Epic 15-hour ‘Ring Cycle’ opera to draw top dollar-paying aficionados to Brisbane
The “Cameron Smith of Opera” is coming to Brisbane as part of an epic 15-hour performance hardcore fans will travel the world to enjoy, writes Phil Brown
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SO who’s willing to pay a couple of thousand dollars for a ticket to the opera?
Depends on the opera really. In this case we’re talking about Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) which will mean nothing to some and everything to others.
This is German composer Richard Wagner’s masterpiece, a 15-hour, mythological Nordic epic that has developed a cult following worldwide.
Wagner’s 16 hour epic opera Der Ring des Nibelungen is coming to Brisbane
Earlier this week it was announced that Opera Australia’s new version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, as it is best known, is coming to QPAC in late 2020 with support from, among others the Queensland Government (through Tourism and Events Queensland) and Brisbane City Council. Premium tickets will cost as much as $2200, a price fans will apparently gladly fork out.
Bringing the Ring Cycle here isn’t exactly an election commitment but Minister for Innovation and Tourism, Kate Jones, thinks she’s on a winner, particularly since there is a worldwide movement of people who travel the globe to wherever this epic is staged.
They call these folks “Ring nuts” and Jones seemed to equate them to rugby league tragics when announcing this arts coup.
“We’ve just hosted rugby league’s Australian-first Magic Round … and now we’ll host the world’s most hi-tech opera,” Jones said. (The production will feature the latest in digital stage technology).
THE rugby league analogies continued with Lyndon Terracini, artistic director of Opera Australia, who flew to Brisbane for the announcement of a project that is really his baby.
Terracini, who formerly ran the Queensland Music Festival and The Brisbane Festival is a rugby league tragic who loves sporting analogies. He refers to the Ring Cycle as “the Olympics of classical music”.
“It takes years of training and preparation which is why sporting analogies suit,” Terracini says. “And we have one of the greats, Stefan Vinke, singing the lead role of Siegfried. In sporting terms he’s like Cameron Smith, Wally Lewis, Greg Inglis and Johnathan Thurston all rolled into one.”
This German tenor played Siegfried in Opera Australia’s 2013 and 2016 productions of the Ring Cycle. One of Australia’s leading arts impresarios and Wagner aficionado, Sydney-based Leo Schofield, who helped broker the deal to bring the Bolshoi Ballet to Brisbane later this month, agrees that Vinke is the man.
“He’s just sung Siegfried at The Met in New York,” Schofield says. “I heard him in Melbourne and he’s very, very good. When you think how many males there are in the world and realise that only three or four of them can sing the Ring Cycle, it’s quite extraordinary.” (The role of the heroine, Brunnhilde, is yet to be announced).
Der Ring des Nibelungen is widely recognised as the pinnacle of the operatic repertoire, an epic to rival Game of Thrones … a tale of gods, dwarfs, dragons, heroes and a magic ring, all set to incredibly powerful music. It’s 15 hours long and consists of four operas – Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung.
Even if you have never seen a Ring Cycle some of the music will be familiar. It was most powerfully etched into the collective consciousness when Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola used Ride of The Valkyries from Die Walkure as his theme music for helicopters going into battle in Vietnam in his film Apocalypse Now.
Wagner’s music is famous for all sorts of reasons and passing reference must be made to his most notorious fan, Adolf Hitler. The Nazi leader’s passion for Wagner (who died in 1883) was well-known and the Nazification of Wagner led to his music being banned in Israel, although not all Jews take the matter so seriously. Woody Allen famously once joked : “Every time I listen to Wagner, I get the urge to invade Poland.”
The Ring Cycle’s inaugural performance in 1876 opened the first Bayreuth Festival and over the last century it has inspired increasingly fanatical devotion as performances have become rarer and more sought after.
Schofield who has seen it “a mere 19 times”, says that it’s “like a pilgrimage to Lourdes”.
“But the problem is you never get cured. People will come from all over the world to Brisbane for it. It’s foolproof for tourism.”
Minister Jones estimates the Ring Cycle will generate 35,500 visitor nights and pump more than $15 million into the local economy.
Brisbane art dealer Philip Bacon, who is on the board of Opera Australia, is also one of the sponsors of the Brisbane event. He has seen it half a dozen times and describes himself as a “Ring devotee”, a step down from a “Ring nut”.
“Ring nuts are really devoted,” Bacon says, “As soon as it was announced I had an email from a bloke who was travelling in Tajikistan. He was so excited and wanted me to help him make sure he gets a ticket when they go on sale. People are planning trips to Brisbane already.”
This Ring Cycle is being touted as the world’s first fully digital version. Instead of building enormous sets the staging will feature a unique combination of impressive technology including those massive LED screens which will help create an immersive experience that is, according to Opera Australia, “closer to a Lord of The Rings film than a traditional theatre production”.
At the helm will be Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng who has worked for the company before on their acclaimed production of Turandot for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.
Chen has indicated he will be incorporating indigenous Australian themes into the production.
Terracini will take him on a grand tour of the state to hook up with potential collaborators.
In Brisbane the production will partner with Opera Queensland, the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University and QPAC to create a truly Queensland production.
Winding up at the launch in Brisbane Terracini quoted Billy Moore … “that great orator who used to play for the Maroons”.
Terracini, a former opera singer himself, then let fly with “Queenslander!”
Maybe he can convince Stefan Vinke to do that from the stage of the Lyric Theatre late next year? Just a thought.
The Ring Cycle will be repeated three times between November 10 and December 5 2020 with ticket prices ranging from $380 to $2200.
Pre sales start from June 13 and it goes on sale to the public from July 2. Website: opera.org.au/ring phil.brown@news.com.au
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