The revival premiere of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold will take place at the Latvian National Opera on March 8. The production will be conducted by the much-praised master of Wagner’s music Cornelius Meister (March 8) and the rising star Joana Mallwitz (March 10). The stage director of the production is Stefan Herheim, Set and Costume Designer Heike Scheele.

The cast of the new production includes Frederik Zetterström (Wotan), Oliver Zvarg (Alberich), Martina Dike (Fricka), Bengt Ola-Morgny (Mime), Göran Eliasson (Loge), Armands Siliņš (Donner), Andris Ludvigs (Froh), Krišjānis Norvelis (Fafner), Rihards Mačanovskis (Fasolt), Dana Bramane (Freia), Lyubov Sokolova or Ilona Bagele (Erda), Juliana Bawarska (Woglinde), Aira Rūrāne (Wellgunde), Kristīne Zadovska (Flosshilde).

To mark the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth, Riga Opera Festival in June will present the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle. However, already in March, the LNO presents the first part of the grand cycle of four epic operas, where the battle for the magic ring, giving enormous power to its wearer, begins.

“The characters in this play about the Ring take every means to obtain power and the right to construct a reality which seems meaningful to them. The gods have never been so committed to humanity and the humans have never been more at the mercy of the gods – ever since the day they fabricated the theatrical arena in which they continually display and invent themselves,” says the stage director of the production Norwegian Stefan Herheim, who has been named “the most brilliant Wagnerian alive” (The Guardian).