After two years the "Wagner sopranos" of Covid fan tutte of September 2020 (Brünnhilde Johanna Rusanen and Sieglinde Miina-Liisa Värelä) finally got to do what they had been hired to do: to sing in Die Walküre.

Anna Kelo's version is very comprehensible. It seems that I have only now started to grasp what the Ring is about. I've always thought that it is the directors' visions that have prevented me from understanding, but now I wonder if my own totally false preconceived ideas have been the cause. It is not large scale mythology at all, but basically psychological and intimate. Actually Die Walküre reminded me of L'Amour de loin ... I'm very much looking forward to seeing the rest and wondering what I will see

Tommi Hakala really should do something about his German pronunciation (as mentioned already in The Prequel). What on earth was he singing when Wotan seemed to say to Brünnhilde "Lass ich ihn den Meeresfrüchte"? If one knew the partition by heart one probably would know. More precision! Less Finnish sloppiness! But otherwise a good performance and a fine voice. Johanna Rusanen was a good Brünnhilde although with an unfortunate resemblance in looks to the comedian Ulla Tapaninen - only partly due to the costume. Also Joachim Bäckström, Siegmund, had an unfortunate resemblance, this time to an uncle of mine, which somewhat prevented me from seeing him as a hero. I liked the way Mikki Kunttu's lightning created spaces.

So apparently the idea of Anna Kelo's Ring is to set each opera in a different time: Das Rheingold in a mythical past, Die Walküre in WW2 period, Siegfried in the present and Götterdämmerung in the future. Interesting. I'm already looking forward to the possibility of seeing it as complete.