This is it!

Now we are busy. Das Rheingold was truly breathtaking. It was one of those evenings where you can feel all the energy uniting and the whole performance rising to a higher level because everybody is responding to one another. Die Walküre was also great. We had a few annoying technical problems in the 2nd act. But the 3rd act raised the performance to a higher level again.

Tuesday evening I was completely ecstatic, thinking: “Waugh, now we are actually having the premiere on our Ring”. It is kind of surrealistic, but it is also a great experience being able just to lean back and witness all the pictures run by. Maybe exactly this will be one of the most striking characteristics in our Ring – that you will get the experience of having seen a stream of pictures running by – just like if you turn over the pages of a photo album.

Domingo

I haven’t had time to write during Domingo’s stay. Needless to say, it was a very great experience. He is so incredible generous – a fantastic voice and a huge personality.

Beside the fact that it was a great performance, it gave us all a lift having him in the house and working with him. (I shudder to think what might have happened if he had cancelled the performance. After all, he has cancelled a number of performances earlier this year. After the performance Domingo himself said to me that this was the first time during the last four months that he had sung such a big role as Siegmund!).

He gave inspiration to us all, and everybody in the house proved their own worth by playing and singing better than ever.

We are almost ready for the complete Ring cycle. But now there’s also less than two weeks left until it begins…