The Sins of the Father: Edward and Paula Bortnichak are inspired by a bold reimagining of the ‘Ring’ at Bayreuth

With an artwork as vast and multilayered as Wagner’s Ring, any production must make choices. As Keith Warner, one of the most distinguished directors active today, stated in a 2012 interview, ‘the thing about Wagner is that there can be no true success in any production of his operas, only degrees of failure’. Difficult choices having been made as to where to focus, it is inevitable that strata of this immense work not included in that focus will be counted as among those ‘degrees of failure’. Producing the Ring is like attempting to photograph the Grand Canyon – you will never capture all of it in your lens, but evocative photography of aspects of it are possible for a true artist. So it is with the current Ring at Bayreuth directed by Valentin Schwarz with dramaturgy by Konrad Kuhn; one can argue (and it continues to be debated by audience members) about the choice of focus, but this team has certainly dug deep into Wagner’s rich tapestry and elucidated the intergenerational struggles that lie at its core.