We left at the interval...

ONP Bastille, Wednesday January 28 2026 Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado. Production: Calixto Bieito. Sets: Rebecca Ringst. Costumes: Ingo Krügler. Lighting: Michael Bauer. Video: Sarah Derendinger. Siegfried: Andreas Schager. Mime: Gerhard Siegel. Der Wanderer: Derek Welton. Alberich: Brian Mulligan. Fafner: Mika Kares. Erda: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Brünnhilde: Tamara Wilson. Waldvogel: Ilanah Lobel-Torres. Photos: Herwig Prammer/ONP   With only one more instalment to go, Calixto Bieito’s overall plan for his  Ring is becoming clearer, as it ought to be by this stage. I’m going to begin my post with a substantial (though abbreviated) quotation from the Paris Opera’s website, because it sums up the story so far. We...   ‘... began in Das Rheingold with big data (...) total information and total surveillance of private life, and continued in the militarized cosmos of Die Walküre , where the digital world collapses at every level as a result of war - an apocalypse in which lov...

ONP Bastille, Tuesday March 22 2011 Conductor : Philippe Jordan. Production : Günter Krämer. Sets : Jürgen Bäckmann. Costumes : Falk Bauer. Lighting : Diego Leetz. Siegfried : Torsten Kerl. Mime : Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke. Der Wanderer : Juha Uusitalo. Alberich : Peter Sidhom. Fafner : Stephen Milling. Erda : Qiu Lin Zhang. Waldvogel : Elena Tsallagova. Brünnhilde : Katarina Dalayman. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. Günter Krämer’s version of the Ring is turning out, to me, to be a bit perplexing. The conceptual thread is clear enough (assuming I’ve got it right): vignettes from German (or maybe just Western) history and culture. But visually speaking, you never quite know what the curtain will rise on: apart from one or two repeat elements (“Germania” in Gothic letters, the “Kokkis” inclined mirror over the stage, the terrifying “Valhalla” staircase) I haven’t yet grasped much visual/stylistic consistency in the staging. Still, the first act was excellent entertain...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Wednesday February 8 2006 Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach. Production and sets: Robert Wilson. Costumes: Frida Parmeggiani. Lighting: Kenneth L. Schutz, Robert Wilson. Siegfried: Jon Fredric West. Mime: Wolker Vogel. Der Wanderer: Jukka Rasilainen. Alberich: Sergei Leiferkus. Fafner: Kurt Rydl. Brünnhilde: Linda Watson. Erda: Qiu Lin Zhang. Stimme des Waldvogels: Natalie Karl. Orchestre de Paris. What are you supposed to do during a one-hour interval? It’s too short for dinner and too long for a lollipop. On Wednesday night, with a second one of 35 minutes, the evening stretched from 6 to 11.45. As a result, everyone, audience and performers alike, was tired at the end with the sole exception of Brünnhilde, who slept through most of it; but she, as a friend said, seemed only half awake. By now, if you’ve been following me, you’ll have got the gist of this Paris Ring . Though debate rages on on the web fora, the papers were mostly quite positive about Siegfri...