The Ring Cycle Part I: Das Rhinegold

Bryn Terfel as Wotan

On May 9th at 6:30pm for about three hours I will be sitting in a movie theater for the first time since Avatar was released. Not for some other new release movie, but instead for an opera. Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, known as the Ring Cycle, has been re-done this season by The Metropolitan Opera. And the first opera Das Rhinegold will be playing.
This is the epic opera. It is broken into 4 separate operas and runs a total of somewhere near 20 hours total in length. Most people are familiar with the most recognizable piece of music from the second opera, Die Walküre, Ride of the Valkyries. I know most of you people are gong to label as fraking weird and demented to want to go and sit through 20 hours of opera, but seriously this is Wagner! And this production looks absolutely stunning. I personally also like the updated costumes and look of the impressive new stage. I personally didn't like the more traditional costumes that have come to type-cast operas in general since the Ring Cycle debuted back in 1869. The new director Robert Lepage has taken some criticism for the updated interpretation, but I am excited to see it.