Wagner’s monumental Ring Cycle comes to regional Victoria

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 tells ArtsHub: ‘When MO started in 2002, we were viewed as a local, amateur company, but that is definitely not the case now. Our recent shows and critical acclaim are testament to that. If you have the public on side, have attracted lots of support and sponsorship, plus you are doing well at the box office, then you really have to be taken seriously.’