No gimmicks, no clutter: Zürich Opera’s is a Ring cycle

Andreas Homoki’s detailed staging focuses on compelling and clear storytelling, and, with Gianandrea Noseda bringing energy and directness to Wagner’s music, this is a fresh and intelligent new cycle

Unlike all too many Ring cycles, Zürich Opera’s new staging will stay in the memory for lots of the right, not the wrong, reasons. This is a fresh and intelligent cycle that is full of interest and consistently musically distinguished.

The Zürich Ring’s principal achievement is musical and theatrical coherence. Andreas Homoki’s production and Christian Schmidt’s neoclassical sets provide a unified visual framework. They are centred on a rotating axis of interconnected rooms and settings. Homoki is explicit that his aim is to move “in the other direction” from what he dubs the “interpretational meta levels” of other Ring productions, especially of those that dominate German opera houses. That does not mean that this is a cycle without an interpretation. But it does mean Homoki trusts Wagner more than some modern directors do: he has staged a storyteller’s Ring.