28 Jul 2006

Wagner, a Musical Olympian, and CD’s of His Gods From ‘The Ring’

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/arts/music/28wagn.html

Festspielhaus.jpgBy ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 28 July 2006]

BAYREUTH, Germany

WAGNERITES from around the world have come here to the Bayreuth Festival for a new production of Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen,” which is already under way. The opera house here, designed by Wagner and dedicated exclusively to the performance of his works, opened in 1876 with the first complete production of the “Ring,” a four-opera, 16-hour, staggeringly ambitious creation.