Wagner’s monumental Ring Cycle comes to regional Victoria

In an historic first, Melbourne Opera is opening its production of the Ring Cycle at the Ulumbarra Theatre in Bendigo.

Greg Hocking, board member and producer of Melbourne Opera (MO), is jubilant about the company’s forthcoming production of Wagner’s epic 17-hour Der Ring des Nibelungen, which includes the four individual operas of Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. In the midst of stage calls at Bendigo’s beautiful and intimate Ulumbarra theatre, he is quietly optimistic about delivering a first-class iteration of this universal story and the first ever to be staged in a regional centre.

Hocking says: ‘It is only the third time that an all-Australian creative team has staged the Ring in Australia, and it is the first time with an all-Australian cast.’  

Unlock Padlock Icon

Unlock this content?

Access this content and more

Suzannah Conway is an experienced arts administrator, having been CEO of Opera Queensland, the Brisbane Riverfestival and the Centenary of Federation celebrations for Queensland. She is a freelance arts writer and has been writing reviews and articles for over 20 years, regularly reviewing classical music, opera and musical theatre in particular for The Australian and Limelight magazine as well as other journals. Most recently she was Arts Hub's Brisbane-based Arts Feature Writer.