Mastodon St Louis to get first Ring Cycle in over 80 years - The Wagnerian

St Louis to get first Ring Cycle in over 80 years

Written By The Wagnerian on Thursday 9 August 2012 | 10:42:00 am

Or at lest in the form of  Johnathon Dove's adoption. From Union Avenue Opera - never let it be said that you have to be an opera company with a budget of millions to just to stage Wagner. We reprint the press release below. There is also an interview with UAO's artistic director here


Das Rheingold

Friday, August 17 at 8pm
Saturday, August 18 at 8pm
Friday, August 24 at 8pm
Saturday, August 25 at 8pm

Concluding the 2012 Festival Season is the start of a four-year odyssey for Union Avenue Opera: Das Rheingold, the first of Richard Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle. Condensed and reduced by English composer Jonathan Dove, this adaptation retains the essence of Wagner while making it accessible to UAO’s intimate setting.
A saga of epic proportion replete with giants, gods, goddesses and a dragon, Das Rheingold opens in the waters of the river Rhine, where three Rhine-maidens guard the river’s magical gold. Enraged by their scorn, conniving dwarf Alberich steals enough of this precious metal to forge a ring that gives its bearer unimaginable power. Meanwhile Wotan and Loge, two powerful gods, conspire to steal the gold as ransom for the goddess Freia who has been kidnapped by the giants. The ensuing struggle for possession of the ring drives this dramatic opera.

Click here to read full synopsis

Gods
Wotan: Kevin Misslich
Loge: Kevin Hanek
Fricka: Elise Quagliata
Freia: Joy Boland
Donner: John Maynard
Froh: Clark Sturdevant
Erda: Cecelia Stearman

Nibelungs

Alberich: Jordan Shanahan

Giants

Fasolt: Todd von Felker
Fafner: Nikolas Wenzel

Rhinemaidens

Woglinde: Elizabeth Beers Kataria
Wellgunde: Megan Hart
Floßhilde: Katja Heuzeroth

Directed by Karen Coe Miller
Conducted by Scott Schoonover


Presented in German with projected English supertitles

Friday Night Lecture Series

Join us for our Friday Night Lecture Series at 7pm in the Fellowship Hall presented by Glenn Bauer, Ph. D., Associate Chair, Department of Music at Webster University. Lectures are free and open to the public.

August 17 and  August 24

 More information visit: Union Avenue Opera