Richard Wagner’s one-of-a-kind opus The Ring Cycle is brought to pulsating life at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 

Sir Donald Runnicles and Stefan Herheim have reimagined the legendary tale of gods, heroes and giants into a production for the 21st century. 

All of the feelings, urges and thoughts that determine our own existence also appear in the two and a half hours of THE RHINEGOLD, the first opera in the Cycle There are the not-so-innocent games played by the Rhinemaidens, who humiliate the Nibelung Alberich by mocking his clumsy advances, kindling in him the unbridled lust for power instead. There’s the scornful nihilism of the fire god Loge, as well as the father of the gods Wotan’s attempt to create something that will last, by erecting the palace of Valhalla. And last but not least, the gold itself is a mute lead character: an item of gleaming fascination, it is simultaneously a touchstone that divides gods and humans alike into good and evil.

Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold - an epic of gods and monsters - brought to the 21st century at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Das Rheingold

The world premiere recording of Brett Dean's new opera based on Shakespeare's best-known tragedy: To be, or not to be. This is Hamlet's dilemma, and the essence of Shakespeare's most famous and arguably greatest work, given new life in operatic form in this original Glyndebourne commission. Thoughts of murder and revenge drive Hamlet when he learns that it was his uncle Claudius who killed his father, the King of Denmark, then seized his fathers crown and wife. But Hamlet's vengeance vies with the question: is suicide a morally valid deed in an unbearably painful world? Dean's colourful, energetic, witty and richly lyrical music expertly captures the modernity of Shakespeare's timeless tale, while also exploiting the traditional operatic elements of arias, ensembles and choruses. Matthew Jocelyn's inspired libretto is pure Shakespeare, adhering to the Bards narrative thread but abridging, reconfiguring and interweaving it into motifs that highlight the main dramatic themes: death, madness, the impossibility of certainty and the complexities of action. World Premiere of the Year, 2018 International Opera Awards, London one of the unmissable operatic events of the year. (The Sunday Times 4 Stars) a richly imaginative composer at the top of his game. (The Times 4 Stars) Deans music is many-layered, full of long, clear vocal lines new opera doesnt often get to sound this good Hannigans spectacular high-soprano unhinging is the more shocking following her poise and inwardness (The Guardian 4 Stars) Clayton triumphs with unimpeachable vocal and acting credentials (The Independent 4 Stars

The world premiere recording of Brett Dean's new opera based on Shakespeare's best-known tragedy.

Hamlet

What if our minds could live forever? Recent advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience mean that we will soon be able to map our memories and experiences, and to use these data to build a digital consciousness identical with our own. These ‘whole brain emulations’ will be able to carry on indefinitely after our deaths: a way of virtual resurrection. But where do our identities really reside? In our minds, our bodies, or our relationships? And how far do the data of our lives determine our fate? Upload will explore these ancient philosophical questions against the backdrop of present-day and near-future technologies. “Upload” tells the story of a father, who suffers a severe trauma, and a daughter. It features two timelines: the present (shortly after the upload of the father) and the recent past in which the upload process takes place. In these flashbacks, we see the technology used for the uploading: motion capture and foley recordings. During this process the physical body dies. The father is treated by a psychiatrist and two technicians in a Swiss laboratory. Conversations with family and friends with all kinds of memories emphasize the failing of memory and implicitly the inaccuracy of the upload process. In between we see moments from the present: the daughter wasn’t aware of her father’s ardent wish to be uploaded in order to reduce his trauma. This process fails; the father puts his fate in his daughter’s hands. She has to decide whether or not she will delete him, a form of digital euthanasia.

“Upload” tells the story of a father, who suffers a severe trauma, and a daughter who has to decide whether or not she will delete his digital self.

Upload

Victory makes Radamès a hero, but tangles his Ethiopian lover Aida in a dangerous royal love triangle and a very personal war.

Aida

Don Giovanni is the second of Mozart’s landmark collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (after The Marriage of Figaro and before Così fan tutte). In it, they created a work that has beguiled and entranced in equal measure since its premiere in 1787. Perfectly situated, as no other opera, between tragedy and comedy, this potent drama combines glorious music with a seductive central character who is endlessly fascinating in his complexity. Kasper Holten’s 2014 production for The Royal Opera casts Don Giovanni as an artist who thrives on an audience enticed by his creative gifts. The visually spectacular set by award-winning designer Es Devlin features ingenious video designs by Luke Halls which provide an insight into the characters’ thoughts and emotions. But at the production’s heart are the beauty and invention of Mozart’s dazzling score.

Kasper Holten’s 2014 production for The Royal Opera House casts Don Giovanni as an artist who thrives on an audience enticed by his creative gifts.

Don Giovanni

The final part of the tetralogy sees yet another broadening of the horizon. Siegfried sallies forth “to new glories”, encountering people driven by a desire for power and riches and unscrupulous in their determination to acquire them. Without Bru¨nnhilde on hand to help him, the hero succumbs to a conspiracy at the Gibichung hall, also triggering the beginning of the end of the old world, still beset by the curse placed by Alberich on the ring, which bestows boundless power on its bearer. With Bru¨nnhilde realising what has happened, she sees self-sacrifice as the only path to redemption: by eradicating herself through immolation and returning the stolen gold to the Rhine, she will be clearing the way for a new beginning for all.

The final part of the tetralogy sees yet another broadening of the horizon.

Götterdämmerung

Daniele Abbado explores themes of identity, exile and religion in this powerful staging of Verdi's epic opera with Plácido Domingo as Nabucco.`

Daniele Abbado explores themes of identity, exile and religion in this powerful staging of Verdi's epic opera with Plácido Domingo as Nabucco.

Nabucco

Winner of the 2017 International Classical Music Award and BBC's Music Magazine Award. Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” depicts the everyday life of soldiers and the townspeople of a rural German-speaking town and is an indispensable work in the repertoire of any opera house. In Zurich, critics and audience celebrated director Andreas Homoki, General Music Director Fabio Luisi and baritone Christian Gerhaher for their intriguing interpretation of this masterpiece of operatic history.

Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” depicts the everyday life of soldiers and the townspeople of a rural German-speaking town.

Wozzeck

Das Rhinegold is a theatrical journey that takes us back to our childhood, where fantasy becomes palpable reality. Embedded in this fairytale world, alongside norns, water-sprites, dwarfs, giants and gods, the human family has created a deceptive image for itself. But a terrible truth cannot be avoided: anyone who is forced to renounce love and is cheated of his inalienable human nature will exact a terrible revenge. 

Das Rheingold introduces the ring. The well-known prelude opens with 136 measures of an E-flat major chord: this prolonged harmony represents the ageless river Rhine, upon whose banks the Rhinemaidens play. Alberich, a Nibelung dwarf, tries vainly to seduce one of the Rhinemaidens. Mockingly, they reveal the secret of the gold they guard: out of it, one can forge a ring powerful enough to rule the world, provided the forger gives up Love forever. Alberich manages to steal the gold and makes the ring, using it to control his fellow dwarfs while he plans his world take-over. In the meantime, Wotan (king of the gods), like many new home owners, has to figure out how to finance the construction of Valhalla (hall of the gods). He has promised his sister-in-law as payment to the construction workers, but his wife Fricka isn't too keen on selling her sister to the giants (led by Fafner). Loge (god of fire) tricks Alberich into turning himself into a toad and brings Alberich back to Wotan, who takes the ring from the dwarf. Bitter at losing his ring, Alberich places a curse on it: lack of the ring will fuel desire for it and possession will only lead to misery. Wotan ends up giving the Ring to Fafner as ransom for Fricka's sister.

Das Rhinegold is a theatrical journey that takes us back to our childhood, where fantasy becomes palpable reality.

Rheingold

The debut feature film of leading opera director Kasper Holten (Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), DON GIOVANNI (JUAN) retells Mozart's classical masterpiece as a story of the modern man's escape from himself and his demons.

Juan (Christopher Maltman) is a famous artist and notorious playboy, thanks to his ability to become just what any woman dreams of. He turns his own life into a megalomanic work of art, playing the game of seduction like no other, driven by a manic restlessness that pushes him forward through an endless stream of conquests, betrayals, sex and eventually murder, with death lurking as the only possible outcome.

Every scene and detail has been adapted to make full use of the visual vocabulary of modern cinema, following such unorthodox inspirational sources as The Bourne Trilogy and Traffic, while at the same time maintaining the exceptional live experience of opera, since the actors really sing on set.

Don Giovanni (Juan) retells Mozart's classical masterpiece as a story of the modern man's escape from himself and his demons.

Don Giovanni (Juan)

Official Selection Venice Film Festival, Benoît Jacquot’s acclaimed 2002 film of Puccini’s opera stars Angela Gheorghiu in the title role with Roberto Alagna, Ruggero Raimondi and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Sir Antonio Pappano.

Acte I - The painter Mario Cavaradossi, who is working in Sant'Andrea della Valle Church, helps a political prisoner who has taken refuge there. He conceals the fact to Tosca a famous prima donna and his jealous mistress, who has come to meet him. Then he takes the prisoner to his villa just before the arrival of the head-policeman Scarpia. The latter, suspicious about Mario, makes Tosca believe that her lover is unfaithful, and Tosca is followed when she rushes to Mario's villa.

Acte II - Scarpia has dinner at Palazzo Farnese, where there is a celebration in which Tosca sings. Spoletta, Scarpia's right-hand man, arrives with Mario who has been arrested. The latter is tortured. Tosca, summoned by Scarpia, can't stand the torturing and reveals where the fugitive is hidden. Mario has deserved the death sentence, but Scarpia promises Tosca his life will be spared (his execution will only be simulated) provided she gives herself to him. Tosca pretends to consent but, when Scarpia comes near her, she stabs him.

Acte III - At down, Mario is waiting for his execution on the terrace-roof of Castel Sant'Angelo. Tosca arrives and tells him she killed Scarpia. His execution will be shammed, but he'll have to simulate death as best he can. The firing squad arrives and shoots at him, Mario falls down, the squad withdraws. Tosca runs to her lover: she realizes in horror he has been actually shot death! Spoletta comes up to arrest her, and Tosca hurls herself into empty space.

Benoît Jacquot’s acclaimed film of Puccini’s opera stars Angela Gheorghiu in the title role with Roberto Alagna and Ruggero Raimondi.

Tosca

Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini is a four-act opera set during the Renaissance period. The plot concerns an arranged marriage between Francesca and Giovanni, also known as Gianciotto, who is impersonated by his handsome brother Paolo, and with whom Francesca falls passionately in love. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Italian Tristan’, the opera ends in betrayal and a double murder. The production of this rarely performed opera from the Deutsche Oper Berlin proved to be a huge critical success.

Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini is a four-act opera set during the Renaissance period.

Francesca da Rimini

Glyndebourne has a proud association with the operas of Benjamin Britten, however until 2010 had never staged Billy Budd. The all-male opera with a libretto co-written by E.M. Forster, is based on the battle between pure good and blind evil, and is set on a British man-o'-war ship. Michael Grandage, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, chose this work to make his long-awaited operatic debut. Sir Mark Elder returned to conduct, marking the 100th opera production in his illustrious career.

The all-male opera is based on the battle between pure good and blind evil, and is set on a British man-o'-war ship.

Billy Budd

The Deutsche Oper Berlin’s epic staging of Wagner’s Die Walküre, the second opera of his historic Ring Cycle. 

Following Das Rheingold - the first act in the Ring Cycle - the gods find themselves ensconced in the castle of Valhalla, with trouble brewing as we begin The Valkyrie.

The mortals are power-crazed, mistrust and materialism rule and all that the gods can think about is enforcing the old codes rather than questioning their raison d’être. Siblings Siegmund and Sieglinde are condemned to death because there is no place for their special brand of love in society. Bru¨nnhilde, a Valkyrie, is charmed by them and dares to defy her father Wotan’s sentence by taking the pair under her wing. In THE VALKYRIE Wagner makes it plain whose side he is on: in the big love scene between Siegmund and Sieglinde, in which the elemental force of love outpunches all social mores, and in the evolution of Bru¨nnhilde’s character, whose conduct is at first motivated by intuitive sympathy but morphs into deliberate action as a protest against inhumanity and injustice.

Die Walküre - The Valkyrie - is the second opera in Wagner’s four-part epic, the Ring Cycle.

Die Walküre

Bursting with exotic colour and memorable melodies, Puccini’s seductive score conceals a dramatic blade that cuts to the heart. Madama Butterfly is a classic love story that never fails to move, a tragic romance that sweeps you along in the intensity of its action. Blending authentic Japanese music with luscious European harmonies and orchestration, the opera is an irresistible fusion of East and West.

Blending authentic Japanese music with luscious European harmonies and orchestration, the opera is an irresistible fusion of East and West.

Madama Butterfly

Rinat Shaham, with her sublime singing, is the provocative and free-spirited Carmen, while Dymtro Popov portrays Don José with a perfect mix of naivety and desire, his rich tenor rolling out across the harbour.

Rinat Shaham is the provocative and free-spirited Carmen, while Dymtro Popov portrays Don José with a perfect mix of naivety and desire.

Carmen

Daniel Barenboim conducts Fidelio, a moral title associated with the ideals of liberty of the French Enlightenment.

Fidelio

Forbidden love, wrongdoings and anguish: the Opernhaus Zürich ventures into late 19th-century French romanticism with “Werther“ by French composer Jules Massenet. A loose adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, the opera is conducted by Germany’s Cornelius Meister. It tells the story of the impossible union of poet Werther to Charlotte, a woman of duty already promised to a wealthy businessman.Goethe’s drama is echoed in Massenet’s score by emotionally wide-ranging vocal parts written on a grand scale.

A loose adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, composed by Jules Massenet. 

Werther

Opera, rock, and film collide in David T. Little’s exploration of the life of the Soldier.

Soldier Songs

The two middle sections of the tetralogy set out two ways of experiencing life. On the one hand we are presented in THE VALKYRIE with Bru¨nnhilde, whose evolution takes her from her discovery of sorrow and empathy to a conscious reflection on what it is to be human. By contrast, Siegfried’s path is mapped out solely as a function of his sensory experience. Where initially the young man’s self-image stems only from his exploration of his own boundless strength, other senses and sensibilities soon come to bear, along with an awakening sexuality. SIEGFRIED presents an encounter not only between man and woman but between two principles – Siegfried’s innate, unquestioned vigour on one side and Bru¨nnhilde’s wisdom born of observation on the other. And as these two diametrical forces unite in a love embrace, the end of the opera seems to be presenting the basis for a renewal of human society.

Siegfried presents an encounter not only between man and woman but between two principles

Siegfried

Das Rheingold is the first opera in Wagner’s epic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, or The Ring cycle.  

Inspired by Norse mythology Das Rheingold tells the story of the Nibelung dwarf Alberich, who steals a magic ring of gold from the Rhinemaidens, or water nymphs. Whoever possesses the ring will have the power to rule the world, as long as they denounce love. A condition that is not a problem for the greedy Alberich. Wotan, the king of the Gods, hears about the all-powerful ring and promises it to the giants Fafner and Fasolt as payment for building his castle in Valhalla. Just one problem, Wotan doesn’t have the ring…

This production from Teatro Real is led by Principal Guest Conductor Pablo Heras-Casad, who leads a cast of renowned Wagnerians including Greer Grimsley, Sarah Connolly, and Samuel Youn in Robert Carsen’s bleak vision of the story. Carsen sets Wagner’s Norse-inspired tale in a desolate and polluted world, earning it the nickname ‘’The Green Cycle’’.

Das Rheingold is the first part of Robert Carsen’s bleak vision of the story of the colossal Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner.

Rusalka

Cast & Crew

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