You can really delve into their relationships. Zambello elaborated on the phone to me, “For me and many of the performers, the best part of the Ring is that the gods in the story are also mortals, that they grow and change despite having this enormous stature and power, but they’re also called to account as well. I am an optimist and pray for the country and the world to find its way, the same way that Brünnhilde leads us to positive change at the end of the Ring.” “The world scene has changed drastically in terms of politics, social issues, sex and race, Zambello said in a director’s statement titled “What Has Happened Since 2011?” “Hopefully, at some point in our lives, everything will be born anew.
Her great insight is that honing in on the personal tales of these gods and monsters will spark a fuller connection to the work, and reveal some striking parallels to our own time.
Now she’s back, updating the production with “new features, including technologically advanced projections, new imagery and restudied stage action.” But the giant gewgaws we’ve come to associate with the Ring-itself a massive special effect, in a way-pale for Zambello in comparison to the stories of the characters. Opera director Francesca Zambello brought a revelatory Ring Cycle production to SF Opera in 2011-complete with gold-panning 49ers and corporate CEO-types.
How can you put a new spin on such an idolized classic, without seeming too desperate for that illusive (and often counterproductive) quality, “relevance”? But with its sweeping powers and gorgeous score, this archetypal work-with its mythic quests, clashes of Teutonic titans, flashes of chthonic magic, and vivid, often weird chromatic score-continues to fascinate, drawing thousand of jet-setting Ring-lovers to minutely compare each production. With its Lord of the Rings-inspiring premise, instant recall of rampaging Rubenesque women in Viking helmets and/or murderous Iroquois helicopters, “ Kill the Wabbit” musical themes, and dark echoes of nationalism and anti-Semitism, it’s an indelible cultural touchstone.Ĭonsisting of four full-length operas, the Ring Cycle was first produced in the period from 1848 to 1874: Wagner wrote the libretto and the music in an act of volcanic auteurism, helping to bolster the contemporary myth of the heroic genius, among other fustier notions. And quite possibly no work comes with greater baggage than Richard Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle ( opening at SF Opera Tue/12 and continuing through July 1, accompanied by some lively programming). ALL EARS With great art comes great baggage.
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