RHEINGOLD IN BANGKOK - information and pre-booking


DATE REQUIRED
SEAT LOCATION

FEBRUARY 5 and 6, 2006

Bangkok Opera's RHEINGOLD is the beginning of a five-year project to bring the entire Ring Cycle to Southeast Asia for the first time.


A LETTER FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE BANGKOK OPERA

Although the official ads for our February “Rheingold” have not yet gone out, we’re receiving a lot of enquiries from members of Wagner Societies around the world, and so I’m writing up this quick note all of you to tell you something about the production.

Doing The Ring has been a special vision of mine since childhood and I’ve been thinking of it, detail by detail, for almost forty years.  So, when I founded the Bangkok Opera in 2001 and became its intendant, an eventual mounting of the Ring was always in my mind.  The Bangkok Opera is a bit of a maverick company, long on vision and perennially grappling with issues of funding and “the establishment” in Thailand, but as Opera magazine points out, we have gone from scratch to creating productions that “could reasonably be seen in Europe”.  I’m attaching a recent review of this year’s “Aida”.

As this will be the very first Wagner opera in the entire local region, I wanted to create a Wagnerian interpretation moulded to the Southeast Asian sensibility, and therefore, taking a leaf from Wagner’s own “gesamtkunstwerk” aesthetic, it’s a production in which the conducting and stage direction are integrated.  It’s also full of Hindu-Buddhist symbology.  “Desire” is the motivating factor that perpetuates the “cycle” of creation and destruction and this concept is so crucial to Buddhism that it makes it possible to see Wagner entirely in terms of Eastern philosophy.  I have asked controversial Thai “national artists” to collaborate on the overall design of the opera.  We have been getting help and advice from all over the world for what is an extremely new venture — for example, Hanz Pizka, the leading horn player whose “Siegried Horn Call” has been heard in many recordings, has volunteered to train the brass section personally.  In 2003, the Wagner family themselves came to Bangkok for the unauguration of our Wagner Society and gave their blessing and input to the project.
 
In terms of casting, I’m convinced that the Gods of Rheingold have to be young and still relatively untouched by the corruption that they themselves will generate.  I wanted to cast creatively as well, using a number of singers unfamiliar to Wagner as well as old Wagner hands.   I’ve therefore assembled a largely youthful cast from many countries, including many rather inventive choices: Malaysian Yeoh Hoay Aw, who is currently performing in Detmold, as Wotan, Israeli soprano Ronit Widmann-Levy, Scottish baritone Ralph McDonald, as well as award-winning Wagnerians Barbara Smith Jones as Fricka, Marc Deaton as Loge, and Julia Oesch as Erda, Jan-Ate Stobbe from the Netherlands as Mime, and Scotland’s Colin Morris as Alberich.  The group will convene at the end of this year for an intense month to deconstruct and reassemble the work in a Southeast Asian context.

I see the Wagner community around the world as an important resource.  We would like people to come to Bangkok for this production and we have all sorts of package deals and travel arrangements that will make it easy and fun.  There is an optional side trip to Angkor Wat led by Dr Titus Leber, who is making a film of Parsifal set in the Cambodian ruins and who will personally lead the Wagnerians on a walking musical tour of his concept.

We also hope that Wagner Societies can help us in many ways, including moral and financial support … the cost of mounting a huge production in Thailand is tiny compared with western nations, but there is little government support for opera and we’re happy to receive contributions of any size for this production which will be duly acknowledged and enshrined in our publications.  We also would like our friends from around the world to come.  I want to prove to the powers that be here, including potential sponsors, that a Ring cycle in Thailand, produced in an unusual way that cannot be found elsewhere in the world, can be a magnet for travelers and can actually bring in tourist dollars to this country – and tourism at a high level of cultural sophistication. 

The top price tickets for Rheingold are a very reasonable US $100.  For about $250, we are offering a gala reception-dinner in addition attended by the opera singers and our Royal Patron, the Princess.    We can arrange very reasonable hotel packages, and we are also setting up some representatives in Europe, Australia, and North America to handle bookings.  (Booking with us is always also possible).

For more information, please email info@bangkokopera.com
If you are interested in the Titus Leber Angkor Wat visit, please send us an email at the same address as this will be a very limited event.

PRE-BOOK YOUR TICKET

Again, though tickets are not yet publicly on sale, we have already received so many inquiries that we have decided to allow world-wide pre-booking by credit card via paypal.  At the moment we're doing this only for the premium ticket ($100).  The reception-dinner will come as an add-on item as soon as the details are clear.   Simply click on the appropriate box below and we will hold the best available ticket for you in the category you select on the evening that you select.  Tickets may be collected at the box office, or mailed to you when they are printed (if you wish them to be mailed, there is a space in the order to send a note to us).  Please note that you do not have to be a member of Paypal to pay by credit card and that these transactions are secure and protected.


DATE REQUIRED
SEAT LOCATION