Götterdammerung, Festival Theatre, London

A thrilling end to an intelligent 'Ring'

"If I weren't married, I might have touched up one of those kids." Wagner doesn't quite give these words to Siegfried as he leaves the Rhinemaidens in the third act of Götterdämmerung, but that's what you seem to hear in Tim Albery's new production for Scottish Opera. The primeval hero looks like a junior manager in a suit, and the girls are sexy teenagers in short white skirts and blonde wigs. After hours of boredom drinking cocktails in a trashy hotel bar, they decide to throw themselves at this tall, dishy male, in spite of his gleaming sword, apparently picked up in an Edinburgh souvenir shop. He doesn't respond. The whole scene is interrupted by gusts of laughter from the audience.

Laughter is not the commonest response to Wagner, but Albery sees that much of this epic is comedy. Yet his witty, irreverent spirit embraces high seriousness as well. The opening scene of the three Norns, with its limitless starry sky, recalls several eloquent moments from the three preceding Ring operas, for this production completes Albery's cycle. As well as modernising, he satisfies most of the impossible stage directions; fire is much in evidence, and the physical appearance of Wotan's ravens is a nasty shock. Hildegard Bechtler's designs avoid cliché but can be spectacular. Much of the action is backed by an ugly apartment block, but the Act Two wedding party is a brilliantly choreographed orgy, complete with strobe lights.

Elizabeth Byrne, as Brünnhilde, emerges as a significant artist. In a nightie and cardigan, later in a drab grey outfit, she rose to heights of burnished tone, her terrible commitment gripping the heart. Aptly, she looked older in this final opera, and the scene of conspiracy seemed almost kitchen-sink in its realism, with Byrne as the abandoned wife, her beauty gone, and Elaine McKrill (Gutrune) as the pretty, elegant, insecure girl who had snared the husband.

A further vocal treat was unexpected. The Siegfried, Graham Sanders, had a cold and was replaced by Matthew Elton Thomas. As well as being tall and handsome, Thomas coasted fluently through the part without tension or anxiety. The voice is not yet a ringing trumpet, but it is focused and mettlesome, a bit baritonal. And this artist looks completely at home on the stage. A real discovery.

The cast was uniformly strong: a massive Hagen (Mats Almgren); a camp Gunther (Peter Savidge); and a great Waltraute (Jane Irwin), whose tragic dignity brought the drama to a halt. Richard Armstrong conducted with space and edge, the orchestra blazing, and the chorus – its first entry in the Ring – was a thrilling surprise.

When Hagen, at the very end, was trapped in the very rope woven by the Norns in the first scene, you understood Albery's sheer intelligence, an overmastering quality that pulled all the various strands together. The complete Ring in this year's Edinburgh Festival will be a must-see. But don't bother trying to get tickets; both cycles are already sold out.