The End of the World Comes to the Potomac: Paul du Quenoy sees Washington finally get its ‘Ring’ cycle

Review of Der Ring des Nibelungen, directed Zambello, conducted Auguin, Washington DC, 2016.

November 2016, Volume 10, Number 3, 74–75.

After a decade of desperate anticipation Washington finally has its Ring cycle – perhaps the last major national capital in the western world to boast such an achievement. Francesca Zambello’s ‘American Ring’ began to unfold in 2006 with Rheingold, followed by Walküre a year later. Budget limitations delayed Siegfried until 2009, just in time for the financial crisis to reduce Götterdämmerung to only two concert performances later that year, accompanied by the disappointing announcement that the full cycle would be postponed indefinitely. The San Francisco Opera, which shares the production, performed the full cycle three times in the summer of 2011, featuring the celebrated Swedish soprano Nina Stemme’s first full-cycle performances of the central role of Brünnhilde.

For better or worse, Zambello’s already very well-known vision of an ‘American Ring' traces the national experience from the early days of the Industrial Revolution to a stark and alienating present.