The Ring: Next Generation at Deutsche Oper Berlin

In Richard Wagner's RING OF THE NIBELUNG the hopes of the elders rest on the next generation. It is up to the children and grand children, Siegmund, Sieglinde and Brünnhilde, to save the world for their parents. In 2013, the year of Wagner celebrations, the Deutsche Oper Berlin invites 80 young people to team up with a production crew, a composer, classical musicians and singers to create an experimental evening of musical theatre. Drawing on characters from Wagner's RING, the project addresses the following questions: Can the younger generation act as a beacon of hope for a new, improved world - and does it want to? How do young people deal with the expectations placed on them by their elders? What kind of future do youngsters see for themselves? What are the hopes and fears of today's "next generation"?

Crossover between film and theatre is an area that has long interested the young director Robert Lehniger. He has worked at theatres in Zurich, Basel, Frankfurt and Hanover, among other locations, at the Münchner Kammerspiele, Berlin's Volksbühne and Vienna's Burgtheater. He is working on DER RING: NEXT GENERATION in tandem with Alexandra Holtsch, a DJ who has played in big-name clubs around Europe including as resident DJ at the WTF drum 'n' base club in Berlin. Holtsch is also a composer of contemporary music, whose works include the BARCODE scratch opera produced for the 10th edition of Munich's Biennale für Neues Musiktheater.