This reissue (as in the case of the other operas in this series) brought back many happy memories of watching and listening to the ENO Ring at the Coliseum. Those who regard the Pountney/Elder period in the house as the company's most startling achievement tend to forget the glories that preceded it. I doubt if the 1990s, any more than the 1980s, will see an English Ring of the calibre of the one produced by Glen Byam Shaw and John Blatchley, and conducted by the irreplaceable Goodall. In this Prologue, Goodall's pacing does occasionally allow the performance to sound becalmed. It hasn't the propulsive energy of Solti (Decca), Bohm (Philips) or Haitink (EMI); in compensation it has an overall continuity of line and strength of purpose that few other readings have managed. I was astonished anew at the space given for the singers and players to achieve a seamless legato, and at the lucidity of the latter's diction in Andrew Porter's imaginative translation. It would thus be hard to conceive of a more satisfying introduction for a newcomer to the whole cycle, even if the standard of orchestral playing doesn't always match that on some more famous versions.
The sense of a closeknit, well-routined ensemble is almost palpable. At its centre is Emile Belcourt's individually enacted and accented Loge, very much the work's intellectual centre, a figure always ready with a rationalization of irrational behaviour. Belcourt is sometimes stretched by Loge's music, but makes up for that with his acute diction. Hammond-Stroud is a formidably articulate and power-hungry Alberich. As Wotan, Bailey is sovereign in tone and line, also in authority. Katherine Pring's noble-sounding Fricka is a fitting consort to this Wotan. Lloyd and Grant, as the Giants, sing almost too smoothly for such uncouth creations. Anne Collins is a properly distant and secure Erda. Smaller roles are all well catered for. The recording faultlessly captures the stage ambience, well balanced between stage and pit.'