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It's hurry-up-and-wait time for fans eagerly awaiting the San Francisco Opera's production of Wagner's Ring cycle or "Der Ring des Nibelungen".
That's because the opera company has just announced its cast list.
Wagner's epic four-opera cycle masterpiece, which the SF Opera will present in June and July of 2011, will be performed by an international cast.
Some of those are returning to the company, and includes the standout tenor Brandon Jovanovich, who will perform the role of Siegmund. Swedish soprano, and Wagner specialist, Nina Stemme is cast as Brünnhilde (cast list below).
All four operas in this new production by San Francisco Opera Artistic Adviser and director Francesca Zambello--"Das Rheingold", "Die Walküre", "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung"--will be presented for the first time as a complete cycle. Zambello intends to use different eras of U.S History as the setting for the cycle.
Three complete cycles will be presented, each in their entirety, over the course of one week, as Wagner had intended.
These cycles begin on a Tuesday evening and conclude on a Sunday afternoon, and take place on June 14-19, June 21-26, and June 28-July 3, 2011.
Former San Francisco Opera conductor and acclaimed Wagner specialist Donald Runnicles will conduct.
Cast:
Nina Stemme - Brünnhilde
Anja Kampe - Sieglinde
Larissa Diadkova - Fricka
Mark Delavan - Wotan
Ian Storey - Siegfried
Brandon Jovanovich - Siegmund
Gordon Hawkins - Alberich
David Cangelosi - Mime
For the SF Opera, this Ring cycle is but the latest evolution between it and Wagner's epic work. The company has presented the Ring cycle in 1935, 1972, 1985, 1990 and 1999.
Tickets: (415) 864-3330 or www.sfopera.org


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