SUNDAY 19 JANUARY 2025
AT 7.00PM [AEDT] ON
SUNDAY 19 JANUARY 2025
IN A ZOOM FROM LONDON
BEN WOODWARD,
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF REGENTS OPERA,
TALKS WITH ROSS WHITELAW
ABOUT THE SLIMMED DOWN RING CYCLE
$12 AUD
ABOUT BEN WOODWARD AND REGENTS OPERA
Ben Woodward is founder and Artistic Director of Regents Opera in London, who are about to undertake a complete Ring Cycle – quite the feat for a “fringe” opera company.
Regents Opera was founded – as Fulham Opera – in 2011, with a performance of Das Rheingold fully staged in a small 120-seat church, with piano accompaniment, provided by Woodward. After this was a huge success, the company moved forward to giving a pair of complete Ring Cycles in 2014, with piano, adding just a flute and a horn for the latter two operas. That company has, over the past decade, by way of various productions of Verdi, Strauss, other Wagner (Holländer and Die Meistersinger), now come full circle to give fringe opera productions of the Ring once again, though this time, in an arrangement for 22 instruments (single wind, 3 horns playing 2 parts, trumpet, bass trombone and 12 strings plus organ), which will be fully staged in the round (is this the first Ring in the round??) in York Hall in London’s east end, by Irish director Caroline Staunton of the Staatsoper Berlin, and conducted by Woodward himself.
Ben Woodward was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, then the Guildhall School of Music in London, and has worked at the Staatsoper Hannover, and Landestheater Flensburg and the ROH. He now lives in Berlin with his wife Catharine, who, having just sung Gerhilde at Bayreuth (and will be doing so again next year), in this Ring Cycle will sing Brünnhilde.
STREAM AUDIO
There is a recording of Ben’s arrangement of four pieces from the Ring Cycle as well as Mild und leise from Tristan und Isolde with some of the singers (including soprano Catharine Woodward) from Regents Opera. Ben points out that it was recorded with just 18 players, but that they’ve added a string player to each part for the Ring.
However, the audio is only available on certain audio streaming vehicles, many of which are unavailable in Australia. The list is here: https://listn.fm/wagnerbyarrangement3/
Members should be able to stream via the following two options, but need to have certain accounts:
1. YouTubeMusic
– You need to have a Google account to stream music on YouTubeMusic. You may be asked to login in to your account and can use the same login details you use for YouTube or Gmail.
– If you have a Google account, just click on the following link to listen:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kgAmJ6VgBVzt12jO_tw8PkO-8tMjraLTk
2. Spotify
– Again, you will need to have a Spotify account to stream Ben’s recording. You will be asked to login in to that account.
– If you have a Spotify account, just click on the following link to listen: