An epic gift from Germany
- Source: Global Times
- [10:22 August 16 2010]
- Comments
A scene form Götterdämmerung. Photos: Courtesy of Peng Qian
By Hu Bei
The Cologne Opera production of Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) will be one of the most important cultural events in Shang-hai this year.
As Germany's cultural ambassador to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, the Cologne Opera and the Gürzenich Orchestra Kön will give Shanghai audi-ences their first chance to see, what some say is, the greatest opera ever written.
Germany's Nürnberg Opera per-formed a concert version of the Ring Cycle in 2005 at the Beijing International Music Festival but Shanghai audiences will see the opera in its entirety and in a fully costumed and designed production.
Ticket sales for the epic opera began on April 20 but in the 20 days before that, after the production had just been announced, people flooded the opera company office with requests for tickets.
In demand
More than 20 percent of the tickets were taken up at this stage. Since then the office has been dealing with inquiries for tickets from other countries and regions, including Europe, the US and Japan.
Although the Shanghai Grand Theater has seen many large-scale theatrical pro-ductions like The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, the scale of the Ring Cycle overshadows all previous shows.
Cologne Opera's artistic director Uwe Eric Laufenberg told the Global Times in an exclusive interview: "It really is an exceptionally large production. As well as a huge cast and crew and musicians, we have 30 containers full of scenery and props which are being transported 14,000 kilometers. The Shanghai per-formances will cost 3 million euros ($3.9 million)."
"We spent almost two years research-ing venues in Shanghai and making arrangements for this project. We will be here for a month to ensure that every-thing goes smoothly."
Making the opera come alive will be 315 artists and technicians. The audience will see a chorus of 70 singers (some from Shanghai), 28 soloists and an or-chestra of 90 players, Laufenberg said.
The Cologne Opera is one of the lead-ing opera houses in Europe.
"In Germany and Europe it is every opera house's ambition to produce the Ring Cycle - it is the most challenging and greatest work you can do," Laufen-berg said.
For this production the Cologne Opera began preparations in 2000 and spent four years designing and rehears-ing each of the four operas in the cycle. In 2004 it was premiered to acclaim.
The Shanghai Expo is the key to the Ring Cycle arriving in the city. "Both the Expo and the Ring Cycle explore how we can influence civilization and use power to make a better future," he said.
"The music Wagner created for this opera is special and has a German flavor, but it is also full of human emotions and has universal appeal."
Laufenberg said that this production, directed by Robert Carsen, has a modern design. "We are trying to bring Wagner to our time, and in our production, you can see Wagner's vision of our future. Our scenery contains modern skyscrapers just like Shanghai, so this is a new way to interpret the original opera," he added.
Director Robert Carsen has worked in some of the world's pre-eminent opera houses including the New York Metropol-itan Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Paris Opéra and the Vienna State Opera.
Laufenberg said Carsen's Ring could also be called the "Green Ring" as the production reflects "the problems of the globalized world along with the changes and processes of destruction affecting modern civilization."
"The production also investigates questions facing humanity, having to do with man's relationship to higher prin-ciples and to nature," Laufenberg added.
