EurActiv: Shale gas: An energy opera that Europe can't afford to ignore
This is the time of year when aficionados of German composer Richard Wagner make their annual pilgrimage to Bavaria’s Bayreuth Festival. They flock to hear his monumental operas performed in a festival house designed by the composer himself.
The newest production makes a provocative analogy with American oil, but misses the central importance of the shale gas revolution.
This year is the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth. Bookshelves are creaking with new biographies of him, studies of his operas, and essays on how the Nazis admired his music, which invoked nature, myth, and Teutonic might.
No wonder that there was huge interest in Berlin theatre director Frank Castorf’s production of this year’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), a cycle of four epic operas.
Castorf is no stranger to controversy. He loves defying convention with his super modern and super radical interpretations. MORE