In the October 2000 issue of The New Criterion, I reviewed
the first two operas of the Seattle Opera’s new Ring cycle.
This year saw the completion of
the tetralogy with three complete cycles, of which I saw the first
(August 5–10). The positive qualities of Seattle’s “realistic” take on
the Ring that I noted previously shined through in the final
two operas; the cycle as a whole is one of the most
cohesive and coherent, as well as imaginative and dramatically
persuasive, that I have seen.

As is by now obvious, the sheer number of productions of Wagner’s
Ring cycle has led directors and designers to feature ever more
outré “conceptions” that become ever more tangential to the
spirit—much less the letter—of Wagner’s creation. The
“conceptionless” productions, however, do not
always fare much better. The Metropolitan Opera’s attempt at a realistic, back-to-the-original
production was sabotaged (and continues to be sabotaged) by an almost
total lack of directorial control. Matters proved much better in Seattle,
where the scenery designer Thomas Lynch’s lifelike forest settings were
anchored to Stephen Wadsworth’s human-centered
direction.
The result
is a cycle of a highly distinguished order, proceeding from the
inside (of the character’s motivation) outward. The
interpersonal give-and-take of the disparate cast of Rheingold,
for example, can rarely have been more effectively presented.

Wadsworth, of course, did take some liberties—and several of them
were striking. I have waited for years to see a production of
Götterdämmerungin which