Richard Wagner

The Valkyrie review – a striking, uneven start to ENO’s Ring cycle

Director Richard Jones brings magic-realist noir to Wagner’s world – with results that range from poignant to distracting

Tim Ashley

21, Nov, 2021 @1:29 PM

‘About as big as it gets’: behind the scenes of Wagner’s The Valkyrie at English National Opera

ENO returns to live performances this season with a bold, ambitious choice: Wagner’s The Valkyrie. At the technical rehearsal we watched it take shape inside the Coliseum

Imogen Tilden, photographs by David Levene

18, Nov, 2021 @9:03 AM

‘Feel the fear, then do it’: Wagner’s Ring cycle gets a bold Samoan rework

Productions of Wagner’s epic take years in the planning and execution, huge spaces and hundreds of people. How is a small arts collective performing all four operas in a Putney church, and how do a conch shell and a fire dance fit in?

Stephen Moss

28, Oct, 2021 @6:00 AM

My Tristan und Isolde follows every move in Lehnhoff’s staging | Letter

Letters: Daniel Dooner on his semi-staging of the Wagner opera at Glydebourne closely following Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production

Letters

20, Aug, 2021 @12:39 PM

Glyndebourne Tristan und Isolde review – Ticciati impresses in pared back Wagner

Fine conducting by Robin Ticciati and superb playing by the London Philharmonic Orchestra lift this semi-staged Wagner

Martin Kettle

16, Aug, 2021 @9:58 AM

Longborough festival opera Die Walküre review – Covid constraints achieve intimacy and intensity

A concert staging for the second opera in Wagner’s Ring Cycle brought bonuses from a stellar cast and the profound musicianship of Anthony Negus

Rian Evans

02, Jun, 2021 @12:03 PM

Rein Gold by Elfriede Jelinek review – a wearying Wagner update

The Nobel prize-winning writer turns the Ring cycle drama into a grim dialogue about capitalism’s perils

Peter Conrad

28, Feb, 2021 @9:00 AM

ENO announces bold plan to stage Ring Cycle from the autumn

Richard Wagner’s four-part opera epic will play at London’s Coliseum over several years

Mark Brown Arts correspondent

24, Feb, 2021 @7:01 AM

From the sublime to the ridiculous: our critics best and worst of Wagner's Ring Cycle

Ahead of Radio 3’s broadcast of all four operas, we asked our writers which moments of the epic they love the most – and which they hope to never hear again

Tim Ashley, Andrew Clements, Rian Evans, Erica Jeal, Martin Kettle, Fiona Maddocks, Stephen Moss, Rowena Smith and Flora Willson

15, Feb, 2021 @12:01 PM

Raw, brave, wild and honest: why Germany is Europe's greatest artistic nation

Germany became a unified state 150 years ago this week – and no other country has produced such original, provocative and powerful art since, from Richter to Klee, from Dix to Höch

Jonathan Jones

19, Jan, 2021 @4:38 PM

Richard and the revolutionaries: why did lefties love Wagner?

His antisemitism made him a far-right icon. So what attracted reds and radicals from Lenin to George Bernard-Shaw to the tumultuous sounds of Hitler’s favourite composer?

Alex Ross

17, Sep, 2020 @5:00 AM

A downtick for all the upticks, please

Brief letters: Boris Johnson and Wotan | Covid and Brexit fair play | Ladybirds | Grandparental mortality | A rise in upticks