Katharina Wagner is to direct a new and radically cut version of the Ring cycle at the recently restored Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires next year. From the original four operas and over 15 hours of music, Hamburg record producer Cord Garben has created a two-part, 7-hour opera which can be performed in a single day. The premiere is on 27 November 2012, and with intervals, the performance will run from noon to midnight.
Because Wagner wrote the cycle largely in modules, Garben said he found most of the cutting and rearranging relatively easy. His biggest change was to move Das Rheingold from its customary prologue position and insert it in Die Walküre.
For many opera houses, mounting a full Ring cycle is not financially viable, and so this new version could offer a more affordable alternative. It's already planned that the production will travel elsewhere after four Buenos Aires performances.
Bayreuth regular Linda Watson is expected to sing Brünnhilde; the rest of the casting and that name of the conductor have not yet been revealed.
The news means that Katharina Wagner is unlikely to have time to create a new Ring cycle for Bayreuth in 2013. So she'd better hurry up and find a director sharpish.
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