‘Ring’ Revolving: Richard Laing is eventually won over by a clever Swiss tetralogy

Review of Der Ring des Nibelungen, directed Homoki, conducted Noseda, Zurich, 2024 (Accentus, 4 Blu-ray discs).

March 2026, Volume 20, Number 1, 74–7.

At the core of Christian Schmidt’s set for the Zurich Ring – consistent across all four dramas – is a revolving set of walls, revealing different rooms of a grand though bare interior, which become progressively more shabby as the cycle continues. It’s a clever device, suggesting a descent towards destruction while allowing for deft scene changes; characters move with the scenery or step outside it while the scene shifts – which it does frequently and rapidly – and in the central axis of this giant revolving door there are additional opportunities for entrance and egress as characters journey between realms. The downside is that we end up staring at the same four walls for more than fifteen hours.