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, Paris, Monday November 24 2025 Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado. Production: Calixto Bieito. Sets: Rebecca Ringst. Costumes: Ingo Krügler. Lighting: Michael Bauer. Video: Sarah Derendinger. Siegmund: Stanislas de Barbeyrac. Wotan: James Rutherford. Hunding: Günther Groissböck. Sieglinde: Elza van den Heever. Brünnhilde: Tamara Wilson. Fricka: Eve-Maud Hubeaux. Gerhilde: Louise Foor. Ortlinde: Laura Wilde. Waltraute: Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur. Schwertleite: Katharina Magiera. Helmwige: Jessica Faselt. Siegrune: Ida Aldrian. Grimgerde: Marvic Monreal. Rossweisse: Marie-Luise Dreßen. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. E-doggy robot dog by Evotech. Photos: ONP/Herwig Prammer   What is it Anna Russell says, in her famous analysis of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs ? ‘So Wotan knows the curse is working.’ It certainly seems to be working on Calixto Bieito’s Ring in Paris. Das Rheingold, earlier this year, fielded four-and-a-half to five different Wotans: Iain Pate...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday February 23 2025 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production: Pierre Audi. Video: Chris Kondek. Sets: Michael Simon. Costumes: Petra Reinhardt. Lighting: Valerio Tiberi. Siegfried: Bryan Register. Gunther: Andrew Foster-Williams. Alberich: Scott Hendricks. Hagen: Ain Anger. Brünnhilde: Ingela Brimberg. Gutrune: Annett Fritsch. Waltraute: Nora Gubisch. Erste Norn: Marvic Monreal. Zweite Norn: Iris Van Wijnen. Dritte Norn: Katie Low. Woglinde: Tamara Banješević. Wellgunde: Jelena Kordić. Flosshilde: Christel Loetzsch. La Monnaie Orchestra and Men’s Chorus. Photos: © Monika Rittershaus As I mentioned in my last article (on the subject of Calixto Bieito’s production of Das Rheingold at the Paris Opera ), in what the French might call une histoire belge , La Monnaie’s Ring cycle started with Romeo Castellucci as its director, and is now ending with Pierre Audi. What I didn’t mention was that I actually missed Audi’s much-admired  Siegfried in September, as I was...

ONP Bastille, Paris, Tuesday February 11 2025 Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado. Production: Calixto Bieito. Sets: Rebecca Ringst. Costumes: Ingo Krügler. Lighting: Michael Bauer. Video: Sarah Derendinger. Wotan: Iain Paterson. Donner: Florent Mbia. Froh: Matthew Cairns. Loge: Simon O'Neill. Fasolt: Kwangchul Youn. Fafner: Mika Kares. Alberich: Brian Mulligan. Mime: Gerhard Siegel. Fricka: Eve-Maud Hubeaux. Freia: Eliza Boom. Erda: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Woglinde: Margarita Polonskaya. Wellgunde: Isabel Signoret. Flosshilde: Katharina Magiera. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Herwig Prammer/ONP These are head-spinning times for Ring cycles, at least as far as I’m concerned. The Paris Opera originally scheduled Bieito’s five years ago. Covid intervened, and it was postponed. In the meantime, at the end of 2023, Brussels launched its own cycle, directed by Romeo Castellucci. His Rheingold and Walküre were among the most enthralling productions I’ve ever seen of anythin...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday January 28 2024 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production, sets, costumes and lighting: Romeo Castellucci, with Paola Villani (sets), Clara Strasser (costumes), Raphael Noel (lighting). Choreography: Cindy Van Acker. Siegmund: Peter Wedd. Hunding: Ante Jerkunica. Wotan: Gábor Bretz. Sieglinde: Nadja Stefanoff. Brünnhilde: Ingela Brimberg. Fricka: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Gerhilde: Karen Vermeiren. Ortlinde: Tineke Van Ingelgem. Waltraute: Polly Leech. Schwertleite: Lotte Verstaen. Helmwige: Katie Lowe. Siegrune: Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur. Grimgerde: Iris Van Wijnen. Rossweisse: Christel Loetzsch. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra. Photos: Monika Rittershaus / La Monnaie At the moment, I'm about halfway through Roberto Calasso's The Ruin of Kasch* (in a French translation, as usual when I can't easily read the original). Like Romeo Castellucci towards his audiences, Calasso is uncompromising in his assumption that readers will be adequately versed in...