This new cycle, Opus Arte’s first CD release, was assembled from performances of the current Bayreuth stage production recorded during the 2008 Festival. It becomes the fifth complete Ring commercially recorded “live” (and only the third to be released) from Wagner’s own theatre. This history has certainly impacted on the released audio result in which the casting, at least as heard here, is not always a match for Christian Thielemann’s sovereign musical direction and preparation. The German word “musizieren” – with its implications of both “music-making” and “working ‘live’” – might be a good verb for this conductor’s work in finding and realising such a kaleidoscope of colours in Rheingold, or for his Karajan-like ability to bend and shape large structures, or for the style of his accompanying – try the Dawn duet in Götterdämmerung – which has a Lieder-pianist’s response to his singers’ texts and line. Thielemann also evidently knows how to make Bayreuth’s eccentric pit work for him, and shows – as does the recording – a fine ear for balancing this score as played with the instruments of today. The small print, so to speak, of Wagner’s scoring under the Rhinedaughters’ climactic cries of “Heia, Heia, Hahei” just before the gold is revealed, or the Nibelungs’ carting gold around, is never lost to our ears through a wall of modern brass and percussion.

Over the years Thielemann’s Ring, like all his Wagner, has been a continuous work in progress. The conductor looks to weightier, traditional Knappertsbusch-based influences more rarely than he used to – only in the big, martial rounding-up of the Valkyries – and elsewhere in the scene he no longer uses the unwritten voice doublings for the girls, the peak of the Wanderer/Erda duet, or the (in)famous Luftpause before the orchestra’s final statement in Götterdämmerung (Wagner’s “glorification of Brünnhilde”). Throughout he now revels in the lightness and impressionism of, say, Karajan or even Clemens Krauss, mixed with a rather infectious sense of humour that, as in the score, is present even in the supposed heroics of the Valkyries’ gathering or the forging of Nothung. This is, I suppose, a “fast” Ring, but Thielemann’s through-line for each scene convinces irrespective of the stopwatch.

The casting is uneven. It obviously represents an attempt to look for something new and fresh.The results seem hampered by some undercasting, a slightly eccentric selection in terms of blending with other voices and the inevitable fact that not all voices reproduce well. Albert Dohmen’s Wotan is noble and intelligent but, even with this sensitive accompaniment, acoustic and recording, just one scale too small. The perimeters of the role’s (essentially higher bass) tessitura do not lie well for him. Stephen Gould achieves an honest, sincerely sung, never belted Siegfried that is stretched by the big moments and rarely finds the juice or the ability to spin a line to thrill or to enchant us. Linda Watson, a committed, gamey stage performer, brings all the advantages of a former mezzo to the lower-lying or more meaty passages of Walküre and Götterdämmerung but is challenged by her higher-ranging Siegfried incarnation. Hans-Peter König’s Hagen has a bluff, unmelodramatic straightforwardness but he rarely sounds frightening. Endrik Wottrich’s Siegmund brings some credible dark colouring but the microphones are not kind to his rather nasal tone.

Of the other main players Eva-Maria Westbroek’s detailed, tortured Sieglinde is a delight, as are Michelle Breedt’s showy Fricka and Christa Mayer’s young Erda (which comes off well in the Siegfried duet) and Waltraute. Gerhard Siegel’s now much-travelled Mime is predictably efficient and accurate (although he rarely displays colours other than those of robotic madness in the role here – compare Erwin Wohlfahrt’s unforgettable heap of complexes on the Böhm set) while Arnold Bezuyen’s Loge sounds dry of tone but brings immense detail in dynamic and meaning. Andrew Shore’s Alberich is a taste worth acquiring – about 100 per cent different in his kooky innocence, goblin- and working man-ness to the black, sleek, villainous Alberichs of yore.

It’s hard to place this Ring – at present full-priced – in a market made even more competitive today by the number of “online” cycles to which keen Wagnerians will certainly have access. For Thielemann’s work alone, the set is essential. The recordists have done their jobs well. As a vocal experience however, despite good Rhinegirls and Norns to add to the strengths above, this is no bel canto feast and is outsung by each of the Bayreuth sets listed above.