Magic and Mystery with Seattle Opera's Ring Cycle

Last night, I just finished the fourth and final performance in Seattle Opera’s production of “The Ring” series. The exhilarating loud horns and percussion instruments are still ringing in my ears from Gotterdammerung. This music is truly spectacular and I am fascinated with what was Wagner’s approach to including musical leit-motifs throughout these four operas that recall and foretell events. One of my favorites is Siegfried’s horn call and another is Loge’s (the Fire God) staccato, laughing, mischievous sounding notes.

This is the third “Ring” cycle that I have attended. One of the fascinating things I have heard over the past week is the admiration that so many out-of-towners have for our Seattle “Ring” cycle. The audience is full of people who travel from all over the U.S. and internationally to follow Ring cycles. I talked with several New Yorkers who have attended the ‘”Ring” cycle at the Met and compared our production more favorably. Another Ring aficionado told me that Seattle is one of only three cities in the United States that produces the full “Ring” cycle every four years. The others are New York and Los Angeles.

A few people have commiserated with me over how much time I have spent during this past week listening to opera. The two longest performances, Siegfried on Friday night was 5 hours long and Gotterdammerung last night was 5 hours and 20 minutes! I really must admit, however, that I didn’t begrudge any of the time because I was entranced with the incredible, magical music and the production values at every single performance.

Now that it is over, I am sad that I will have to wait another four years until “The Ring” is produced here again. I may have to consider becoming a “Wagner-ite” and find another “Ring” series in another city to compare!