Der Ring des Nibelungen
Three cycles from 11 May to 2 June 2024
A group of people meet a grand piano on an empty stage, a note is struck, and slowly a world of fantasy, longing and intoxication unfolds, captivating everyone and fusing them into a community. This is how DAS RHEINGOLD, directed by Stefan Herheim, begins, true to Wagner's core idea of creating a modern equivalent to the community-building power of Greek theatre. On the four evenings, Herheim creates an arc that leads through stations in the performance history and finally into the foyer of the Deutsche Oper with its cloud sculpture.
Welcome
11, 21, 28 May 2024
12, 22, 29 May 2024
Die Walküre
After the reign of the gods has reached its radiant zenith at the end of the RHEINGOLD with the entry into Valhalla Castle, the signs in the WALKÜRE are stormy: the people are frozen in greed for power, mistrust and possessiveness, the gods confine themselves only to monitoring compliance with the old laws instead of questioning their meaning ... Conductor: Nicholas Carter [Cycle 1] / Sir Donald Runnicles; Director: Stefan Herheim; With Daniel Frank, Tobias Kehrer, Derek Welton, Elisabeth Teige, Annika Schlicht, Ricarda Merbeth a. o. 18, 24, 31 May 2024
Siegfried
Wagner described his SIEGFRIED as a "heroic comedy" which, in its balance between comic and tragic elements, remains the challenge for its directors to this day. For Herheim, it is the act of the play that joins the opposites into a whole. The boundaries between animal and human become as blurred as those between the characters and their creator... Conductor: Nicholas Carter [Cycle 1] / Sir Donald Runnicles; Director: Stefan Herheim; With Clay Hilley, Ya-Chung Huang, Iain Paterson, Jordan Shanahan, Tobias Kehrer, Lindsay Ammann, Elisabeth Teige et al. 20, 26 May; 2 June 2024
Götterdämmerung
In the final part of the tetralogy, the theatrical devices that dominate Stefan Herheim's version of the RING also come together for the grand finale: the concert grand piano, where the play once began, is just as present as the white cloth, which, among other things, mutates into the shroud of the murdered hero. And, of course, the suitcases are also present, which in the course of the tetralogy have repeatedly created new landscapes and play situations. In the end, this world sinks, only to be reborn in the next play ... Conductor: Nicholas Carter [Cycle 1] / Sir Donald Runnicles; Director: Stefan Herheim; With Clay Hilley, Thomas Lehman, Jordan Shanahan, Albert Pesendorfer, Ricarda Merbeth, Felicia Moore, Annika Schlicht a. o. Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf
An introductory lecture on: Das Rheingold
The eve of the RING is reserved for mythical figures: Gods, dwarves and giants open the struggle for power that will later also determine the fate of mankind. And already here it becomes clear that the unbridled lust for power ultimately only claims victims. Questions to Stefan Herheim
"All that lives loves change and transformation. That play I cannot forgo."
It’s precisely this collective humanity that we make into the nucleus of a play. This is acted out among fugitives who have lost their home and are now searching for it in myth. All parts of the RING revolve around the powerlessness of love and the lovelessness of power, and all players are at the mercy of its deceptive mechanisms. Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf
An introductory lecture on: Die Walküre
People are frozen in a lust for power, mistrust and possessiveness, the gods limit themselves only to monitoring compliance with the old laws instead of questioning their meaning. Thus, the brother and sister Siegmund and Sieglinde are abandoned to death, and the Valkyrie Brünnhilde also falls under the spell when she dares to defy the verdict of her father Wotan. With Jörg Königsdorf
An introductory lecture: Siegfried
Wagner described his SIEGFRIED as a "heroic comedy", which is still a challenge for its directors today in its balance between comic and tragic elements. For Herheim, it is the act of the play that joins the opposites into a whole. The boundaries between animal and human become as blurred as those between the characters and their creator. An essay by Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach
“Luminous love, laughing death!”
Laughing plays a notable role in the RING. It occurs over a hundred times in the libretto and the stage directions of the tetralogy – over three dozen times in SIEGFRIED alone – not including Mime’s laughter composed on one note “Hihihi”, his sniggering, or the orchestra’s reprise of the latter. Essentially laughter can be construed as having two meanings in the RING: mockery and joy. Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf
An introductory lecture: Götterdämmerung
A group of people are on the run, pause and try to find their footing in the world again through the act of playing. This is how Stefan Herheim's retelling of the RING DES NIBELUNGEN begins, which now finds its conclusion in the here and now in the last part of the tetralogy. A game unfolds that must end with the downfall of a world so that it can start all over again.Our video recommendations
Richard Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer
Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser
Richard Wagner: Lohengrin
Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold
Richard Wagner: Die Walküre
Richard Wagner: Siegfried
Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung
Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Richard Wagner: Parsifal
video - 02:03 min.
Richard Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer
Richard Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer
video - 03:07 min.
Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser
Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser
video - 02:00 min.
Richard Wagner: Lohengrin
Richard Wagner: Lohengrin
video - 03:06 min.
Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold
Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold
video - 02:56 min.
Richard Wagner: Die Walküre
Richard Wagner: Die Walküre
video - 02:30 min.
Richard Wagner: Siegfried
Richard Wagner: Siegfried
video - 02:59 min.
Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung
Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung
video - 03:08 min.
Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
video - 03:02 min.
Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg ...
Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
video - 02:22 min.
Richard Wagner: Parsifal
Richard Wagner: Parsifal
Topics
The other Bayreuth works by Richard Wagner in the 23/24 season
28 October; 2, 12, 24 November 2023
Der fliegende Holländer
The eerie world of Romanticism with its revenants and ghost ships inspired Wagner to write his first mature work. Christian Spuck tells the story of the "Cursed of the Seas" and the lonely captain's daughter as a dark fairy tale from the memory of Senta's spurned admirer, the hunter Erik ... Conductor: Ivan Repusic / Dominic Limburg [12 Nov]; Production: Christian Spuck; With Tobias Kehrer, Elisabeth Teige / Vida Mikneviciute [12, 24 Nov], Robert Watson, Michael Volle / Noel Bouley [24 Nov] a. o. 11 November; 2 December 2023
Tannhäuser
Wagner's opera about the Minnesinger torn between earthly and heavenly love is one of the works that has shaped the artistic identity of the house over decades - not least because of the famous Pilgrims' Chorus, which is the showpiece of our chorus. In Kirsten Harms' colourful production, which evokes the imagery of the Middle Ages, the members of the chorus appear effectively not only as penitents but also as a magnificently decked-out court company ... Conductor: Pietari Inkinen; Director: Kirsten Harms; With Tobias Kehrer, Stephen Gould, Samuel Hasselhorn, Elisabeth Teige a. o. 29 October; 19, 25 November 2023
Lohengrin
Soon after the failure of the 1848 revolution, the political refugee Richard Wagner wrote his LOHENGRIN: an opera about a hero who tries in vain to pacify a divided people. Kasper Holten's production deliberately leaves open whether this leader fights by fair means ... Conductor: James Conlon; Director: Kasper Holten; With Ryan Speedo Green, David Butt Philip, Jennifer Davis, Jordan Shanahan, Yulia Matochkina, Dean Murphy a.o. 30. June; 3, 13 July 2024
Tristan und Isolde
Musically highly romantic and crossing the threshold to modernity, Wagner lets his couple run with existential inexorability into a hopeless dilemma. Disturbing and fascinating in its uncompromising portrayal of obsessive love, this work - based on a myth - has become a myth itself ... Conductor: Juraj Valčuha; Director: Graham Vick; With Michael Weinius, Günther Groissböck, Tamara Wilson, Leonardo Lee, Jörg Schörner, Annika Schlicht a. o. 18, 26 November; 3 December 2023
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Music is the central purpose of life for almost all the characters in the play. Serving and cultivating it is the purpose of the "Meistersinger guild", which has set itself a strict and demanding set of rules for this purpose. The service of music thus also determines the lives of David and Magdalena, the apprentice boys and girls, and especially that of Eva, the daughter of the rich Veit Pogner. He gives her the choice of a bridegroom - on one condition: "it must be a master", the winner of a public singing competition ... Conductor: Ulf Schirmer; Production: Jossi Wieler, Anna Viebrock, Sergio Morabito; With Johan Reuter, Albert Pesendorfer, Philipp Jekal, Clay Hilley, Ya-Chung Huang, Elena Tsallagova, Annika Schlicht u. a. 25 February; 3, 8 March 2024