Twilight of the Ring Cycle

As became clear in Das Rheingold in 2006, director Francesca Zambello conceived the gods in terms of the American wealthy class, a family of corrupt business barons. Wotan builds their version of the American dream, a vast McMansion that will be their new home, without really knowing how he will pay for it. The lower races of creatures on the Earth are presented as their playthings, the Nibelungs cast as African-American slaves and, in Die Walküre, Sieglinde and Hunding like prairie homesteaders. The irony that this project was made financially impossible by the excesses of deficit spending that caused the current financial crisis is too delicious to ignore.

Financial Crisis Claims WNO's Ring Cycle Plans (DCist, November 12)