was Brünnhilde, Paul Carey Jones was the Wanderer, Freddie Tong was Alberich, with Neal Cooper as Siegfried (in Siegfried) and Mark Le Brocq as Siegfried (in Götterdämmerung), plus Lucy Anderson (Gutrune), Mae Heydorn (Erda, Flosshilde), Lizzie Holmes (Woglinde), Elizabeth Karani (Woodbird), Bethan Mary Langford (Wellgunde), Angharad Lyddon (Waltraute), Simon Thorpe (Gunther), and Simon Wilding (Fafner, Hagen). The adaptation by Graham Vick and Jonathan Dove was used, with Peter Selwyn conducting the Orpheus Sinfonia. The Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival Ring adventure came to a triumphant conclusion yesterday (6 August 2022) with the performances of Julia Burbach's production of Wagner's Siegfried and Götterdämmerung at the Hackney Empire. The Grimeborn fringe Ring Cycle comes to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion, telling this complex story in a way that was engaging and direct, with some fine singing and acting. Wagner: Siegfried & Götterdämmerung, adapted by Graham Vick & Jonathan Dove Lee Bisset, Neal Cooper, Mark Le Brocq, Paul Carey Jones, Freddie Tong, director: Julia Burbach, Orpheus Sinfonia, conductor: Peter Selwyn Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival at Hackney Empire
Wagner: Götterdämmerung - Lee Bisset - Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival at Hackney Empire (Photo Alex Brenner)