Der Ring des Nibelungen

"The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an important Wagner house, once dubbed "the winter Bayreuth" ... Before the music begins, across the stage troop a group of migrants who later serve as contributors to the action as Nibelungs or observers, as in a Greek tragedy ... Herheim is also aware that this is in Berlin, and there are some World War Two and Wehrmacht references, about which he is quite unapologetic ... Derek Welton and Annika Schlicht, have impressive voices well suited to their roles ... The Brünnhilde of Nina Stemme and Siegfried of Clay Hilley bring the same qualities heard in Siegfried ... Runnicles and the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin are superb throughout, as is the chorus (in Götterdämmerung) ... The filming and surround sound are excellent ... Mainly in the highly eloquent singing and playing, you will find much to impress, question, debate and decode in the innovative production".

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"Robert Lepages' mestergreb bestod i at befolke scenen med alt genkendeligt Wagner-kitsch og så skabe vibrerende og magisk liv i det opstablede oldnordiske menageri. Fortryllelsen var scenografisk at opfinde en gigantisk tangentmaskine, der med sine løftearme som tentakler kunne illudere enhver af de 16 lokaliteter, som Wagner henlægger sin handling til. Sangerstaben er hele vejen superb ... Aldrig havde man troet, at Nibelungens Ring skulle slippe ud af nutidens parkeringskældre og genfinde sit mytologiske hjemsted".

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"So ist dieser gross gedachte, dann oft pragmatisch mittelmässige Met-"Ring" nicht wirklich der Wagnerwurf des 21. Jahrhunderts geworden. Zumindest dieser Mount Everest bleibt noch ein wenig leer".

"Kaufmann and Westbroek project the right kind of sexual and emotional intensity to carry the drama in the very bare setting that they're in, a tension matched elsewhere only by Waltraud Meier's masterclass of a Waltraute ... Elsewhere there is solid singing from the 'baddie' basses ... and much evidently enjoyed hard work from Deborah Voigt's Brünnhilde ... It must be said, that no one is helped by costumes - presumably intended to be mythical ... Another disappointment of the release is the loss of James Levine halfway through ... So, regrettably in summary, the result, surprisingly for this new Met administration, is a boring, conventional, narrative stage production with some undoubted musical highs".

"På Deutsche Oper i Berlin blev den norske instruktør Stefan Herheim valgt til at fortolke operahistoriens mest ambitiøse værk ... Opsætningens koncept tager udgangspunkst i Europas flygtningekrise ... Herheim inddrager desuden talrige idéer om blandt andet køn, vold, historie, genre og komponisten selv, hvilket gør værket til en sansemættet oplevelse, men konceptet stikker i mange retninger og kan til tider føles ufokuseret ... Trods et lidt ujævnt cast har den mange spændende påfund, og der er smukke øjeblikke undervejs".

"'Close your eyes' is the most tired and depressing piece of opera-going advice, but blind listening to the Deutsche Oper's latest staging might, ironically, best satisfy conservative-minded Wagnerians going in search of a modern Ring led by strong vocal performances rather than the grand designs of a conductor or director ... In finding the whole so much less than the sum of its parts, I return to the excellence of the singers, who deliver quite conventional accounts of their roles despite the non-canonical paraphernalia around them".