Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen (Leipzig, 2019)

Richard Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen

Oper Leipzig, 2019

Ulf Schirmer, Rosamund Gilmore, Iréne Theorin, Thomas Mohr, Simon O'Neill, Simone Schneider, Christiane Libor, Kathrin Göring, Vladimir Baykov, Martin Winkler, Dan Karlström, Henriette Gödde

Oper Leipzig - 1, 2, 4, 5 May 2019

It's important that any Ring Cycle establishes its own identity, and since it is the composer's birthplace and historically it was the first opera house outside of Bayreuth to ever perform Wagner's epic tetralogy in 1878, there is an expectation on Oper Leipzig to respect and do justice to its legacy. The last Ring production at Leipzig was 40 years ago, but that was also an important production and it would be impossible not to be mindful also of its impact. The creative team behind the 2013-2020 Leipzig Ring seem to be keen to respect the original intentions of the mythology, the history of the work as it applies to Germany and hopefully find a few new things to say about it.

As far as creative decisions go, the Leipzig Ring is informed very much by the historic legacy of the works' performances in the Leipzig house. Long before Frank Castorf's bold association of Der Ring des Nibelungen with the flawed 1871 creation of a German nation and the building blocks of a capitalist system that would eventually lead to the destruction of Wagner's socialist dream. Even before Patrice Chereau's famous production for Bayreuth, Joachim Herz made a similar association with the work's socialist underpinnings in Leipzig's groundbreaking 1973-76 100-year anniversary 'Jahrhundert-Ring'.

There's no question that Wagner wanted the Ring mythos to be part of the German identity, but the human element in the story, the social structures and character traits and flaws put in place during its creation (indications of future trouble that Wagner had previously identified much earlier in Lohengrin) shouldn't be neglected either. Revived for a series of full Ring Cycle performances in 2019 (with plans to do it all again in the 2020 season) Christian Geltinger's dramaturgy and Rosamund Gilmore's direction of the current Leipzig Ring are very much in line with this deeper exploration of the creation and downfall vision of the work as it applies to Wagner and his views on the newly formed German state.

The ideas of a beginning, and a flawed beginning that heralds the end, is immediately apparent in the choice of location and period of the first day prelude, Das Rheingold, a work that is nonetheless important for establishing what is to follow. In the Leipzig production the world is given form and structure from the outset; not the murky depths of the Rhine, but a courtyard in a castle with curved staircases running up and down. At first life consists of twisting formless shapes but soon the Rhinemaidens appear and Alberich the Niebelung Dwarf. There's a moment when there is the possibility of complete harmony arising out of the E-flat Major beginning and leitmotif evolution, but Alberich's choice of rejecting love and goodness for gold and power leads to later unresolved chromaticism.

The production has the appearance of a German period costume drama from Wagner's time, the castle location even resembling one of King Ludwig's elaborate fantasy creations, and in that respect it also has a resemblance to Luchino Visconti's Ludwig. That highlights very much the themes that reflect Wagner's concerns at the time of writing the work, the corruption of the ruling class (failing to treat fairly the labours of the Giants) that makes them the agents of their own downfall, but Wagner is also aware that his idealised socialist vision is already compromised by the human lust for power and wealth.

Those aspects of society are established from the outset in the Leipzig Das Rheingold, the social stratification marked by the colour schemes of white, green and fiery red, brought together in the rainbow arch at the conclusion in the creation of Valhalla that suggests that the world has been given shape, order, form, purpose and meaning. It's a false hope that however since Valhalla has been built in bad faith that will lead to its ultimate destruction. With the emphasis on the symbolism of the greater picture, it's Erda and Loge who have the dominant roles to play in this Das Rheingold. Erda sees the end in the beginning and it's Loge who is the dangerous force of chaos that is thrown into the creation. In terms of singing that was effectively performed by Thomas Mohr's vibrant Loge and Henriette Gödde's deeply troubled Erda, but the singing was clear and resonant throughout in the stunning acoustics of the Leipzig Opera House.

The strength of the Leipzig Ring's Die Walküre lies in its conflicting forces, and it's here that director Rosamund Gilmore's background as a dance choreographer comes into play more meaningfully. Dancing figures throw shapes and symbolise shadow aspects of characters. Wotan is accompanied by two dancers that between them form a raven, which is then able to represent Wotan even when he is not on stage but relevant to the drama or evoked in the music. Fricka, likewise, represented by a two part ram, is present in spirit throughout the drama between Siegmund and Sieglinde.

There is also a presence alongside Brünnhilde which is nominally her steed Graune. Arguably since Brünnhilde is already nothing more than the personification of Wotan's will, it's not so much a shadow version of her, but the point at which she asserts her own will is a significant point and Graune's separation perhaps reflects this to some extent. The Wotan and Fricke scene is also fizzling with tension, not so much for its domestic situation as for Wotan's resignation that the war has been lost. Seen in this light alongside Siegmund's heartfelt rejection of his fate if Sieglinde cannot follow, all of this makes for an intense and tragic Act II. Simon O'Neill's Siegmund was warmly applauded, but the really impressive performances were from Simone Schneider's Sieglinde and Christiane Libor as an impressive Brünnhilde. With Kathrin Göring's Fricka and Vladimir Baykov Wotan this Second Act really set the groundwork for a charged and tragic Act III, and essentially for the rest of the tetralogy.

Siegfried, rather like the overstretched opera itself with its frequent references to the backstory, doesn't make any great advances in the overall production but it does certainly emphasise the work's parallel to the curse of capitalism. Mime is the middle management worker or foreman, exploiting the graft of the working man Siegfried, who is kept in the dark as to the true workings of the world and the secret of the power he is unaware he possesses. Alberich when he appears is not a deformed dwarf but a businessman in a suit, an upper management executive, still ambitious for the greater power that the Ring will grant him.

Fafner likewise is not a literal dragon, but a monstrous distortion of the former giant corrupted by greed, sitting lazily on his hoard of gold, reluctant to give it up. Kept in the dark, with no knowledge of history in his own background, Siegfried has the power of his labour to correct the injustice of his position when he is made aware of it. Love could fill that void and save the world but it cannot fill the void inside him, an emotional void that will be exploited by others for their gain. The whole system is corrupt, the Norns have woven it into the fabric of the world, it cannot be fixed from within without succumbing to its power, without succumbing to the lure of power itself and the exercise of it.

There's not much that in the staging or the singing that stand out to make this Siegfried exceptional but it reinforces the central theme and the singing and musical performances support it well. The few points that are genuinely impressive come with Rosamund Gilmore's dance and movement choreography. Siegfried's superhuman mending of the broken Nothung is represented by a score of shadow Siegfrieds hammering in the forge, there are likewise multiple extensions of Fafner that make his slaying rather more dramatic, and the dancer movements of the Waldvogel are enchanting. All of this ensures that the production sustains interest and is visually impressive.

By the time we get to Götterdämmerung we're not expecting any new elements to be added to the concept that has already been established, although new ideas are always welcome since otherwise it can be a long five-and-a-half hour slog. Few productions of the Ring are as varied and innovative as Frank Castorf's Bayreuth production and the Leipzig Ring indeed doesn't break any new ground, but like Siegfried it has a couple of welcome touches that make the very long prelude and Act I much more engaging, and for a few reasons you might even go as far as saying that this Götterdämmerung was among the highlights of this Ring Cycle production as a whole.

First of all there's the singing. With a variety of singers taking on the roles from one day to the next, Leipzig saved the best Siegfried and Brünnhilde for the last. Thomas Mohr, who impressed earlier as Loge in Das Rheingold, was a stunning Siegfried in terms of singing and characterisation, cruelly exploited to be cruel himself. Likewise Iréne Theorin's tragic fortitude and consistently good singing performance as Brünnhilde made all the difference to how we view the relationship between the couple and the coming cataclysm. It builds on the chaos of Loge, the unravelling of tangled threads of fate viewed by the Norn and the despair of resignation felt by Wotan to make the climax for these foolish gods and would-be heroes of the world genuinely and humanly affecting.

Secondly, the production design is again consistently impressive, adaptable through superb lighting to the changes of scene and, just as importantly, to the variances of mood. Not a minute of this drags and that's saying something for Götterdämmerung. Thirdly, and perhaps most important of all, Ulf Schirmer's conducting keeps the mood and momentum going well with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. By the time you get to the third day you feel like you are familiar with all the motifs, but Schirmer keeps them fresh, showing how Wagner puts them not just to people, objects and symbols, but varies them according to mood and situation. It's a masterful account that brings the Leipzig Ring full circle.

Das Rheingold
1 May 2019
Conductor - Ulf Schirmer, Director - Rosamund Gilmore, Sets - Carl Friedrich Oberle, Costumes - Nicola Reichert, Lights - Michael Röger, Dramaturgy - Christian Geltinger, Orchestra - Gewandhausorchester

Fricka - Kathrin Göring
Freia - Gabriela Scherer
Erda - Henriette Gödde
Woglinde - Magdalena Hinterdobler
Wellgunde - Sandra Maxheimer
Floßhilde - Sandra Fechner
Wotan - Tuomas Pursio
Donner - Anooshah Golesorkhi
Froh - Sven Hjörleifsson
Loge - Thomas Mohr
Fasolt - Sebastian Pilgrim
Fafner - James Moellenhoff
Alberich - Martin Winkler
Mime Dan Karlström

Die Walküre 
2 May 2019

Conductor - Ulf Schirmer, Director - Rosamund Gilmore, Sets - Carl Friedrich Oberle, Costumes - Nicola Reichert, Lights - Michael Röger, Dramaturgy - Christian Geltinger, Orchestra - Gewandhausorchester

Sieglinde - Simone Schneider
Brünnhilde - Christiane Libor
Fricka - Kathrin Göring
Wotan - Vladimir Baykov
Gerhilde - Gabriela Scherer
Ortlinde - Magdalena Hinterdobler
Waltraute - Monica Mascus
Schwertleite - Sandra Fechner
Helmwige - Daniela Köhler
Siegrune - Sandra Maxheimer
Grimgerde - Karin Lovelius
Rossweiße - Sarah Alexandra Hudarew
Siegmund - Simon O´Neill
Hunding - Randall Jakobsh
Wotan - Vladimir Baykov
Grane - Ziv Frenkel

Siegfried
4 May 2019

Conductor - Ulf Schirmer, Director - Rosamund Gilmore, Sets - Carl Friedrich Oberle, Costumes - Nicola Reichert, Lights - Michael Röger, Dramaturgy - Christian Geltinger, Orchestra - Gewandhausorchester

Erda - Henriette Gödde
Brünnhilde - Katherine Broderick
Stimme des Waldvogels - Bianca Tognocchi
Siegfried - Michael Weinius
Mime - Dan Karlström
Der Wanderer - Simon Neal
Alberich - Tuomas Pursio
Fafner - Randall Jakobsh

Götterdämmerung
5 May 2019

Conductor - Ulf Schirmer, Director - Rosamund Gilmore, Sets - Carl Friedrich Oberle, Costumes - Nicola Reichert, Lights - Michael Röger, Chorus Master - Thomas Eitler-de Lint, Dramaturgy - Christian Geltinger, Orchestra - Gewandhausorchester

Brünnhilde - Iréne Theorin
Gutrune - Gabriela Scherer
Waltraute - Karin Lovelius
1. Norn - Karin Lovelius
2. Norn - Kathrin Göring
3. Norn - Olena Tokar
Woglinde - Magdalena Hinterdobler
Wellgunde - Sandra Maxheimer
Floßhilde - Sandra Fechner
Siegfried - Thomas Mohr
Gunther - Tuomas Pursio
Alberich - Martin Winkler
Hagen - Sebastian Pilgri

Links: Oper Leipzig

Wagner - Rienzi (Bayreuth, 2026)

Richard Wagner - Rienzi (Bayreuth, 2026)

Bayreuther Festspiele, 2026

Nathalie Stutzmann, Alexandra Szemerédy, Magdolna Parditka, Andreas Schager, Gabriela Scherer, Andreas Bauer Kanabas, Jennifer Holloway, Michael Nagy, Vitalij Kowaljow, Matthias Stier, Michael Kupfer-Radecky, Victoria Randem

BR-Klassik Livestream - 26th July 2026

First performed in 1842, Wagner's first serious opera Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen had never been performed before at the composer's theatre at Bayreuth. A five-act epic in the grand opera tradition, it was soon disavowed by the composer and never accepted as part of the Bayreuth canon. It has been performed infrequently elsewhere, but it is a challenge, the opera carrying a lot of historical baggage and notoriety as an opera that celebrates fascism and its association with the Third Reich. The idea that an opera can be fascist is clearly nonsense of course - it's all about how you choose to represent the rise and fall of a dictator on the stage. Some might choose to confront this legacy but another approach - surely equally as valid if it has any meaning or relevance at all (the jury may still be out on that one) - is to see the opera not defined by history, but what it means today.

The Bayreuth Festival has not been afraid to confront Wagner's history and some of the controversial elements in his works, but it has tended to shy away from making any overly political statements in recent years. Stefan Herheim's Parsifal at Bayreuth however viewed the composer's last great work in the context of German history, while the most recent challenge to the composer's legacy was Barry Kosky putting Wagner's antisemitism on trial in the 2017 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Having never been performed before at Bayreuth however, the pressure on the directors to find a way of presenting this troublesome work are undoubtedly considerable, but just as important is validating the staging of the Rienzi at Bayreuth in its 150th anniversary year is also to come up with a meaningful approach that will address the question of why now?

It's immediately apparent that if the directors Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka are going to address the legacy of Rienzi, it is going to be through the lens of the present rather than through its Nazi associations or indeed its 14th century historical drama in Rome. The famous overture - one of the enduring qualities of the work - sets a scene across three rooms of a contemporary apartment block are occupied by Cola Rienzi, his sister Irene and a young sick child who we discover is Rienzi's brother Giovanni. 'Party Chairman' Rienzi is preparing a speech venerating German Art while Irene is looking after the sick child. The child dies and as the building rises out of the stage, the neighbouring apartments are seen sharing text messages suggesting an incestuous relationship between Rienzi and his sister, and that the child may have been born out of that relationship.

Act I's clashes between the Colonna and Orsini families here take the form of a heated election debate, with graphics showing election polls and projections, TV cameras broadcasting the election addresses and debates. Talk around Rienzi isn't the only scandal doing the rounds, as Stefano Colonna, an important industrialist, has recently been acquitted of the hit-and-run accident that has led to the death of Giovanni. Rienzi steps in to bring a measured response that strikes a chord with the public and the media, pledging loyalty to Irene and Adriano Colonna, the son of Stefano to serve the people.

Despite the overheated nature of the first Act - somewhat inevitable considering Wagner's dramatic score - its is relatively based in a familiar contemporary reality that soon breaks down, or at least shows a deeper more troubling undercurrent. Having been acclaimed Tribune of Rome, the dull grey and white of Act I is momentarily replaced with a new optimism and pride in the new Rome under the command of Rienzi. But as the sun breaks through the storm clouds in this production's Act II, in Rienzi's mind his dead brother appears as one of the divine Messengers of Peace descending staircase from heaven. Scenes for Rienzi’s reception or "coronation" take place in a Roman senate arrangement where after the failed Caesar-like assassination attempt and coup by Colonna, Rienzi takes on a Christ complex.

Despite the modern trappings - mobile phones held aloft at every move - the Bayreuth production nonetheless adheres closely to the dramatic action as it plays out in the libretto without too many revisionist touches, but also without managing to say anything new about what follows. The contemporary setting at least has a ring of familiarity to it as, for all the ruler's fine words, the real test comes when the 'nobili' - or businesses and wealth holders - rise up against him. Needless to say, Rienzi fails here and it's the ordinary people who pay the price of the cost of war, resulting in the people turning against him. Even though 'modernised', Rienzi resists modernisation, Act III remains every bit as over the top as the most extravagant of grand opera, the production failing to rein its excesses in at all.

Whether a director should even attempt to hold back on Rienzi or not is of course a matter of choice. Wagner scored the work to be a grand, epic statement, but it does risk losing sight of any purpose it might have, getting carried away in its own operatic grandiosity, with caricatures of noble sentiments and foul plots, all arch declamations, formal processions, marching battle-hymns and fervent solemn choruses. It's similarly easy for the audience to just get caught up in the grand sweep of it all to the extent that they ignore the troubling undercurrents of fascism, but at this kind of drawn-out length (even in its reduced form of just under 4 hours), it's also rather wearying.

Although I have seen it a few times, I'm not as familiar with Rienzi as other Wagner operas, but it does seem as if there has been some reordering done to make it flow a little easier. Rienzi sings his Act V aria 'Allmächt'ger Vater' before Act IV's discussion of excommunication (a fair portion of which is conducted through text messages in English), but otherwise under conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, it's the full-on Rienzi experience. Some other unique directorial touches are applied to Act V where Rienzi and Irene seem to consummate their relationship in some kind of death pact while Adriano looks on in shock. The only light touch - or heavy-handed touch maybe - is the use of the Act II ballet music to run through highly compressed scenes from all Wagner's subsequent mature operas, performed in am dram costumes, complete with intervals where the well-heeled audience queue for drinks and toilets.

To be honest, the ballet-theatre scene is indicative of the style of the acting and the direction throughout. There is a token attempt to explore the psychology or psychopathy of a dictator in a proposed invented incestuous relationship with sister and death of his brother (or 'brother’), which doesn't offer a great deal - although it is something of a Wagnerian trait. There is also at least some effort to engage with contemporary political events in the production - perhaps more so than any production at Bayreuth since Frank Castorf's Ring - setting the work in the context of a modern electoral campaign where the far-right are gaining popular votes. The epic grand conclusion that Wagner scores could only be justified when depicted as the eventual complete meltdown of the capitalist system, but it all just feels empty and meaningless after fours at full tilt orchestration and booming choruses, and the work proves resistant to any attempt to inject an air of cautionary realism into it.

Vocally, aside from the chorus who have an important part to play in this work, much rests inevitably on Andreas Schager's performance as Rienzi and, as is often the case, it's a little over the top (as is the chorus, but in a good way). Certainly the role is written for grand declamation, but Schager doesn't seem to be able to bring it down to any level other than full-on forte that starts loud and gets increasingly strained over the four hours of the opera. The man is going to do himself an injury at this rate. Only when taking the 'Allmächt'ger Vater' aria - presumably placed in Act IV for breathing space - does he manage to show some restraint; in the singing at least; the 'acting' is reduced to lots of wild expressions and writhing around. Sure, the relentless pitch of the opera perhaps demands it, but Schager's performance doesn't make it any easier to relate to it. I liked Gabriela Scherer's performance as Irene, even though her role in the opera remains unfathomable in the psychodrama that is developed here with Rienzi and Adriano. Jennifer Holloway's Adriano is a heroic role that proves powerless to change the course of events; the soprano makes similarly a valiant effort all the way through, but is often overwhelmed by the bombast.

The current rise of the far-right in Germany is all the justification necessary to bring Rienzi to the stage at Bayreuth - let's just hope that the AFD don't adopt the overture for its rallies or history might repeat itself - but if that is indeed the target, it fails to make its mark and just confirms that Rienzi does not need to remain a regular fixture at Bayreuth. Despite the derivativeness of its sources though, it is an accomplished work, worth a look every now and again to admire not so much its sheer folly and ambition, but to see it as a necessary step towards the greatness that would follow from Richard Wagner. It's almost as if all the bad habits of operatic grand opera had to be expelled from the system in order to find his own true voice. This Rienzi is worth seeing, even if it's just to get over the curiosity about whether it really has any merit, and you can put any such ideas about that aside for another while.

BR-Klassik Livestream, Bayreuther Festspiele