Siegfried at São Carlos

Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon's wonderful XVIIIth century opera house, is staging a great new production of the Ring cycle by Graham Vick. This year it was Siegfried's turn. Graham Vick presents the Ring in a kind of comic book style which, at its best, is witty instead of silly something  seldom achieved by the numerous attempts to transfer to our day and age classic opera plots. (Peter Sellar's great D.Giovanni, set in the Bronx, is another exception). Personally, I found Siegfried himself, that curious mixture of adolescent bully and idealistic hero, not entirely convincing. But this is no more than a detail, albeit an important one, in what can be considered on the whole a triumph. A sure sign of success: the hours passed effortlessly and at the end the feeling was of anticipation for Gottardamerung.