En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Fiona Williams

Verdi's rarely-performed masterpiece gets an intense, intimate outing with a very fine cast at Fulham Opera.

Ben Woodward, in his superb musical act of reduction with Fulham Opera at St John's Church, Fulham, has brought us a Ring of eyewatering clarity, raw beauty and visceral power. Cancel everything, and go. 

There are times a tarnhelm would come in useful. Limited to more conventional means of transport, this reviewer found that it took a ridiculous hour and a half to drive from Soho to Fulham, as a result of which I’m afraid I missed the opening scene of Fulham Opera’s Götterdämmerung.

For any opera company to mount a Wagner opera is a great undertaking. For a very small semi-professional opera company to mount the entire Ring cycle is a feat of extraordinary daring and perhaps madness. But that is exactly what Fulham Opera has decided to do.

Fulham Opera’s 2012 season is, once again, one dedicated to Puccini and Wagner. Last year, the company brought to stage Puccini’s Suor Angelica – the long-unpopular middle opera of his Il trittico – and the opening work of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Das Rheingold. This season, St.