As Seattle Opera is getting ready to produce three sold-out cycles of
Wagner's "Der Ring des Niebelungen," Aug.  7-28, news comes from Long
Beach Opera that in January, it will import the 1990 "Ring Saga" from
Birmingham.  Then, in "Costa Mesa," the opening season in September 2006,
in the $200 million Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall will include
a single four-night "Ring" cycle, given by the Kirov Opera.  (Meanwhile,
there is no news about what may happen to the postponed LA Opera "Star
Wars `Ring'".)

Lest you think any of the Southland doings may mean "`Ring' for the first
time," music lovers with long memory, such as www.sandiego.com's David
Gregson point to San Diego Opera's 1975-'76 complete "Ring" in English,
imported from Seattle where Grandma Fisher (of Grandma's Cookies) sponsored
German-English twin cycles.  This year's Seattle production will mark
the 30th anniversary of Glynn Ross bringing the Wagner epic to the
Northwest.

As to the "Ring Saga," Andreas Mitisek, in his third year as director
of the Long Beach company, will conduct this fully-staged, greatly
abbreviated and minimally-orchestrated (18-player) version, by Graham
Vick and Jonathan Dove.  The four operas will be performed over two days
(2-4 p.m., 6-9, then 2-4:30 and 6-9) in two consecutive weekends between
Jan.  14 and 22.

The venue is the 820-seat Center Theater in downtown Long Beach, LBO's
former home.  The coproduction with Pittsburgh starts there this month
(July 15-17) with "The Rhinegold" and "The Valkyrie" only, the full cycle
to be produced in Pennsylvania a year from now, after January's Long
Beach run.  See http://www.longbeachopera.org.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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