This radical reimagining of Wagner’s Ring Cycle by Julia Burbach, with set and costume design by Bettina John, brings the monumental four-opera epic to the London fringe stage. The ambitious project, years in the making, began with Das Rheingold at the Arcola Theatre in 2019, followed by Die Walküre at the Hackney Empire in 2021. The final two operas, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, were presented as a double-bill at Hackney Empire, with Siegfried performed in the afternoon and Götterdämmerung continuing in the evening, reflecting the original intentions of Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick for a single-span, immersive experience.
Burbach and John’s production strips the operas back to their theatrical essentials, revealing the mechanics of the stage itself. The pared-down design exposes the machinery of performance—props, rigging, and actors’ movement—so that audiences witness both the story and the act of its telling. This approach emphasizes the universality of the epic’s themes while creating a dynamic, modern, and visually striking interpretation of Wagner’s masterpiece.
Conductor: Peter Selwyn with the Orpheus Sinfonia
Adaptation: Jonathan Dove & Graham Vick
Orchestration: Jonathan Dove
Director: Julia Burbach
Set, Props and Costume Design: Bettina John
Lighting: Robert Price
Assistant directors: Lysanne van Overbeek, Paula Paz, Mark Burns
Costume supervisor: Felicitas Bruder, Costume assistant: Linda Savini, Costume breakdown: Nina Schmidl, Design assistant: Ingrid Shiel, stage manager on book: Elizabeth Barry, Assistant stage managers: Aida Bourdis and Giulia Mazzoccanti, production manager: Josephine Tremmeling
Cast:
see below
Cast:
Wotan / The Wanderer: Paul Carey Jones
Fricka: Claire Barnett-Jones / Marianne Vidal
Donner: Gareth Brynmor John
Alberich: Seth Carico
Freia / Woglinde: Kiandra Howarth
Flosshilde: Angharad Lyddon
Loge: Philip Sheffield
Fasolt: Andrew Tipple
Erda: Harriet Williams
Fafner: Dingle Yandell
Brünnhilde: Lee Bisset
Mime: Colin Judson
Alberich: Freddie Tong
Siegfried: Neil Cooper / Mark Le Brocq
Gutrune: Lucy Anderson
Erda / Flosshilde: Mae Heydorn
Woodbird: Elizabeth Karani
Wellgunde: Bethan Mary Langford
Waltraute: Angharad Lyddon
Gunther: Simon Thorpe
Fafner / Hagen: Simon Wilding