Not many midsize opera companies can pull off music from Wagner’s mighty Ring Cycle. But in May, Nashville Opera and its longtime artistic director John Hoomes staged a musically compelling and visually stunning presentation of Das Rheingold. The first of four operas that make up Wagner’s Ring, Das Rheingold is set in a fantastical world of Norse gods, malevolent dwarfs and bone-crushing giants. Nashville Opera used high-tech wizardry to heighten our collective sense of wonder. Just as importantly, the company’s pre-opera seminars easily served as a national model for how to handle opera’s most daring yet problematic composer. Is there a complete Ring Cycle in Nashville’s future? Time will tell.
