The Ring: Anatomy of an opera

by Stephen Fay, Roger Wood

extremely rare,very good condition

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Jonathan Hutchins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title: The Ring: anatomy of an opera is somewhat misleading: 'anatomy of an opera production' would be more accurate. It actually describes the origin and course of the 1983 centenary production of Wagner’s ‘Ring' at Bayreuth, conducted by Sir Georg Solti and directed by Sir Peter Hall.

I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading this. (I actually used to own a copy but it must have been sold in one of my periodic, Götterdämmerung-like holocausts of possessions.) Though thirty years have gone by since that production, the issues and triumphs and disasters come across as freshly as from a contemporary tale of any production uncommonly beset with difficulties.

But of course this isn’t ‘any production’. It’s Wagner’s monumental ‘Ring’ cycle, love it or hate it (and I’m in the former category). Stephen Fay’s account is not dispassionate but achieves the almost impossible feat, in dealing with anything Wagner-related, of NOT being passionately partisan. Roger Wood’s photographs of the production, and some of the onstage and offstage principals, give visual embodiment to the verbal descriptions. Recommended.