Richard Wagner | Siegfried | Wiener Staatsoper | 2015

The production of the Ring tetralogy at the Vienna State Opera is by Sven-Eric Bechtolf, who has created a series of directorial works at the Haus am Ring. Wrapped in a timelessness, he tells the Ring story as a model of the world, whereby the director does not want to set any concrete contemporary political or social interpretations: “If one refrains from beautiful blue-eyedness and refrains from moving smoothly from A to B, the Ring is worldly even without a “message“. Despite or through abstraction. Rich in conflict, not stringent. Completely contradictory, but effective. In my eyes, it touches on the big questions and issues of our existence in a richly associative way, without having answered anything or held out the prospect of anything.“ ACT I Siegfried grew up with Mime, the blacksmith, in the forest. When he searches for his parents, Mime tells him about Siegfried’s mother, who died giving birth to him, leaving behind only the broken sword Nothung, which his fath