This is the journey's end, so many hours before Valhalla is consumed by
that cataclysmic fire.

It's another fire that follows Wotan's Farewell, a less climactic, but more
sweeping and affecting moment, with a kind of love-death, condemnation and
forgiveness at the same time, surrounded by music of such sheer beauty that
time seems to stop.

At the end of "Die Walkuere," when it's done right, there is more than
a suspension of disbelief:  nothing else matters but the moment.  This
is the journey's end, where the time and trouble and expense and all the
discomfort of "getting there" disappears as a hush falls over the audience
and all melt into the music.  When it's done right, when it works.

Tonight, it did.  Passion, beauty and flawless excellence combined to hurl
the San Francisco Opera's "Ring" from last night's respectable "Rheingold"
into a new orbit, in tonight's red-hot, superb "Walkuere."

The cause? A conjunction of stellar performances over the soaring magic
carpet of Donald Runnicles' orchestra:  James Morris' best, most consistent
Wotan I heard since his first, 15 years ago; Jane Eaglen's soaring,
trumpet-call Bruennhilde; Deborah Voigt's superb Sieglinde.  Those four
artists created an evening that goes right into the War Memorial record
book as one for the ages.

Mark Baker's Siegmund and Reinhard Hagen's Hunding well supported the
performance, Marjana Lipovsek Fricka was convincingly scary, the Valkyries
(especially Claudia Waite, Elizabeth Bishop and Catherine Book) were doing
well in their evening-dress battle attire (but whoever is responsible for
Voigt's costume should be thrown into the dragon's cave).

Bottom line:  next to Runnicles, Morris, Eaglen and Voigt, the
responsibility of everybody else was not to screw it up.  They didn't.
Once again, there was no interference from first-time director Andrei
Serban:  he did fine (with the exception of his introduction of Bruennhilde
sitting on Wotan's throne, swinging her legs playfully, kid-like).

And so, the farewell was made, the Magic Fire surrounded the rock, and the
journey reached its end, with fulfillment, completion, tears and joy.

Janos Gereben/SF
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