The music of Richard Wagner has accompanied me through almost my entire life. Wagner and his RING DES NIBELUNGEN are responsible for my becoming a conductor, and I cannot imagine that I will ever tire of this music. This is partly because Wagner is the centre of the universe of opera and there is a path leading to Wagner from virtually every point in this universe: He absorbed everything there was in opera before him, from Mozart to Bellini to Meyerbeer, and all composers after him have had to deal with his legacy. 

Even more decisive, however, is the fact that one can age with no composer as well as with Wagner. Regardless of whether one encounters him at the age of 16 or 66, Wagner always offers access from one's own attitude to life, shows one's own place in the family, but also in society. At first, you might be Siegmund rebelling against paternal authority and the old laws, or Stolzing driven by the idea of a new art, and later understand the far-sightedness of Hans Sachs or Wotan's concern for the continuity of society. 

The study of scores, not only for the great works of Richard Wagner, begins regularly for Sir Donald Runnicles at the grand piano in his native Wyoming © Florence McCall

 

In retrospect, I realise that I have matured as a person and artist with Wagner's work and that works such as the RING DES NIBELUNGEN and DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG have helped shape my world view. And I see again and again that I am not alone in this experience: At the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the orchestra and the ensemble of singers, as well as the audience, have grown up with Wagner. For the house itself, with its wonderful acoustics, each new RING is indeed like another annual ring, indicating the age and size of a tree, and which as a matter of course adds to what is already there without displacing it. I would be delighted to share this wonderful experience with you.