Wagner’s Ring at Zurich Opera

18 MAY 2024: Experience Wagner’s Ring cycle live on medici.tv and Mezzo from Opernhaus Zürich.

Just a stroll from where Wagner composed Rheingold, Die Walküre and the first two acts of Siegfried from 1853 to 1857, the Zurich Opera is staging its first Ring des Nibelungen since more than 20 years. Over a period of two years, Andreas Homoki, artistic director of the Zurich Opera House and the director of this new Ring, and set designer Christian Schmidt are bringing on stage the four operas.

"In a way, the Ring comes back to its source,” Homoki says. Shorn from thematic concepts that have multiplied over the past half-century, Homoki’s staging relies heavily on the characters’ personalities – and what the singers bring to the roles. He decided to take Richard Wagner's tetralogy back to the time of its creation. "You have to make up your mind before you even have the image in mind on how you organise the various levels in the piece – the gods, the family of Wotan, and a slightly alien figure of fire; the giants; and the Nibelung. It’s a world without humans, though the gods are a metaphor for human spirit – when a human begins to speak and think, he creates gods, to explain to himself why he is different from nature, and of course he starts to destroy nature quite rapidly and with consequences."

The cycle will be streamed live on medici.tv. Das Rheingold will be broadcast live on Mezzo TV. The entire tetralogy will be shown on Mezzo TV in June.

Dates of the Complete Ring Cycle:
Das Rheingold – 18 May 2024
Die Walküre – 20 May 2024
Siegfried – 24 May 2024
Götterdämmerung – 26 May 2024

A 4K HDR Production of Accentus Music and Opernhaus Zürich.