It's coming round again - The Seattle Ring - the 'green' Ring that looks to the gorgeous natural setting of this Pacific Northwest City for its inspiration, will be back in August 2009. There's a major cast change - Janice Baird replaces Jane Eaglen as Brunnhilde but the sensitive, intelligent and beautiful production by Stephen Wadsworth will be unchanged. On its last outing, Wadsworth had given the end of Gotterdammerung (sorry can't find umlaut key) a rethink and had come up with what is, for me, one of the most moving and visually stunning Ring finales ever. Last time I attended this Ring, I had the good fortune to find a houseboat on Lake Union (through good old Craigslist). What better way to spend a hot August week than listening to Wagner's music, lectures by Seattle's education guy, Perry Lorenzo and a cast of guest speakers from across the globe, then return to the house on the water and go for a swim.
Seattle is unembarrassed in its celebration of Wagner during Ring Week. I'm pasting a shaky (sorry) video clip of the fountain behind the opera, here as an example.
I can't imagine this ever happening in Germany!
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