Chicago stages drive-through Wagner in underground garage

By Associated Press |

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Christine Goerke (Photo: Kyle Flubacker)

CHICAGO (AP) — A bit of Richard Wagner’s “Ring” cycle is being performed in an underground parking garage in Chicago. Instead of walking into the opera house and taking their seats, the audience drives down into the garage and watches from their cars. The production is called “Twilight: Gods.” It comes a year after Lyric Opera’s production of the complete Ring cycle was scuttled by the pandemic. Yuval Sharon premiered it last November in Detroit, where he is artistic director of the Michigan Opera Theater. “Twilight: Gods” is a reimagining of the final installment in Wagner’s four-part saga of gold, greed and the downfall of the gods. Sharon has distilled the four-hour-plus opera down to six episodes lasting just over an hour.

Photo: Kyle Flubacker


Mike Silverman for the Associated Press