Close to Wagner's former home in Zurich, where much of the "Ring des Nibelungen" was composed, the Zurich Opera House staged a complete Ring cycle for the first time in more than 20 years in 2024 under the musical direction of Gianandrea Noseda. "In a way, the 'Ring' returned to its origins," said Andreas Homoki, director of Wagner's grandiose myth, which depicts the rise and fall of an entire world and deals with themes such as love, fate, courage and betrayal.

At its core, the "Ring of the Nibelung" is also a family drama about Wotan, the father of the gods, and his struggle for loyalty and breach of contract, about freedom, its presence and absence and his desperate attempts to stop the downfall that he himself has initiated. Homoki's production brings the gods, humans and mythical creatures amazingly close and makes their relationships and motivations vivid and convincing through careful character portrayal.

The same outstanding cast appears in all four operas, which further enhances the dramatic intensity: Tomasz Konieczny as Wotan, Camilla Nylund as Brünnhilde, Christopher Purves as Alberich, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as Mime and Klaus Florian Vogt as Siegfried, who also made his acclaimed role debut in Homoki's Zurich productions.