My first live Wagner was a Siegfried at ENO in 1979. The main thing I remember is how LONG it was (though things picked up in the final duet). Several TV broadcasts (several with Gwyneth Jones) and recordings got me more interested, but it was the Met’s new production of the Ring cycle in 1989 (broadcast on TV over 4 nights) that really sold me on it. The highlight was Jessye Norman as Sieglinde. She was excellent in Act I, but it was her short appearance in Act III that really floored me.

Compared to her, all the other Walküre cast members (including Hildegard Behrens’s Brünnhilde) seemed to be only trying to be heard—with varying degrees of success. When Norman opened her (cavernous) mouth to sing the Redemption theme, it was like the entire world had opened up as well. The sound just washed over you like a great river (oh, to have heard that live!), and her face mirrored the ecstasy of the moment. Did anyone ever have an expressive face to equal Norman at her best? Still, I can’t help thinking that (after all the chirping of the other Walkure ladies) somewhere she was thinking…”And that, ladies, is how it’s done!!!”