You could hardly ask for a more exorbitant return to mainstage theatre than a production of the first part, the dazzling and unearthly prelude, of Wagner’s Ring. This Melbourne Opera resumption of life after Daniel Andrews’ longest shutdown in the world seemed like a fitting rejoinder even if the actual experience for an out of practice theatre critic was not helped by being seated up a flight of arthritis-challenging steps ––six rows back in the severely recessed circle (an instantiation of the gods if ever there was one) where a reviewer is placed only at a production’s peril and from...