Director Kirill Serebrennikov is staging an intercultural »Ring«.
The »Ring« can be interpreted in all manner of different ways: as an adventure story from the world of fantasy fiction, as a television soap opera and as a magnificent example of a synthesis of all the arts: a total artwork. What does the »Ring« mean for you?
Kirill Serebrennikov: This is a project for which I have been waiting for a very long time and, indeed, I have already been working on it for several years. For me, this process has opened up new doors in my thinking. It is a journey crammed full of adventures, and I myself see the »Ring« as a voyage all round the world. My production will take place in a post-apocalyptic world in the wake of a major disaster. Humankind is slowly beginning to regenerate and is finding ways of going on living. This means discovering a new form of existence. »Das Rheingold« is set in a region that could be called Africa. The other three parts of the cycle will all take place in other parts of the world. Each will involve a different continent and a different culture. Wagner will be global.
A lot has already been said about the »Ring«. The cycle has been subjected to the most disparate readings. Is it possible to break away from these earlier attempts to interpret the work and discover something new in it?
Kirill Serebrennikov: I think that it is especially important today to see how Wagner is reflected in different cultures and civilizations: in the cultures of the modern age, with its different beliefs and value systems. I should like to combine Wagner’s music with the codes associated with different culture groups. I think that Wagner no longer belongs to just Germany or Austria but to the entire world. As a result the »Ring« is in many ways an example of world theatre. This idea is particularly well suited to Salzburg but I see the work above all as a form of theatre that encompasses the whole of the world.
The first part of the cycle, »Das Rheingold«, opens in an unspoilt world of nature. But do you feel that it actually depicts the creation of the world?
Kirill Serebrennikov: In my own view we are dealing with a new beginning in the wake of a global catastrophe. We discover the remnants of an earlier civilization and the ruins of bygone cultures. Everything is now reorganized. By interacting with one another, the existing elements produce a new mix. People form tribes and create a new religion, inventing new gods for themselves and opening up new spaces in which to live.
You’re working with an artists’ collective, The Recycle Group.
Kirill Serebrennikov: This group of artists has developed a powerful visual language in contemporary art, especially when it comes to depicting a futuristic world. By working together, we have created this disturbing, dystopian new world.
Wagner created his own mythical universe in »Das Rheingold« with its gods, its dwarves and its giants. But as yet there are no human beings. Does your own interpretation have a mythical element to it?
Kirill Serebrennikov: Yes. The creation of a new culture presupposes the invention of a new mythology. Humankind will acquire a new physiognomy. And every civilization has its own myths.
»Das Rheingold« is often described as a satire on the gods and is said to contain a number of comic elements. Will there be any comic elements in your own production?
Kirill Serebrennikov: This is a theatre piece, with everything that that term implies. It is what’s called a total artwork: Wagner himself used the term »Gesamtkunstwerk«. As a result we shall also be including cinematic elements and examples of various other media. It will be a very physical form of theatre: choreography and lighting will also be important. And then there is Wagner’s music, of course. Audiences will need all of their senses to savour this experience to the full.
The costumes, too, play a major role ...
Kirill Serebrennikov: Costumes allow us to say a lot about the characters. In our own case, our costumes are a mix of different cultures. You can say that it really is an international project. We have costumes from all over the world. Some of them are from Africa, others were made in Europe. We are combining various textiles with pieces of jewellery that lets us see the characters in a wholly new light.
Your production of the »Ring« at the Easter Festival will extend over several years. Do you already have the complete concept in your head or will you be developing this concept over time?
Kirill Serebrennikov: I can’t begin work on the »Ring« without knowing how it will end. I know, for example, that »Das Rheingold« is set in winter, »Die Walküre« in spring. Next comes »Siegfried«, which takes place during an extremely hot, almost fatal summer. »Götterdämmerung«, finally, is set in autumn, which brings not only hope but also great disappointment. Even so, I have no doubt that other new ideas will occur to me along the way since my research is ongoing. I have already travelled widely and developed a detailed interest in many of the world’s different cultures. This research will continue over the next few years.
You don’t just direct operas and plays. You also make films. How does this affect your work in the opera house?
Kirill Serebrennikov: I always have the feeling that Wagner wrote his music for a major blockbuster. His ideas about a synthesis of the arts make a lot of sense in the context of the cinema. He packed all his visions into one great masterpiece and I think that his ideas are extremely relevant to the world in which we are now living. Listening to Wagner’s music invariably and immediately conjures up lots of images.
What role does Wagner play in your native Russia?
Kirill Serebrennikov: There is this story that in 1940 the Soviet regime decided that the Bolshoi would perform »Die Walküre« to celebrate the Molotov–Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact that Hitler and Stalin had signed. Sergei Eisenstein and another Jewish artist were to direct the production. It’s a completely insane idea that two artists of Jewish extraction would stage a Wagner opera in the Soviet Union while the National Socialists were in power in Germany. But something apparently impossible suddenly became possible. It has always been the case under dictatorships that art has been misused as propaganda. It is still the same today.
