Two complete cycles of Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung' at La Scala
The FOG Festival kicks off at the Milan Triennale; the musical 'Next to normal' at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi; Igor Levit in Perugia
At La Scala, the Wagnerian cycle of the 'Ring of the Nibelung' is presented within a week, as the author intended it. The theatre had already begun staging the first of the four operas that make up the 'Ring' in the autumn of 2024, and is now nearing completion. The ninth edition of the FOG festival, dedicated to exploring the new frontiers of live art - theatre, dance, performance and music - kicks off at the Teatro dell'Arte della Triennale. In the new 100-seat phone-free auditorium of the Teatro degli Arcimboldi, the musical 'Next to normal' is on stage.
Milan
At La Scala from 1 to 7 March the cycle of Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung', conducted by Alexander Soddy; from 10 to 15 the cycle is repeated, this time with Simone Young conducting. After ten years, La Scala presents a new staging of the "Ring"; the direction is by David McVicar, whom La Scala audiences will remember in other productions, from Cavalli to Berlioz, Cilea and Verdi. The director has restored the 'Ring' to its mythical foundations and its narrative linearity, which make it one of the landmarks of the Western canon. Ancient tragedy, baroque theatre and Elizabethan drama converge in a reading that identifies two episodes of comedy - Das Rheingold and Siegfried - and two sinks into tragedy, Die Walküre and above all Götterdämmerung, which marks the final landing place of catastrophe. Prominent in the company are Michael Volle (Wotan in the entire cycle), Camilla Nylund as Brünnhilde and Klaus Florian Vogt as Siegfried.
The four operas of the cycle have already been presented separately: 'The Rhinegold' in October-November 2024, 'La Walkiria' in February 2025, 'Siegfried' in June 2025 and 'Twilight of the Gods' in this February. Now, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the first performance, the 'Ring' cycle is being packed into a week, just as its author intended.
On 22 February at 7.30 p.m. at La Scala the first appointment of the 15th Open Rehearsals of the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. Conductor Fabio Luisi, soloist the violinist Janine Jansen; on the programme the Bruch Concert, and music by Beethoven and Weber. The proceeds of the evening will support the 'Armonia Sociale' project of the Gruppi di Volontariato Vincenziano (Vincentian Volunteer Groups), with the aim of combating school drop-outs. The charity cycle of the Open Rehearsals, focused again this year on the fight against educational poverty, makes it possible to attend rehearsals of great concerts at affordable prices, while contributing to important solidarity projects in the Milan area.
The concert will take place on the 23rd in the Philharmonic's Season; broadcast live on Rai RadioTre (8 pm). Janine Jansen is 'Artist in Residence' of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Among the many commissions and awards Luisi has received in the course of his long career, we would like to mention the Grammy Award for his recording of Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung' with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On the 28th, again at La Scala, we hear another ensemble, the Czech Philharmonic with its conductor from 2018, Semyon Bychkov, recently appointed music director of the Opéra de Paris, from August 2028. With them the pianist Beatrice Rana, whom we hear in Ravel's Concerto, presented with great success in the recent Asian tour with the Orchestra of S. Cecilia; preceded by Mendelssohn's "Italiana" Symphony and followed by Stravinsky's "Pulcinella", in the infrequent complete version, with singers.
