Credit: Dave Pearson Photography
The Center for the Arts presents Virginia Opera's production of Richard Wagner's electrifying The Valkyrie, the second opera in the epic "Ring" cycle, on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 9 at 2 p.m., with the third and fourth installments in the cycle to come in subsequent seasons. Virginia Opera Artistic Director Adam Turner conducts the production, which is supported in part by the Wagner Society of Washington, DC (WSWDC), and participated Sept. 29 in a livestreamed talk with WSWDC Chairman Jim Holman. In the conversation, Turner explored this Valkyrie for a new generation, discussing the reduced instrumentation of this version's score orchestrated by Jonathan Dove (starting at 20:01 in the recording), to the design (starting at 26:10) and sci-fi inspiration, from Terminator to Star Trek, and beyond.
Turner notes that in The Valkyrie "people are losing their humanity, the gods are losing their godliness, and as that happens, people start showing the underbelly." The production's imagery, described by the The Virginian Pilot as "futuristic and sci-fi...eschewing the usual Viking helmets-with-horns vibe," explores the world of analog versus digital, and as Turner says, "how nature is affected by the digital realm." He says, "our own humanity is being affected by artificial intelligence and chips and our devices... As our lives become inundated with these digital distractions, do we lose a piece of our humanity, become less human?"
Turner also discusses The Valkyrie in a post on WETA FM's new Classical Score blog by Jim Allison, program director of WETA Classical and WETA VivaLaVoce.
Watch the recording of the Sept. 29 discussion below, and catch a pre-performance discussion with Virginia Opera Resident Scholar Joshua Borths 45 minutes prior to curtain on both dates, and a post-performance discussion with the artists following the Sunday matinee.
Watch footage from Virginia Opera's The Valkyrie.