GETTING THE BIRD

RODERIC DUNNETT looks back with delight at
Longborough Festival Opera's new production
of Wagner's 'Siegfried'

Longborough Festival Opera's founder, Martin Graham, cycled to Bayreuth earlier this year, breaking two ribs and braving brushes with the Bundespolizei (he sang them Wotan's farewell and they let him go).

He needn't have troubled. Longborough's own new production of Siegfried  is a stunning achievement for an opera house in the wilds, now sprouting fresh follies and ornamental staircases, that was a chicken barn three seasons ago. In a sense, fancy Palladian facade apart, it still is, and that's a part of the pleasure. The acoustic is one to die for.

The graph of Longborough's Ring  Cycle goes up and up. Rhinegold  was promising; Walkure, a moving experience. Now, with Anthony Negus at the helm, the music better than ever, and a cast to kill for, their new Siegfried  could transfer very handsomely to the Coliseum or Leeds Grand tomorrow.

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