RIchard Wagner Das Rheingold Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin A Rheingold without any gold The creation of this Ring der Nibelungen production has a prologue: the planning and staging of this entire Ring with its four works lasting a total of approx. 16 hours in one season, was supposed to be a birthday present from the Staatsoper Unter den Linden to its General Music Director, Daniel Barenboim. Unfortunately, Daniel Barenboim had to step down from conducting the three Ring...

Many Wagner fans will rank Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg as one of their favourite works of all time, but the real measure of its strength is that many an opera-goer who normally avoids Wagner like the plague will make a special exception for Die Meistersinger. Unlike virtually all of the composer’s other mature works, it is not about gods, grails, rings and potions, but rather flesh and blood human beings. By exposing all of the foibles and frailties of this strangest of...

Would we witness the 19th century fairy tale scenery on stage, again? Would we be bored by a "normal" love-jealousy-revenge story as basis for brilliant singing and superbly instrumented orchestra playing, wondering why opera still made into the 21st century ? One can easily imagine by reading the plot before the performance. Not so when the curtain of this production rises ! Not so with Dmitri Tcherniakov ! Tcherniakov embeds the traditional plot into the reality of...