Rejoice, fans of Wagner, clowns, and the eternal mysteries of Time. Achim Freyer’s marvelous Der Ring des Nibelungen, originally seen at the Los Angeles Opera, will live again. It will be seen at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest in the coming four seasons, starting with Das Rheingold in 2011/12. You can read my enthusing on the whole cycle here. Really, you should go. It is great.
But, as you may know, there has been much turmoil at the Hungarian State Opera recently, so don’t book those plane tickets quite yet.
(The image above is adapted from Freyer’s Siegfried, BTW.)
4 Comments
My biggest regret in life is not going to the LA Ring. This would be amazing.
Any chance this will be recorded? I really want to see the 1st three operas; I was only able to make Gotterdamerung in LA but was very impressed.
I hope that means you've had a happy life, GP!
I wouldn't hold my breath on a video, Mark. It could happen, but the Hungarian State Opera isn't exactly cranking out DVDs on a regular basis…
I haven't seen this Ring but since I loathe what I have seen of Freyer's work and the pictures look absurd I suspect I'd hate this production. For me his 'direction' is all about weird images and no serious attempt at personregie. BTW I'm not surprised LA opera have tried to sell it on as, by all accounts, it lost an absolute fortune!