Bavaria loses Ring cycle for lack of subs
NewsWe are sorry to read that Lower Bavaria has lost its first-ever Ring cycle because its theatre could not afford double-casting.
Intendant Stefan Tilch had to stop the premiere because a small theater like the Landestheater Niederbayern cannot afford to cast all the main roles twice and have stand-ins ready behind the scenes. As is well known, the Bayreuth Festival had to change its soloists several times in the past season.
Read on here.
Well, it was just this one performance of “Siegfried” that was called off midway because of the protagonist losing his voice. There are other performances planned later on in November.
Unless I’m reading this wrong, it was only a single performance that was affected. If so, “loses Ring Cycle” is misleading.
Hang on. Triple-casting. Wonderfully ambitious, but how could a theatre like Landshut realistically envisage an entire double-cast Ring cycle with an army of ‘Einspringer’ off stage? You need more than eye patches to cast this work.
They didn’t lose their Ring because they couldn’t afford subs, only the premiere had to be interrupted due to the lead singer being ill. That’s all.
Btw, BR Klassik was heavily affected by strikes this morning.
They aired mostly Bach and Dvorak without any comment.
I came too late to work.
Landestheater Niederbayern? Gee, your only nearby competition are the Bayreuther Festspiele and Bayerischer Staatsoper (plus Berlin, and some other regional companies).
Do it at your best, even if it means doing it slowly. One opera per year, over a period of time. Take care with it and change things in the previous productions as the newer ones are prepared. You may find yourselves with a brilliant new concept, and great music!
In my 50+ year experience, the best productions of the “Ring” (which began with the von Karajan Salzburg “Ring” which was created over four years in the 1960s) are those which develop over several seasons, culminating in a unified artistic statement.
Alles Gute!
the main question is, whether a theater with about 320 seats need to perform a Ring cycle
Hi Martin, no theatre “needs” to perform the Ring, but many want to, and there are plenty of talented artists who desperately want to get involved with such a great work.
Longborough has mounted magnificent Rings in a 500-seat theatre, and there are very satisfying reduced orchestrations for smaller venues, such as that used in the wonderful Samoan-influenced “RinGafa” last year (in a London church seating less than 200), and that to be used by Regents Opera in their exciting new fully-staged Ring which opens in the Freemasons’ Hall this Sunday (13 November) – unmissable!
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/60-great-queen-street/freemasons-hall/regents-opera-presents-das-rheingold/e-gkxmqq
Considering the poor state of Wagnerian singers – this is not a loss…