Before a note was played, the vicar said a few words. The Book of Common Prayer, he apologised, has nothing suitable to bless a performance of Wagner's Die Walküre. A quick skim through world religions suggests all are equally lacking in such vital liturgy. You can see why supplication might be needed. Five hours long and involving 100 performers, noisy percussion and brass and a good deal of incest, murder and superstition, the second opera in Wagner's Ring cycle is always a risk to our souls. On this occasion, the work's Cornish premiere being given in the unlikely confines of the ancient church of St Endellion, it was a threat to windows and masonry too.
Instead the reverend offered a line from Parsifal: "Do you hear the call? Give thanks to God that you are called to hear it!" Hearing was never likely to be a problem. The performance, one of three, was almost in our laps. Every inch of the church was used. The orchestra squeezed into the chancel, tubas poking up just where the altar would usually stand. Hunding's vicious horns roared from the vestry. The terrific Valkyries clustered near the shrine of St Endelienta. Brünnhilde's shriek of "Hojotoho!" mid-nave made the air vibrate.
That the soloist was Susan Bullock, now one of the world's top Wagner singers, who will sing the same role at Covent Garden next season, made it all the more extraordinary. She entered through the north door, framed in the sunlight by an arc of blazing red fuchsias growing wild in the churchyard. Later she strode up to the pulpit and, with a crucifix above her head, uttered hellfire warnings to the incestuous twins-and-lovers, Siegmund and Sieglinde.
Richard Berkeley-Steele, in herculean voice as Siegmund, brandished his sword triumphantly, celebrating his union with his "Schwester und Braut" (sister and bride) at the exact spot where many more orthodox couples have taken their vows. Rachel Nicholls, striking and vulnerable, was his Sieglinde. Her husband, Hunding, was Andrew Slater. Or rather, her husband Andrew Slater was Hunding. In life, too, they are married, as are Bullock and Berkeley-Steele. An entire new prayer book may be required to sort that lot out.
A few were new to their roles and made discreet use of scores. Since all participants gave their services free, according to St Endellion festival tradition, this felt entirely permissible. Conducted authoritatively by Martyn Brabbins, the cast also included other notable Wagnerians: Robert Hayward as a warmly lyrical Wotan and Sara Fulgoni imposing as his wife Fricka. As far as I know they are not married.
This semi-staging was put together in under a week. Despite a few wobbles it was formidable in its own right. Some of the audience had travelled from afar to witness it. Others have been St Endellion festival supporters since the late Richard Hickox ran it. This year pianist Iain Burnside is at the helm: his persuasive powers brought about this coup. The tenor Mark Padmore takes over in 2012. Next time you see Susan Bullock she will be adorned in union flag garb singing "Rule, Britannia!" as the soprano star at the last night of the Proms. To add yet more éclat, late news came that Hayward, suffering from a throat infection, would be replaced in the last performance in St Endellion by Sir John Tomlinson. Given his 20 years innings at Bayreuth, the Met, Covent Garden and elsewhere, this is like finding Graham Gooch back at the crease.
If you think St Endellion's achievement eccentric, the magnificent Wagnerian achievement at Longborough Festival Opera in the Cotswolds is only marginally less so. It is two decades since Martin and Lizzie Graham, opera-loving entrepreneurs of the most down-to-earth yet dreamy variety, started staging opera in a disused cowshed. After rudimentary beginnings they built a proper theatre 10 years ago and are making constant improvements. It is intimate in scale, with a lively acoustic and proper seats (500 of them) acquired free when the Royal Opera House was being developed.
Their goal is a complete Ring cycle in 2013, the composer's bicentenary year. This season they reached the third opera, Siegfried. The production, by Alan Privett and designed by Kjell Torriset, is cleverly suggestive, using minimal props and traditional costumes. Musical standards are astonishingly high. There's a world-class shortage of tenors who can sing Siegfried. In the American Daniel Brenna, Longborough appears to have found one. He has the right puppyish looks and lumbering exuberance, with a voice of gleaming steel, energetic and accurate to the end.
The Lancastrian soprano Alwyn Mellor, currently making a rapid ascent up the Wagner ladder, was an equally assured, impassioned Brünnhilde. Phillip Joll's sturdy Wotan, Colin Judson's snivelling Mime and Nicholas Folwell's bully-boy Alberich all left an impact. With the self-effacing wizard Anthony Negus in the pit and a deft orchestra, Longborough is in musically secure hands. Now they must raise funds for 2013. If you like nonconformity or Wagner or both, send them a cheque.
The BBC Proms were somewhat curtailed for me this week by extensive explorations of the West Country. But there was plenty to treasure. Stephen Hough's voluptuous performance of Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No 5 in a lively BBC Philharmonic concert on Monday, their last with Gianandrea Noseda as chief conductor, sounded exotic on Radio 3. Two BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra proms with conductor Donald Runnicles, heard in the hall, included cellist Lynn Harrell as a refined soloist in Dutilleux's meticulously detailed Tout un monde lointain.
In contrast to this work's drypoint beauty, Robin Holloway's Fifth Concerto for Orchestra – a BBC commission and world premiere – was lustrous and glitteringly orchestrated, with many surprising and highly original textures. Lasting half an hour, the first of five movements was particularly enticing. After a clangorous opening flourish, a wispy, airborne figure linked bolder, more earthy ideas. A mercurial scherzo and almost martial "allegro enfatico" showed off the BBCSSO's colourist skills. Another composer, Julian Anderson, is the dedicatee.
The Holloway was part of Thursday's Austro-German evening. Hillevi Martinpelto sang Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs with unshowy self-discipline. The leader was exemplary in the third song's violin solo. Wednesday's concert was all French. Runnicles, who looks flamboyant but conducts with a tight rein, led the BBCSSO and Edinburgh Festival Chorus in a diaphanous account of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloë.
The orchestra also gave a rampantly sexy performance of Boléro. The story goes that Ravel rushed in, dripping wet in bathing clothes, to play the score on the piano having written it on a seaside holiday. In collective empathy, we were all dripping wet that hot night, unfortunately not in bathing clothes. Given the TV cameras, that was probably a good thing.
