Christmas broadcasts in France will feature a brand-new Ring cycle

From the press release:

France Musique will present an exclusive broadcast  of Wagner’s Cycle The Ring between Saturday 26 December 2020 and Saturday 2 January 2021 at 8 pm. The operas will also be available on demand streaming and for free for one month on francemusique.fr

The recordings took place late November at the Bastille Opéra and early December at the Radio France Auditorium (Siegfried) when live performances were cancelled due to the sanitary crisis. The complete musical production was maintained, against all odds, by music director Philippe Jordan who is ending a 10-year term at the Opéra.

The cast features Iain Paterson (Wotan), Ekaterina Gubanova (Frika), Stuart Skelton (Siegmund), Günther Groissböck (Hunding), Lise Davidsen (Sieglinde), Ricarda Merbeth (Brünnhilde) and Andreas Schager (Siegfried).

Marc Voinchet, Head of France Musique, says: ‘Here at France Musique, in this challenging period, we are both thrilled and proud to have the opportunity to present the first-ever broadcast of the RING on our radio station…More than ever, as a public service media, our main mission is to support musicians, keep the music playing and provide high-level live performances for our listeners.’

How enfeebled, by comparison, is the BBC.