Feature

Melbourne Opera reignites Bendigo’s gold fever with Australia’s first regional Ring Cycle

It’s hard enough for an opera company to survive without government funding, but staging Wagner’s Ring Cycle is something else. We trace the history of Melbourne Opera, which is presenting Australia’s first regional Ring Cycle in Bendigo.

by Patricia Maunder on 22 August, 2022

It’s hard enough for an opera company to survive without government funding, but staging Wagner’s epic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen is something else. Patricia Maunder traces the history of Melbourne Opera, which is presenting Australia’s first regional Ring Cycle in Bendigo.

“Who would have thought, 10 years ago, that we’d be putting on a Ring Cycle?” exclaims opera director Suzanne Chaundy.

It’s a comment that she and Greg Hocking have frequently made to each other since embarking on the monumental task of presenting Wagner’s four-opera epic for Melbourne Opera.

I admit, I certainly wouldn’t have thought it was possible a decade ago...