Siegfried's high on adventure, but unconvincing in romance

After a month of almost consistent rain and chill, the sun emerged in all its glory on Saturday. A day after the afternoon I'd planned sitting next to a pool. Instead, it was the same time I was due to spend four hours in a dark theatre taking in the third opera in the Ring Cycle. Which really leaves me wondering, is God a Wagner fan (sending good weather to bless the occasion) or a Wagner foe (offering sunshine as a clear signal I would have spent my time better outdoors)?

We shall never know for sure. We certainly have evidence, however, that the London critics are fans, at least as far as Longborough's production of Siegfried goes. And though I doubt I'll ever be in the first rank of Wagner fans, I'll concede it was enjoyable enough to be worth the sacrifice of a few peak tanning hours.

Siegfried is probably the most accessible of the four parts of Wagner's ring cycle, even though it's the one least likely to feature any music the average person has heard before. It's a an adventure with a dashing hero who forges a magic sword, slays a dragon and rescues an enchanted, sleeping maiden. Good triumphs over evil and there's a happy ending. Of course, it takes three acts and about four hours of performance time to get there, so the faint-hearted should probably just give Sleeping Beauty another spin in the DVD player.

Part of the length is due to the fact that this opera, though part of a larger cycle, could easily have been broken into three independent dramas. Act 1 is a coming of age story, as Siegfried confronts his evil guardian, discovers who he really is and establishes the foundation of his power. Act 2 could stand alone as a rip-roaring dragon quest. And Act 3 is both our princess quest, and a fascinating exploration of the fears of an independent woman ... the valkyrie Brunhilde ... who is terrified she's going to lose herself when she gives in to love. (I doubt Wagner intended the feminist interpretation, but these days it makes the last act unusually modern and relevant.)

The Longborough company delivered to the standards we've now come to expect, with innovative but low budget staging, fantastic singers and acting that connects directly to the audience. The last is particularly important in this former chicken shed turned opera house, where the most distant seat can still see facial expressions without artificial assistance. Particularly noteworthy was American tenor Daniel Brenna (pictured above), who played Siegfried as brash yet loveable, innocent yet dangerous ... the dumb jock whose skill gives him more power than his intelligence knows how to handle. It worked brilliantly for me in the first two acts, though was a problem in the last. How, I wondered, could the magnificent Brunhilde fall head over heels for this self-centred lug?

And here, Wagner's music doesn't help. He does drama and passion well, but when it comes to romance he leaves me cold. Siegfried and Brunhilde's discussion (I can't call anything that long a duet) as they are falling in love is bombastic and powerful, but in no way was I convinced these two people actually cared for each other. It's the same reaction I had at last year's performance of Die Walkure when Siegmund and Sieglinde (Siegfried's parents) were supposedly bonding for life. With apologies to my Wagner-loving fiance, I still argue that Wagner can't touch the Italians for putting true love on stage.

In many ways, now that I've seen half the wring cycle live and been exposed to the rest of it on TV, I think Wagner was born to early and working in the wrong medium. I can quite clearly imagine the man producing, writing and directing a 12-part operatic mini series on HBO, with the full-fantasy look of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings or the recent Game of Thrones.

You may think that's too niche to see the light of day, but the modern trend in Wagner is wildly avant-garde. We recently watched a production on Sky Arts that saw the vakyries sheathed in rubber, flying in and out on cherry pickers in front of a giant video screen flashing space images behind them. It made Longborough's sparse, industrial set look practically traditional. The Wagner community is up for risk, so why not?