The conflict heightens as Wotan steals the child (rather than a ring) from Alberich, with too much crude gun-waving, and confines him to his upstairs study. Then the meal is disrupted by the sullen boy, with food thrown everywhere and helmet drawings torn up as outside the room Mime and Loge argue. We hear forging off stage, but what we then see is an innocent lunchtime at school, with young girls drawing helmets rather than making them. Fasolt and Fafner are not giants, but rather architects building Wotan’s extension, whisking Freia as hostage into their onstage 4x4 to ensure they are paid. There is less originality in the depiction of dysfunctional interplay of Wotan’s fellow gods and goddesses in their shiny home. Which is not to snatch gold, but to snatch a child, a sullen boy who features centrally in the action. The question asked here seems to be: what can be more precious than a magic golden ring to ensure the future? There is a clear answer: children.įrom the opening film of babies floating in the womb, the plot is twisted to serve this vision: no grand Rhine river, but a paddling pool in the god Wotan’s garden, with children splashing and three little maids provoking Alberich to his power grab. Schwarz has maybe unwisely compared the Ring, with its four episodes, to a Netflix drama, but in his scenario the analogy is close to the inter-family machinations of Succession, where the quest to hand on inheritance leads to bitter conflict. On the evidence of this compelling first instalment, it will be dominated not by magic, but by radical youthfulness and a ruthless search for generational power – both timely, elemental themes. This new one, by the 33-year-old director Valentin Schwarz, has been delayed two years by the pandemic, so almost a decade after its predecessor there is a lot riding on its reception. Bayreuth has hosted all manner of new visions of Wagner’s operas since the modern era was inaugurated by Patrice Chéreau’s celebrated centenary cycle of 1976 (which was shown act by act on BBC2 – those were the days) the last new cycle of 2013, anti-oil, techno-inspired, by Frank Castorf, was roundly loathed. This looks like being a Ring cycle without a ring.
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