

The masked walkers, taking miniscule steps, showed that. Siegfried and Brunnhilde live outside of normal time, at least when they are inside the ring of fire (as here). I said that I thought they signified Time. Others don’t.Īt one of the intermissions, a friend, a little flabbergasted, approached me and asked what I thought those silent, masked figures slowly marching through Siegfried and Brünnhilde’s love scene were. The symbols and signs and costumes and movement and colors and shapes, all so alien-looking, practically scream to be interpreted.

Director/designer Achim Freyer’s strange and wonderful “Ring” cycle production, of which “Götterdämmerung” (aka “Twilight of the Gods”) is the final installment, keeps a viewer on his toes. I never did come to a conclusion, but that’s not the point. Then I began to wonder what that computer screen might mean in the context of this “Götterdämmerung.” Then I began to wonder whether or not it really was a mistake. I kept waiting for it to get fixed, but that computer screen with those numbers ticking just stayed, and stayed. Obviously some other image or images belonged there, I thought someone had pressed the wrong button or something. On a scrim at the back of the stage, a computer screen with numbers ticking suddenly flashed on. There was a moment in the opening performance of Los Angeles Opera’s new production of “Götterdämmerung” Saturday afternoon which I was sure was a mistake.
