We follow Watan, follow Brynhildr, follow Siegfried, and never get the impression that one is a hero and the other is purely evil. Instead, we come to know scratch, a deep infiltration into the unconscious motive. The “ring” is primarily about one large family. We carry on this story through this long history of generations, children and grandchildren, and people and this family.
There are guests who interfere with the story of this family — what is desired and what is not —. The basic conflict is the Greek conflict. Motivation for anger, hatred, love, and will to power. This stays within this family, and it informs me of Nietzsche’s approach, which you can say. What motivates everyone in the work? It knows the end: they die, it ends, that time ends. All of them are trying to find a solution to this.
In this summer’s production, for example, instead of casting one Wotan and Brünnhilde throughout the cycle, many singers switch roles between productions. Is this related to that generation’s approach, or is it a more violent choice?
Like most theaters, there are some basic mundane things. That is, there are not so many Wagner singers, and the number is decreasing every year. There are probably five people in the world who can sing Watan. Bayreuth gives those singers the opportunity for them to evolve in his work. Over time, someone can sing Fasalt and then Watan.
When it came to casting, of course, I was deeply involved with Katharina Wagner. It’s often interesting to show how roles and characters change between works. For example, Irene Teolin sings Brynhildr in “Valkyrie” and “Götterdämmerung”, while Daniela Koehler sings in “Siegfried”. It was great to see to make this great transition — at the end of Walküre, Irene Theorin was trapped in a cliff by Wotan behind a magical fire, but this person is changing.
