I'll never be a Wagnerian, but Longborough's Götterdämmerung was a fine afternoon. And evening.

There are opera fans, and then there's the Wagner tribe.

Maybe it's the fact that Wagner isn't easy. Complex music, intricate plots and great length take dedication from the viewer. Maybe it's the fact that he's not completely acceptable, having been tarred with the Hitler fan brush. And Wagner opera certainly makes no attempts to be populist, with productions that are inevitably modern, challenging, and sometimes just downright bizarre. Whatever it is, these Wagnerians are unique.

Despite all these elements ... or perhaps because of them ... they seem to have a passion about, and a dedication to, their man that I haven't encountered for anyone besides Shakespeare. As with fans of the Bard's plays, these Wagnerians will happily see the same operas over and over again. They know them intimately and take joy in watching, and dissecting, each new interpretation.

Our fellow guests at Windy Ridge fell into this category. We'd gone up for our second opera of the summer, Götterdämmerung. They were Longborough patrons (as opposed to our humble "friends" status) who were contributing generously to the funds needed to allow this small, countryside company to produce all four parts of The Ring, one of the most difficult endeavours in all opera. They'd seen these operas all over the world, including multiple times at the Bayreuth Festival. One couple planned their entire holiday schedule around Wagner, and at least once a year did the whole Ring Cycle somewhere. That's all four operas, staged in order, usually in a week. (Something Longborough plans to do next year.)

I couldn't do it. Having now seen three of the four, I can say they've all been much better than I expected. They are magnificent stories, set to great music. Longborough's Götterdämmerung was a fitting climax to the series, wringing your emotions as you watch the train wreck of Brünnhilde's heartbreak and Siegfried's destruction. There are some great moments here. The trio of Rhine maidens' interweaving their voices as they try to talk sense into Siegfried is gorgeous. Hagen is a magnificently nasty villain, and the half-siblings he dupes into precipitating the story's crisis evoke real pity. They're not bad people; just foolish ones turned into the fall guys for a disaster. Siegfried's funeral march has to be one of the most evocative and dramatic pieces in the operatic canon. And you could hardly get a more dramatic ending than Brünnhilde riding her magic horse into her fallen lover's funeral pyre.

Problem is, she doesn't. She just sings over the body in a ring of red light. Modern Wagner is, so our fellow guests told us, all about conceptual interpretations. There was no horse and no stage pyrotechnics. Rachel Nicholls voice was magnificent; combined with her acting, she showed me that Wagner could create heroines as compelling as Tosca.  But I wanted her performing in a setting worthy of her.  There are no dragons. The Rhine maidens may wear blue, but they're sure as hell not swimming in a river. This one wasn't too weird, but we still had the Gibichungs barefoot in business suits. I'm not looking for fat women with braids in breastplates and horned helmets, but I'd like a bit more tradition. The Wagnerians would be horrified at my words, but The Ring is basically a Tolkein-style tale set to music. I want a Peter Jackson production.


An unfair expectation of a bunch of excentrics who decided to put on Wagner in their barn, I admit. What Longborough managed with Götterdämmerung was critically acclaimed by the press, approved by the Wagnerians at the B&B and enjoyed by me. My big learning for future productions? Download a libretto with the original stage instructions and have it available on your iPhone, as I did. (Because from our seats in front, on the side, we couldn't see the surtitles. Which could have been a disaster.) The original painted a detailed picture of a land of myth and legend I could imagine in my head, even if it wasn't shown on stage.

Beyond the theatre, we had the best weather we've ever encountered at Longborough, with blue skies and sun showing off the green patchwork of the idyllic Cotswolds countryside to perfection. I went for the low-stress dining option and ordered a picnic through Longborough (provided by the Cotswold Food Store and Cafe). Excellent mix of traditional stuff like salads, quiche, Scotch eggs and cheese. Far more expensive than assembling it yourself, but very convenient.