I’m always interested in seeing novel takes on the staging of the Ring operas, but while I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the National Opera’s “American Ring” so far, I’m not yet convinced the Kirov’s Egyptian version works. All through the final act of Die Walküre, between the skulls, the wriggling spermatozoa, and lighting that occasionally painted the set in a rainbow array of day-glo hues, I found myself thinking that it looked as though they’d really taken their inspiration from the cover of the Grateful Dead’s Aoxomoxoa: