Another woman who frequents Bayreuth told me, “It’s refreshing to be able to just sit back and enjoy the show without trying to make sense of something that’s weird or bizarre. Many of the other audience members with whom I spoke over the course of the week echoed her sentiments. “The great thing about this Ring Cycle is that I don’t have to figure out what the director is trying to convey! Here what you see is what you get,” said Monika Whitaker, a Bavarian Ring Head who now resides in Los Angeles. Luckily for me, I was able to catch the first of this Ring’s final set of three cycles at McCaw Hall, and see for myself that Wadsworth is indeed among the few left who has the ability to balance a sense respect for Wagner’s legacy with his own creativity. It has always been my belief that the mark of a true artist is humility, and that it is the duty of the performer, conductor, or director to honor the wishes of the composer as to how his work ought to be presented. I had heard that Stephen Wadsworth’s Seattle Ring is one of the few major productions, possibly the only one, remaining in the world today that stays true to Wagner’s vision. If the audience cannot appreciate or make sense of their production, surely it could only mean that their ideas are so profound as to be beyond one’s grasp. These charlatan directors conceal their mediocrity and lack of creativity with visual gibberish. The reason: Seattle Opera’s Ring Cycle. I was tired of traveling thousands of miles only to suffer through another incomprehensible Eurotrash production, otherwise known as Regietheater, where the Regisseur is given free reign to do whatever he fancies even if it means distorting an original masterpiece into some Frankensteinian abomination.

This summer, however, I chose to stay closer to home. Third day of the scenic saga Der Ring des Nibelungen, in three actsįire Designer, Flight Technical Director Charles Tim BuckĤ August (Das Rheingold), 5 August (Die Walkure), 7 August (Siegfried), 9 August 2013 (Götterdämmerung)įor the past ten years I have spent every summer in Europe traipsing from one festival to the next for my fix of opera and concerts. Second day of the scenic saga Der Ring des Nibelungen, in three acts Preliminary Evening of the scenic saga Der Ring Des Nibelungen, in four days.įirst day of the scenic saga Der Ring des Nibelungen, in three acts

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