{"id":20082,"date":"2024-02-14T16:15:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T21:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/a-model-for-modern-ring-operas-is-unfolding-in-brussels\/14\/02\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T16:15:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T21:15:55","slug":"a-model-for-modern-ring-operas-is-unfolding-in-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/a-model-for-modern-ring-operas-is-unfolding-in-brussels\/14\/02\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"A Model for Modern \u2018Ring\u2019 Operas Is Unfolding in Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Castellucci is an auteurist director who makes the extraordinary seem natural, who conjures surprises that baffle and amaze, sometimes self-indulgently<\/a>, but often brilliantly<\/a>. Driven more by imagery<\/a> than plot, he has been best suited to staging oratorios or concert works like Mozart\u2019s Requiem and Mahler\u2019s Second Symphony<\/a>. When it was announced that he would direct his first \u201cRing\u201d in Brussels, there were scattered groans among opera fans who wondered whether his non-narrative style could sustain 15 hours of music.<\/p>\n

His \u201cRing\u201d does<\/em> go against the grain. He isn\u2019t staging the four operas with a single concept, like Valentin Schwarz did with his acerbically human drama<\/a> at the Bayreuth Festival; each installment will stand on its own. And Castellucci isn\u2019t aiming for blunt relevance. It has long become fashionable to dress up the \u201cRing\u201d as an eco-fable, or in contemporary costumes. Patrice Ch\u00e9reau\u2019s centennial production at Bayreuth in 1976, perhaps the most famous staging, is a Marxist allegory of modernity. Castellucci, though, returns to the abstract approach of Wagner\u2019s grandson, Wieland Wagner, that dominated Bayreuth after World War II.<\/p>\n

He trusts the libretto to tell the story, and he trusts it to be timely on its own. After all, the \u201cRing\u201d has always been relevant; that is the nature of mythic storytelling. And he isn\u2019t misguided in having the operas stand alone. They are distinct \u2014 \u201cSiegfried,\u201d for example, an interjection of opera buffa, and \u201cDas Rheingold\u201d a seamless, proto-cinematic vision for the art form\u2019s future. In the first two installments, Castellucci has presented an extended, visual essay on the essence of each work, his staging behaving like Wagner\u2019s score in constantly commenting on and illuminating the action. The results have novelistic sweep and ambiguity, and are both persuasive and breathtakingly theatrical.<\/p>\n

The world of \u201cDas Rheingold,\u201d in Castellucci\u2019s production, is one of tribalism and violent hierarchy. Valhalla, the recently completed home of the gods, is a fortress built on loot. Wotan and Fricka, its rulers, enter by navigating \u2014 maybe even trampling \u2014 the bodies, made to look nude, of countless people laid out across the stage. Surrounding them are statues and reliefs based on the Elgin Marbles, the Greek friezes that have long been housed at the British Museum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Castellucci is an auteurist director who makes the extraordinary seem natural, who conjures surprises that baffle and amaze, sometimes self-indulgently, but often