Zurich Ring Cycle focuses on dysfunctional family of gods

By RONALD BLUM
Associated Press

ZURICH (AP) — Andreas Homoki’s production of Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” that opened at the Zurich Opera is a family affair, stripping Wagner’s mythology of usual trappings, instead laser-focused on a dysfunctional, brooding bunch consumed by greed. No rainbow bridge, no hint of a river, mountaintop or underground mine, not even an eye patch. Starting a Ring Cycle conducted by music director Gianandrea Noseda that will be presented in the spring of 2024, the Zurich Opera is just a 25-minute walk from the apartments where Wagner composed much of the four-work epic from 1853-57.