Where larger opera companies and prestigious venues worldwide have often fallen at the final hurdle before reaching the mammoth fourth instalment, Regents Opera embarks on Wagner’s epic full Ring Cycle in February, not once but twice, making it the only staging of the full work in the UK this year.

Conductor, Ben Woodward completes the biggest undertaking of the Cycle so far, the distillation of the final act Götterdammerung.

Performances now available to book individually, as well as tickets for the full cycles.
The full Ring Cycle transfers to a new venue, York Hall in Bethnal Green.
This innovative production is performed in the round and specially arranged for a 22-piece orchestra, conducted by Ben Woodward and directed by Caroline Staunton.
Cast includes: Catharine Woodward as Brünnhilde, Ralf Lukas as Wotan/Wanderer, Peter Furlong as Siegfried, Oliver Gibbs as Alberich and Ingeborg Børch as Fricka. Simon Wilding joins for Götterdämmerung as Hagen whilst rising star James Schouton reprises his role as Loge in Das Rheingold.
Cycle One: Sun 9, Tues 11, Thur 13 and Sun 16 February 2025
Cycle Two: Sun 23, Tues 25, Thurs 27 Feb and Sun 2 March 2025
An additional performance of Götterdammerung has been added on Thursday 20 February due to high demand.
Experience this Ring Cycle from just £3 an hour.
Tickets – https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/regents-opera
Images of first three operas here

After the immense success of Regents Opera’s first three instalments of Wagner’s Ring Cycle – Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried, the plucky fringe opera company eyes its performances of the final instalment and full Ring Cycle with determination.

In recent months a number of high-profile opera companies on three continents have shelved their Cycles after the third opera, Siegfried. When Regents Opera learned that its previous venue, Freemasons Hall in Covent Garden, was no longer able to host its final performances it might have seemed that this Cycle was also doomed. But that is not the case. After rapid negotiations with York Hall in Bethnal Green, the show shall go on – still in the round, and if anything in a more intimate and up-close experience for audiences, with many seats no further than 15 feet from the action.

This whole cycle has been a feat of dexterity, flexibility and resolve. The adaptation of Wagner’s enormous orchestration down to the forces of 22 musicians is in itself a huge task requiring hundreds of hours of detailed work by Ben Woodward arranging it, and incredible stamina from the 22 musicians performing it. Never has that been a greater ask than in the Cycle’s final instalment Götterdammerung, written at a time when Wagner had become resident at Bayreuth with enormous orchestral forces at his disposal.

The cast remains as celebrated previously, including the company’s new Wotan Ralf Lukas, who stepped in following the sad and all too soon death of Keel Watson, a valued company member since 2014. The anticipation of Keel Watson’s Wotan was in part the inspiration of the Regents Opera team to mount the Cycle and whose performances over the first two instalments earned richly deserved praise and plaudits.

Continuing alongside Ralf Lukas as Wotan are internationally renowned soprano Catharine Woodward in the role of Brünnhilde, the eventual love interest of British/American tenor Peter Furlong’s Siegfried.

And there is the opportunity to enjoy again several characters and performances from earlier in the Ring Cycle, including Holden Madagame and Oliver Gibbs as Nibelung brothers Mime and Alberich, Craig Lemont Walters as the dragon Fafner, and Mae Heydorn’s Earth god Erda, Corrine Hart’s Woodbird, Justine Viani’s radiant Sieglinde, and from the very first opera, James Schouten’s slippy and vibrant Loge which won him the 2024 Carole Rees Audience Prize.

On the culmination of Regents Opera’s Ring Cycle, Ben Woodward said: “The company is so proud to be bringing these monumental works to fruition – in our new space at York Hall – where audiences can experience them in more intimate ways that wouldn’t be possible in a major opera hall, and new audiences can take a chance on discovering one of the greatest operatic works of all time with tickets they can afford.”