Tom Service [The Guardian, 3 October 2005]


The third act of the Royal Opera House's new production of Wagner's Siegfried, the third instalment of director Keith Warner's Ring cycle, is a victory for hollow style over substance, full of complex symbols but little emotional insight. Lisa Gasteen's Brünnhilde and John Treleaven's Siegfried fulfil their destinies together in the final scene as two gargantuan silhouettes on the revolving white square that has been a leitmotif since Die Walküre. This should be the climax of the evening, but Stefanos Lazaridis's designs and Wolfgang Göbbel's lighting take the focus away from Wagner's music.