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Brian Mulligan and Brandon Jovanovich (Donner and Froh), Andrea Silvestrelli and Raymond Aceto (Fasolt and Fafner) made characterful contributions, and Ronnita Miller was splendid as the Earth goddess Erda. Štefan Margita gave a magnetic performance as the fire god Loge, and David Cangelosi was an energetic Mime. Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton was a crisp, articulate Fricka, soprano Julie Adams a clear-voiced Freia. As Wotan, bass-baritone Greer Grimsley was a swaggering captain of industry singing with forceful dark power, he was in suave, commanding voice. The opera ends with the gods taking refuge in Valhalla. The natural world exists only to be despoiled a glimpse of the Nibelungs, mining for gold in fiery caverns, conjures a hellish vision of exploitation.

The god Wotan, lusting for the gold, betrays his own family to get it, permanently alienating his wife, Fricka, and bargaining away her sister, Freia. Katy Tucker’s new projections and Catherine Zuber’s costumes – support the director’s vision throughout.įrom the first moments of “Rheingold,” when the evil Alberich steals the gold and renounces love, the drama runs on the combustive fuel of power and corruption. The designs – Michael Yeargan’s sets, Mark McCullough’s lighting, S. Zambello’s staging employs dazzling stagecraft – mesmerizing projections evoking fire and water, LED lights that glow from beneath the stage – while emphasizing the human folly at the heart of the drama. Wagner’s work, spanning a total of 17 hours over four nights, can often seem too dense to fathom, but this “Ring” is remarkable for its clarity and theatrical allure.

Donald Runnicles – the company’s former music director and a master Wagnerian – led urgent, immersive performances of each score, savoring their brilliant leitmotifs, intimate love music and riveting moments of turmoil. In the first of three complete cycles of the composer’s four-opera masterpiece, the opening night performances of “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walküre” were a magnificent reminder of the power and beauty of Wagner’s timeless epic (the final operas, “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung,” are still to come.)įrancesca Zambello’s production, which sets the action in the American West, charts a path from the Gold Rush era to a high-tech frontier.

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