Associated Press
In an age of radical reinterpretations, conductor Gianandrea Noseda and director Andreas Homoki created a counterrevolutionary version of Wagner’s four-night, 15-hour Ring Cycle that sparked 13 minutes of applause at the Zurich Opera House. Noseda, conducting Wagner’s epic for the first time just after his 60th birthday, was drenched in sweat as if emerging from a swimming pool when he invited the entire Philharmonic Zurich on stage to join the cast for curtain calls on Thursday night. “For me this Ring here is one of the most intelligent Rings because we tell the story, and the story is really not that stupid like the modern directors think,” said bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, who has sung Wotan in 20 different productions.