Conceptual Baggage

Stefan Herheim’s new Ring cycle for the Deutsche Oper Berlin was announced even before the final performances of Götz Friedrich’s now legendary ‘time-tunnel’ production in April of 2017, and the opening instalment, scheduled for June of this year, was one of the most highly anticipated new productions of the season. But after the COVID pandemic forced theatres to close until the end of Summer, it became apparent that Walküre and not Rheingold would be our first glimpse of Mr Herheim’s vision. The task of assembling the Deutsche Oper’s first new Ring cycle of the twenty-first century in the shadow of Friedrich’s beloved production cannot have been easy – and the complications of a global pandemic certainly didn’t make it easier – but Mr Herheim’s deeply intelligent and meticulously directed Walküre was a triumph that bore the unusually…