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Rainbow Bridge Finale (Photo: Brescia & Amisano/Teatro alla Scala)

Mounting a new Ring cycle is the most ambitious – and expensive – undertaking in the world of opera. Wagner’s tetralogy tells an epic tale across its 15-hour span and putting that drama on stage costs a fortune. A Ring is the jewel in an opera company’s crown and five of Europe’s major houses are in the process of rolling out new productions. Barrie Kosky began a new cycle at the Royal Opera House last season; Calixto Bieito’s staging kicks off in Paris in January. Romeo Castellucci’s at La Monnaie ground to a halt when it went over-budget, with Pierre Audi taking over mid-cycle (his astringent Siegfried opened last month).

And then there’s Munich and Milan. Tobias Kratzer’s new Rheingold at the Bayerische Staatsoper opened just a day before David McVicar launched his cycle at the Teatro alla Scala. So much for Wagnerites to get their teeth into. And so many opportunities for leading Wagnerian singers.

To the Milanese booing the production team at the curtain call, I’d ask a simple question: what did you expect a McVicar Ring to look like? McVicar is not one for outrageous interpretations. This was never going to be Rheingold as a Netflix drama or set in a gas station on Route 66 or in a scientific research centre. McVicar’s virtue is that, although he will sometimes move the action to a different location or time period, he always tells the story rather than use it as a hook to hang his own agenda or concept. Another McVicar virtue is that his stagings always look handsome. And this Rheingold is handsomely done.

As befits a Nordic saga, there’s a timeless quality to the staging, a mixture of fantasy and fairytale. On a projection, a hand is held up to a window – or globe – as we are plunged into the bottom of the Rhine, the curtain lifting on three giant hands over which the Rhinemaidens cavort. McVicar and Hannah Postlethwaite provide an Escher-like staircase for the grey realm of the gods – McVicar loves a revolve – through which fissures of molten lava suggest the Nibelung realm. Nibelheim itself is dominated by a huge golden skull under construction.

Rhinemaidens and Alberich (Photo: Brescia & Amisano/Teatro alla Scala)

Emma Kingsbury’s costumes contribute to the timelessness, with a nod towards eastern culture. As in McVicar’s Strasbourg Ring cycle, masks are a theme – the gods rely on them to remain youthful and the rhinegold itself is represented by a dancer, whose golden mask is ripped off when a scaly Alberich, sporting curling horns that give him the appearance of a jester, steals the treasure. Towering giants totter on stilts, manipulating enormous hands and face-mask heads, assisted by topless male dancers in long black skirts. Dancers also accompany Loge initially, his six arms giving him a Ganesh-like appearance. Alberich’s spells are cleverly staged in a cloud of glitter, the skeletal snake being especially effective.

Katy Tucker’s projections plunge us beneath the water, while the finale is more aurora borealis than rainbow, but strikingly beautiful. At the end, the exhausted gods are barely able to clamber up the steps as the rhinegold dancer writhes and pleads at their feet.

This was meant to be Christian Thielemann’s Ring, but when he pulled out of Rheingold to undergo tendon surgery, he also withdrew from the whole cycle, replaced by Simone Young and Alexander Soddy. But this is still Thielemann’s casting and very classy it is too, led by Michael Volle as a fine Wotan, his bass-baritone a little pressurised at the top, but with outstanding diction and a world-weary presence as chief god. Okka von der Damerau’s rich mezzo made for a noble Fricka, while Olga Bezsmertna’s limpid soprano impressed as Freia. Andrè Schuen swung his hammer as Donner, his baritone a touch light at this stage for Wagner, opposite Siyabonga Maqungo’s exceptionally bright-toned Froh. Christa Mayer sang a resonant Erda, draped in long white hair. Norbert Ernest under-projected as Loge.

Frika, Wotan, Freia (Photo: Brescia & Amisano/Teatro alla Scala)

The best singing came from Jongmin Park and Ain Angur, sonorous giants, while Ólafur Sigurdarson and Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke threatened to steal the entire evening as dwarfs Alberich and Mime. Sigurdarson has a big baritone and snarled with plenty of bite to Alberich’s curse, while Ablinger-Sperrhacke’s Mime – costumed like a caterpillar – expressed huge glee at his brother’s comeuppance. Andrea Carroll, Svetlina Stoyanova and Virginie Verrez entranced and teased as the three Rhinemaidens.

Young is a very decent Wagnerian – a proper Kapellmeister – and sees Rheingold as a conversation piece. Here she kept that conversation flowing, the entire performance lasting a fraction under 150 minutes. After a few moments of dodgy coordination early on, the La Scala orchestra cranked into gear for an effective rather than an exciting reading, which matched the scale of McVicar’s ambition in this handsome but safe opening production.