It is unwise to make up your mind about any performance of Der Ring des Nibelungen until the final scene. Wagner’s stage directions indicate that the Rhine Maidens are reunited with the gold, Brünnhilde mounts Siegfried’s funeral pyre and Valhalla is consumed in flames. Everything is destroyed, yet the music is positive.

That gives the producer a lot of freedom. Is it really the end? Does the story of love and greed repeat itself endlessly? Or is there hope?