Brutal, wild, and moving: Wagner's 'Götterdämmerung' at the Vienna State Opera

Wagner's "Götterdämmerung" received a brutal, wild, and moving staging at the Vienna State Opera, with the Staatsopernorchester performing under the baton of Pablo Heras-Casado. Soprano Camilla Nylund and tenor Andreas Schager delivered standout performances.

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Man craves 'immeasurable power,' it is said in the Ring of the Nibelung. Bogdan Roščić contradicted this publicly on the day of Götterdämmerung: For some, publicity is even more important.

The production's intensity was matched by a public spat between Vienna State Opera director Bogdan Roščić and Festival Weeks director Milo Rau. Roščić publicly rebuked Rau, characterizing him as a "model student" in the "game played on the roaring harp of the attention economy." Roščić sarcastically suggested Rau might find a "role at the Opera Ball" and proposed him as a successor to the late society figure Richard Lugner.

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A model student in the 'game played on the roaring harp of the attention economy.'

This public exchange between the opera house and the festival highlights a tension described as "brutality." The article frames this as a welcome to the world of DER STANDARD, where readers decide how to engage with content, implying a certain level of critical engagement is expected.

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He wouldn't offer him a harpist position in the State Opera Orchestra, nor the direction of a new Ring. But he would find a 'role at the Opera Ball' for Rau, Roščić quipped, and suggested the Swiss as the successor to the deceased society jester Richard Lugner.