Review: A Family Ring at the 2023 Bayreuth Festival

Abstract

After the disastrous reception of Valentin Schwarz’s 2022 production of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival, many audiences and critics were hostile to the dramaturgical ideas of Schwarz and his team of mostly millennial artists. However, one year later, it is worth reexamining this production to how it presents a new dramatic lens for “The Ring.” In this review of the 2023 revival presented July 26-31, Schwarz’s production will be considered as representative of a new lens of Ring dramaturgy: the “family Ring.” This lens will be explored as a counterpoint to “mythic” and “systemic” Ring cycles, and specific choices concerning the gold itself and the work’s central characters will be described. This editorial review is designed to open and explore the dramaturgical ideas that make this production so radical and discuss them outside of the mainstream critical assessments that are ultimately designed to praise or pan.