Opera Australia been forced to cancel its new Brisbane Ring Cycle for the second year running due to the latest COVID-19 outbreak.
First announced in May 2019, the production was originally scheduled to open at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) in November 2020, but due to the global pandemic was postponed to 2021. The first of the three cycles was due to begin on 29 October but the outbreak of the Delta variant and the hard border closure now in place to protect Queensland from the spread of the virus in New South Wales and Victoria has made that impossible.
Chen Shi-Zheng with a set model for his new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle for Opera Australia. Photo © Rhiannon Hopley
Since Sydney went into lockdown in June, OA has worked through every conceivable option to ensure that its new digital Ring Cycle went ahead. In early August, the company looked at flying the cast and crew from Sydney to Brisbane to avoid border closures. Then came a snap Brisbane lockdown. The hope of rehearsing in Cairns was also stymied. The company then examined the logistics of rehearsing...
You forgot to mention the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Lyndon. We know you don’t have much regard for top-flight musicians (as your treatment of the orchestra in Sydney demonstrates).
That is sad news, although I’m not surprised and was gearing up for another postponement, last week when OA announced that they were having difficulties finding a rehearsal space in Sydney, which leads me to comment, why wasn’t it rehearsed in Brisbane, the old specter of the Sydney Opera Company appears again!