From Senta to All-Knowing Savior

Pierre Audi directs Götterdämmerung in Brussels (****½) [live]

Ingela Brimberg (Brünnhilde) & Ain Anger (Hagen) © Monika Rittershaus

As for the genesis of the Ring, Wagner initially seemed to have a single opera in mind, “Siegfried's Death,” which he would later rename Götterdämmerung. With the addition of “Young Siegfried” (later Siegfried) in 1851, a diptych was created. It is this diptych that Pierre Audi has staged for La Monnaie. The question that then arises is: will the new management of La Monnaie stage cyclical performances of the Ring with two different directors (Castellucci/Audi)? Budgetary restrictions will probably answer that question in the affirmative. Götterdämmerung has become the success that we had dared to expect based on Siegfried. Even if this time some sand has gotten into the machine's gears.