Bayreuth Festival: “Das Rheingold” and the corrupted world of gods

There is a lot of talk about the modernization of opera, and with the new Bayreuth “Ring” it will probably become a radical reality. The Austrian director Valentin Schwarz transfers the work into the present, whereby the shown family history also includes some analysis of the present. For Richard Wagner, the Nordic myths were still the disguise with which he encased the problems of his time: Above all, “Rheingold” is primarily a play about industrialization and the triumph of capitalism, which Wagner – to put it quite pathetically – the possibility of opposed to humanity and love. With Valentin Schwarz, however, Wotan is no longer the capitalist patriarch of the 19th century, but his modern counterpart, now completely corrupted by materialism: the boss of a clan in which one is willing to do just about anything to retain power. The triumphant entry of the gods into Valhalla at the end of the work is not just clouded over by dark forebodings, as is usually the case. In the two and a half hours before, these characters had thoroughly lost all sympathy. These gods not only break contracts, but have hardly any problems with child kidnapping and trafficking, murder and manslaughter are also accepted. All just part of the game. At the edge of the living room in the chic millionaire’s villa, which stinks of new money, (stage: Andrea Cozzi) there is still a well-stocked wall of books and at the end a Wagner record is put on, but all these are long since meaningless and stale artefacts of a bourgeoisie, who have lost their morals.