The Guardian, 27 September 2012

Andrew Clements

Twilight of the Gods – review

"The ultimate Wagner Ring collection" proclaims the subtitle on this odd set, taken from performances of Robert LePage's production of the tetralogy at the Metropolitan Opera in New York over the last three years. The DVDs of that staging are due to be released later in the autumn, and this compilation seems to have been extracted from them. The bleeding chunks, two operas to a disc, are more or less predictable; James Levine conducts the Rheingold and Walküre extracts; those from Siegfried and Götterdämmerung are by Fabio Luisi, who took over when Levine was taken ill. Generally the singing and orchestral playing are ordinary – neither Deborah Voigt's unfocused Brünnhilde nor Jay Hunter Morris's nasal Siegfried is a performance to dwell on – but there are tracks to treasure. Bryn Terfel's singing of Wotan's Farewell and his account of the Wanderer's Dir Unweisen Ruf'ich Ins Ohr are moving; Hans-Peter König gives a black, implacable account of Hagen's Watch, while the easy fluency and almost baritonal richness of Jonas Kaufmann's Siegmund a joy, despite Eva-Maria Westbroek's tremulous Sieglinde alongside him.