Breaking Free: Matthew Rye reviews two instalments in ongoing ‘Ring’ cycles that explore different aspects of freedom and entrapment

Reviews of Das Rheingold, directed Hilsdorf, conducted Kober, Düsseldorf, 2017; Siegfried, directed Arnarsson, conducted Brown, Karlsruhe, 2017.

November 2017, Volume 11, Number 3, 56–9.

As one Ring heads towards the home straight, another launches itself over the starting line, both, as it happens, within hailing distance of the mighty Rhine itself. Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf/Duisburg has called upon one of its regular collaborators, Dietrich W. Hilsdorf, who has already staged Walküre for the neighbouring Aalto Theater Essen’s multi-director cycle (a timely revival of which next summer will follow on from his latest thoughts in Düsseldorf), and is now getting his chance to have a go at the full tetralogy. His take on Das Rheingold is intriguing and perceptive and leaves enough loose ends to lure one back to see how the rest of the cycle pans out.