Regents Opera Adds Extra Performance of GOTTERDAMMERUNG

After the success of Regents Opera’s first three instalments of Wagner’s Ring Cycle -  Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried, the fringe opera company eyes its performances of the final instalment and full Ring Cycle with determination.

In recent months a number of high profile opera companies on three continents have shelved their Cycles after the third opera, Siegfried. When Regents Opera learned that its previous venue, Freemasons Hall in Covent Garden, was no longer able to host its final performances it might have seemed that this Cycle was also doomed. But that is not the case. After rapid negotiations with York Hall in Bethnal Green, the show shall go on – still in the round, and if anything in a more intimate and up close experience for audiences, with many seats no further than 15 feet from the action.

This whole cycle has been a feat of dexterity, flexibility and resolve. The adaptation of Wagner’s enormous orchestration down to the forces of 22 musicians is in itself a huge task requiring hundreds of hours of detailed work by Ben Woodward arranging it, and incredible stamina from the 22 musicians performing it. Never has that been a greater ask than in the Cycle’s final instalment Götterdammerung, written at a time when Wagner had become resident at Bayreuth with enormous orchestral forces at his disposal.

However, against the odds, Regents Opera will present the full Cycle running through February 2025. Tickets are now available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/regents-opera.

And due to demand for tickets, an additional performance of the final instalment, Götterdammerung,  has been added to the two full cycles, on Thursday 20 February.

Director Caroline Staunton describes the final opera: “The narrative of Götterdämmerung, The Twilight of the Gods, is not a question of if, but a prolonged agonising game of how. Having surmounted the trauma of his childhood, landing in the arms of Brünnhilde, Siegfried seeks to develop his hero-calling, and gives Brünnhilde the ring as a love token. But, as Wagner continuously reminds us, Alberich‘s curse is ever present and promises the downfall of the God’s progeny. In Hagen, we meet the embodiment of this destructive power, a figure content to bide his time, obscured by the supercilious Bling of the Gibichungs (Gunter is, to borrow Philip Larkin‘s wonderful phrase, nothing but a “ruin-bibber, randy for antique”). Siegfried’s betrothal to Gutrune turns Brünnhilde‘s noble heart to revenge, guided by Hagen and the inevitable fate of those who have coveted the ring. Wotan watches in absence, awaiting the fate he has already accepted.”

The cast remains as celebrated previously, including the company’s new Wotan Ralf Lukas, who stepped in following the sad and all too soon death of Keel Watson, a valued company member since 2014. The anticipation of Keel Watson’s Wotan was in part the inspiration of the Regents Opera team to mount the Cycle and whose performances over the first two instalments earned richly deserved praise and plaudits.

Continuing alongside Ralf Lukas as Wotan are internationally renowned soprano Catharine Woodward in the role of Brünnhilde, the eventual love interest of British/American tenor Peter Furlong’s Siegfried.

And there is the opportunity to enjoy again several characters and performances from earlier in the Ring Cycle, including Holden Madagame and Oliver Gibbs as Nibelung brothers Mime and Alberich, Craig Lemont Walters as the dragon Fafner, and Mae Heydorn’s Earth god Erda, Corrine Hart’s Woodbird, Justine Viani’s radiant Sieglinde, and from the very first opera, James Schouten’s slippy and vibrant Loge.

The Friends of Regents Opera have priority booking for this extra performance of Gotterdammerung  until 1 November, and it is still possible to join today and secure your seats at https://regentsopera.com

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