Until relatively recently, productions of the Ring Cycle were restricted almost entirely to the largest opera companies which had the financial resources, stage facilities, and pit size needed for such a monumental undertaking. It can be daunting and has bankrupted more companies than any other operatic adventure. In the past few decades, however, Rings have been popping up in unlikely smaller locations, generally[...]
Wagner Notes
The centerpiece of Bayreuth’s 150th-anniversary season was the first performance ever of Richard Wagner’s “youth work” Rienzi in the Festspielhaus. Rienzi has never belonged to the traditional ten-work Bayreuth canon, […]
The Atlanta Opera’s recent performances of Götterdämmerung (May 30; June 2, 6, and 7) marked the capstone of a Ring project that formally began with Das Rheingold in 2023, though […]
Wagner’s groundbreaking, metaphysical romance Tristan und Isolde returned to the Metropolitan Opera on March 9 for the first time in ten years in a bold new production featuring Lise Davidsen, […]
Two events that occurred in Pierre Audi’s life on July 20, 1969–attending Tristan und Isolde in Munich and watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon–would heavily influence the lunar […]