Pappano has always had a special relationship with the Ring’s second part…and the Royal Opera House Orchestra rewards him with some of its most sumptuous playing. The cast in this 2018 staging would have been the envy of every world class opera company…But it’s Nina Stemme, as it should be, who defines this production. Generously voiced, she is essentially a lyric Brünnhilde, most moving when she tells Sieglinde that she is bearing Siegmund’s son.

There is some terrific singing along the way: Stemme’s strength of emotion and pinpoint negotiation of vocal intervals, Skelton’s clarity and an increasingly heroic sound, Magee’s sheer focus tapping the same level as her Strauss Kaiserin...Pappano delivers a further degree of the Rudolf Kempe-like lyricism – nothing overstated but no lack of power or motion where needed – that he found from this cycle’s first Rheingold onwards.

Warner’s Personenregie is detailed and convincing, the singing actors’ exposition of the text comprising a nearideal combination of lyricism with declamatory power...Magee’s Sieglinde is notable for vocal security, ample tone and emotional warmth…[Skelton's] interpretation adds up to an extraordinary achievement...A worthy successor to the great Wagnerian sopranos of the past, Nina Stemme’s Brünnhilde is as solid as a rock.