Two heartfelt views of Berlin’s misguided new Ring

Fiona Maddocks in the Observer:
Tcherniakov has done away with fire, water, magic helmet, dragon, kiss, gold. The most serious misjudgment was in the cycle’s climactic, world-ending closing bars. Here, words flashed up – Wagner’s own Schopenhauer-inspired text, not set to music – precisely when all you wanted to do was listen to the orchestra. This Ring has been seriously conceived, but in its rebuttal of so many key elements, Wagner’s poetry has turned to prose.

Hugh Kerr in Edinburgh Music Review:
I spoke to an elderly Berliner who had been attending Berlin’s state opera house ever since it was rebuilt after the war. She said “it is an insult to the people of Berlin – I have tickets for all the other operas but I won’t be coming to them.” I had a certain sympathy for that point of view… From the outset let me be clear – musically this was a very decent Ring. The orchestra under the young conductor Thomas Guggeis was excellent. The singers were consistently good, despite the nonsense they had to do in this production. Last week Slipped Disc reported on an animal rights campaign to save the rabbits on display in the laboratories on stage. I feel we should start a campaign to save opera singers from the indignities of opera directors who want to “modernise” operas.