[Source: China Net] China Net News On the stage of opera production, the performance of Richard Wagner's tetrad "The Ring of the Nibelungs" has always been regarded as a major cultural event. On August 28th, 30th, and September 1st and 3rd, the National Center for the Performing

[Source: China Net]

China Net News On the stage of opera production, the performance of Richard Wagner's quartet of "The Ring of the Nibelungs" has always been regarded as a major cultural event. On August 28th, 30th, and September 1st and 3rd, the National Center for the Performing Arts is about to embark on the "Ring" tour, and the masterpiece "Das Rheingold" will be presented. Lu Jia, the music and artistic director of the National Center for the Performing Arts, conducts the baton with all his heart, and Stefano Boda, an artist who is extremely active on the world's opera stage, is in charge of the overall performance. Many of the world's first-line opera singers gathered in Beijing, striving to present a masterpiece for the capital, China and even the world. A version of the National Center for the Performing Arts' version of "The Ring" that has gone down in history.

On August 13, all the Beijing-based main actors and actresses of "Daiss Rheingold" made an appearance and attended a press conference to introduce the production highlights and performance highlights of the drama to the media. Photo courtesy of the National Center for the Performing Arts

"The Ring of the Nibelungs" - the Mount Everest in the history of opera

A touchstone for testing opera production capabilities

"The Ring of the Nibelungs" (hereinafter referred to as "The Ring") condenses Wagner The essence of creation, its creation lasted for 26 years. The social, political, and life views contained in "The Ring," as well as the aesthetics of music and drama, have left a lasting discussion topic for future generations.

This opera of unprecedented scale is composed of four serial dramas: "Daiss Rheingold" on the eve, "Die Walküre" on the first day, "Siegfried" on the second day, and "The Gods of the Gods" on the third day. "Evening" displays Wagner's highest artistic achievement, most mature artistic thought, and largest artistic structure. It fully embodies the composer's concept of "total art" and has an important influence on the development of Western opera. Due to the difficulty of musical interpretation, the large number of characters, the rich requirements of mythological color on stage presentation, etc., the "Ring" series is undoubtedly a well-deserved "epic" masterpiece. This series is also regarded as a test of a theater's opera production capabilities. touchstone.

After successfully completing more than 70 operas and many Wagner operas, the National Center for the Performing Arts has formed a solid opera production system and accumulated rich experience in opera production. It is confident that it has the responsibility to start this immortal opera. This is the prologue of the work, and using this as a starting point, we will continue to work closely with the other three outstanding parts of the "Ring" tetrad, and realize the full performance of the National Center for the Performing Arts' version of "The Ring" as soon as possible.

On August 13, all the Beijing-based main actors and actresses of "Daiss Rheingold" made an appearance and attended a press conference together to introduce the production highlights and performance highlights of the drama to the media. Photo courtesy of the National Center for the Performing Arts

The eve of "Ring" - "Das Rheingold"

The exciting opening foreshadows the overall play

Among the tetralogy of "The Ring", "Das Rheingold" has the highest reputation in the history of musical theater An exciting opening. It is parallel to "The Ring" as a whole in many ways: both are composed of four parts, both start in the key of E flat major and end in the key of D flat major... Therefore, "Das Rheingold" can be regarded as an antithesis in structure. The foreshadowing of the entire series of "The Ring".

This opera tells a story about gods, giants, daffodils and dwarfs. Different ethnic groups have the same "human" (or "divine") weakness - greed for power. A fictional myth and legend seems to have nothing to do with reality, but it can reflect the present through time and space, giving contemporary audiences profound thinking.

In order to realize the great ideal of "total art", Wagner applied the leading motive technology to the point of proficiency, and it became an important musical means to condense music and drama. Rhine Motive, Wotan Motive, Gold Motive, Ring Motive, etc. These rich musical labels refer to specific things and concepts in the play. The rich musical impression also makes "listening to opera with eyes closed" a reality.

Relatively speaking, "Daiss Rheingold" is the shortest in length, but has the most characters.In the non-stop two-and-a-half-hour performance, all the characters in "The Ring", whether it is the three Rhine nymphs, the Nibelung dwarf Alberich, or the gods with their own thoughts, the giant brother Fafnir and Fasolt, their character settings and personalities set the tone in this play and run through it throughout the tetrad.

The all-round director Stefano Boda performs with great strength

World opera singers interpret timeless musical philosophies

In this round of performances, Lu Jia, the famous conductor and music and artistic director of the National Center for the Performing Arts, will perform with all his heart. Great. The music of "Ring" is all-encompassing, and Wagner's use of the overall instrumentation is subtle and clever. Its scale and harmony are very different from the composer's previous operas. Lu Jia will lead the National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra to depict the brilliant golden "Daiss Rheingold" with transparent and smooth music.

This edition is produced with the talents of Stefano Boda, one of the most active directors on the opera stage in the world today. Following the Grand Theater version of "Luozhu", he will once again wear multiple hats, including director, choreographer, stage design, costume, lighting, and multimedia design, taking a global view of the creation of the overall opera art. From this perspective, the "total art" ideas of Boda and Wagner are quite similar. As Boda said, "My way of directing an opera is to bring all the elements together to form a unified, unique perspective that gives coherence to the plot and creates a complete atmosphere. I feel that my approach is particularly consistent with Wagner's perspective: He pursues the integrity of art, while I pursue the unity of art and fight against the high degree of segmentation and division of labor in the modern world."

The performance lineup brings together a number of outstanding Wagnerian actors from around the world, including the actor of Wotan. Egil Silins had an outstanding performance in the National Theater version of "Lohengrin"; Christian Franz, who played the role of the god of fire Logo, has been performing in Wa operas on the international stage all year round and is known as the "heroic tenor". poet". At the same time, Robert Bock, Wang Chuan, Bettina Ranch, Tanya Kuhn, Niu Shasha, Thomas Thomasson, Arnold Bezuyan, Andrea Silvestre Li, Guan Zhijing, Qin Kanru, Xu Xiaoying, Zhang Yajie, etc., they will perform on the same stage, using their strong singing skills to tell the timeless musical philosophy in "The Ring".