Cycle opens Thursday, bringing Korean audiences their first-ever complete 'Das Rheingold' experience

Stage design concept for the National Opera of Korea’s "Das Rheingold" (Korean National Opera)
Stage design concept for the National Opera of Korea’s "Das Rheingold" (Korean National Opera)
Stage design concept for the National Opera of Korea’s "Das Rheingold" (Korean National Opera)
Stage design concept for the National Opera of Korea’s "Das Rheingold" (Korean National Opera)

The Korea National Opera raises the curtain Thursday on “Das Rheingold,” starting a four-year project to stage all of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” No Korean company has done this before.

The production runs through Sunday at the Seoul Arts Center’s Opera Theater, 150 years after the cycle was first performed in full in 1876. The other three operas will follow through 2029.

“As this is the first time in Korean opera history that a company is producing all four ‘Ring’ operas itself and staging them over four years, we want each production to carry a Korean feel that audiences here can relate to,” said Park Hye-jin, the company’s general and artistic director.

The story begins when the dwarf Alberich, mocked by the three Rhinemaidens, gives up love and steals their gold, forging a ring that grants limitless power. Wotan, king of the gods, has promised the goddess Freia to the giants Fasolt and Fafner as payment for building his fortress, Valhalla. He takes the ring from Alberich to pay them instead, but Alberich’s curse strikes at once: Fafner kills his brother over it as the gods march into their new home.

Director Lorenzo Fioroni, who staged the company’s “The Love for Three Oranges” last year, treats the myth as a magnifying glass held up to the present: real estate, loans and contracts, exploited labor and an obsession with youth. Nibelheim, the dwarves’ underground realm, becomes a city built from boxes, packaging and trash, while Valhalla is a wood-paneled hall where banknotes rain down. Live cameras project the singers’ faces onto a large screen.

Lothar Koenigs conducts the Korean National Symphony Orchestra.

Wotan is double-cast with bass-baritone Oleksandr Pushniak, a Semperoper Dresden ensemble member, and baritone Lee Sang-min, a soloist at the Staatstheater Nurnberg. Bass-baritone Samuel Youn, who sang four seasons at the Bayreuth Festival starting in 2012, alternates as Alberich with baritone Yang Jun-mo. Soprano Daniela Kohler shares Freia with Lim Sae-kyung.

Pushniak, Youn and Kohler perform on Thursday and Saturday, while Lee, Yang and Lim take the stage on Friday and Sunday.


gypark@heraldcorp.com