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The Valkyries at the gates of Valhalla in the COC production of Die Walküre, April 2004 (Photo: Michael Cooper).
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INDEPTH: CANADIAN OPERA
It's all about the Ring
Jessica Wong, CBC News Online | May 7, 2004
When discussing Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, or Ring Cycle, certain words and phrases commonly pop up: "massive," "ambitious," "seldom given," "pinnacle" and "the largest undertaking any opera company can do."
Indeed, running at more than 16 hours long and featuring an orchestra of up to 100 musicians, the German composer's magnum opus demands specifically trained singers, sets and costumes appropriate for its epic proportions and, sometimes, a staff of hundreds to mount.
Despite all this, the recent release of the Canadian Opera Company's pricing structure and complicated application process for its upcoming 2006 Ring Cycle - Canada's first ever - made some jaws drop: ticket prices for the four-opera event range from $300 to $1,700, with a small number of box seats available for $1,900 to $2,200.
The true cost of any of the 6,000 seats available - Toronto's new 2,000-seat Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts will host three complete cycles - may prove even higher. Following in the worldwide tradition of opera companies that have mounted the Ring, the company's ticket distribution process will give priority to subscribers, those who have made donations to the Ring or the new house, those who apply early and the expected high number of international visitors.
However, opera authorities say the seemingly exorbitant prices - a minimum of $75-$550 per night, depending on where you sit - are not an example of the snobbery for which opera is often synonymous, if you put the event into context.
For the Ring-heads who follow Wagner's masterpiece around the world, the Ring Cycle is the epitome of all opera: comparable to the World Cup finals to a soccer fan or an assembly of the world's best Shakespearean actors performing the best of the Bard's canon to a lifelong theatre patron.
While opera on its own is already a pricey endeavour, staging Wagner's monumental Ring Cycle takes even more cash - and cojones - but it also vaults an opera company into a higher level.
"Singers in any opera, by any composer, can be expensive," said Phillip Boswell, artistic administrator of the Canadian Opera Company.
The Ring Cycle operas take "really fine Wagner singers," says the COC's Phillip Boswell. In spring 2004, the Metropolitan Opera featured Deborah Voigt as Sieglinde and Placido Domingo as Siegmund (AP Photo/Richard Drew).
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"But certainly really fine Wagner singers - Wagner is extremely difficult to sing and there are only a limited number of people in the world who can sing him - the fees of these singers do tend to be rather high."
"There are more people who can sing, [the role of] Rigoletto in Rigoletto than there are who can sing Brünnhilde in Die Walküre. If in the world, you might have 10 good Brünnhildes - at the most - today, there's surely 20 or 30 good Rigolettos."
In addition to the epic size of the voices, other opera components get super-sized as well for the Ring.
"It's a very large orchestra. It requires lots of rehearsals for that orchestra," said James Wright, general director of the Vancouver Opera. The COC production will use about 100 orchestra players.
"And lots of scenery," he continued. "Part of being an epic production like that requires large-scale physical productions."
Because the Ring is considered by many as "the epitome of what opera production is," not every company can tackle it.
"A company must be of a certain size, sophistication and must have the wherewithal in its own forces artistically, administratively, and support from donors and the community to even consider undertaking the Ring cycle, to even dream about it," Wright said.
So considering the fact that the Canadian Opera Company is staging a new production of the Ring Cycle - the country's first-ever - coupled with the fact that it will be the opening event at the company's currently-in-construction new Four Seasons Centre home, audiences will be getting pretty good value for their money, the COC's Boswell said.
The horseshoe-shaped, 2,000-seat hall at the new Four Seasons Centre will offer a more intimate setting and better acoustics than the Hummingbird Centre (Rendering: Cicada Design).
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With its horseshoe shape and about 1,000 fewer seats than the COC's current home, the Hummingbird Centre, the new opera house will offer a more intimate venue and an "enormously enhanced" artistic experience.
"We'll have 2,000 great seats instead of what we've now got, which is maybe 1,000 good seats and 2,000 not-so-good seats," Boswell said.
When puzzling over how to put bums in those new seats, the COC looked at the precedent set by other companies, like New York's Metropolitan Opera and the Seattle Opera, which have successfully staged the Ring Cycle.
"Everywhere that does the Ring, the tickets have to be more expensive than your run-of-the-mill opera," Boswell said. "Everything about the Ring is bigger and more expensive than your normal opera."
There is almost always a "fairly involved process" for ticket distribution too, he added, saying COC officials "looked at many different companies around the world, how they do the Ring, how they market it, how they sell it, the ticket structures, the pricing structures, all of those things."
The company decided that the best course of action would be to give varying levels of priority to early applicants, opera subscribers - weighted to the number of years they have supported the COC - and to donors past, present or future (up to the Dec. 15, 2004, deadline). The company figured this method would be fair for local audiences - who have been warned for years about the limited number of seats in the new house - and also to the national and international Wagner fans who will inevitably travel to Toronto and are willing to spend big bucks to see the Ring.
While some would say the restrictive nature of the COC's 2006 Ring Cycle could curtail its recently successful achievements in attracting wider audiences, according to Boswell simply having a longer - or even unlimited - run is impossible.
"Even if we did more and more performances, the marginal costs of additional performances are still higher than the ticket income," he said. "The continuing costs - the day-to-day costs - are so high that they're still higher than a sold-out house. You can't really amortize your costs with a major, grand opera. Not just Wagner, but any major opera."
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The 2006 Ring Cycle is not the first attempted by the Canadian Opera Company. The company completed three out of four parts during a 1970s attempt - albeit planned for consecutive seasons and not all in one week - but suffered financial problems that prevented the final opera. The COC also tried to mount the Ring in the mid-1980s, but plans were consistently interrupted and postponed.
The total estimated cost of the COC's Ring Cycle - between the April 2004 performances of Die Walküre at the Hummingbird Centre and the third and last complete Ring in 2006 - is about $10 million, the company's most expensive production ever.
The COC didn't plan to have the Ring Cycle open its new opera centre. "We aren't that crazy," the COC's Phillip Boswell said. Planning for operas happens years in advance but building approvals can often be delayed until the last minute. "We had to commit to doing the Ring before we had the go even to break ground on the opera house," which will be opening six to nine months later than originally planned.
While some may think it's unreasonable for the COC to begin applications for Ring Cycle tickets more than two years before the performances, this wait list has nothing on Germany's Bayreuth Festival, which hosts several complete Ring Cycles each summer. As the place where Wagner himself first staged his epic four-parter in 1876, Bayreuth receives tens of thousands of applications annually. It can take up to a decade on that waiting list to get tickets, selected by computerized lottery.
The Seattle Opera, which from 1975-1983 staged one English and one German Ring Cycle every summer, sold out its last complete cycle a full year before the 2001 performances. For its next attempt in 2005, it is offering staggered access to ticket sales depending on amount of donation to the company (Donors of $1,500 US or more got first dibs in April).
Japan just completed its first-ever Ring Cycle in April. Beginning in 2000, Tokyo's New National Theater presented one Ring opera each season. Director Keith Warner and designer David Fielding created an original staging that had the mythic characters interpreted as contemporary figures, included a dramatic method used in kabuki plays, and featured a set that incorporated flickering neon signs and manga references.
Why are there so few soloists who can perform the Ring? Stamina is one reason, Boswell says. Singers "have to be extremely strong because some of these roles go on forever." Another factor is the years of specialized training needed to successfully present Wagner's sound.
According to Boswell, only a handful of North American companies regularly (once or twice a decade) perform the Ring. They include New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Seattle Opera and companies in Chicago and San Francisco.
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