Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...This "Rheingold" is nothing short of a triumph on all fronts, intelligently conceived by the creative team, brilliantly executed by a top-flight international cast representing the new generation of Wagner singers. There's not a weak link in a vocal ensemble led by the admirable bass-baritone Eric Owens, in his role debut as Wotan, the morally bankrupt king of the gods."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...For this tale of power and greed, freedom and captivity, and love, lust, betrayal and opportunism, director David Pountney and original set designer Johan Engels (the masterful South African scenic artist who died in November 2014, leaving behind most of the designs for this opera, though credit is now shared with Robert Innes Hopkins) have seen to it that everything feels larger-than-life. It is chilling at many points, full of splendor at others, and at moments comically mechanized. This is life as a vast spectacle of desire and treachery - alternately eye-poppingly beautiful and fearsome, and a sort of industrial revolution all its own."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...The imagery is dazzling from the start as three seen-it-all seamstress "Norns" conjure a giant blue sheet to unfurl out of a Mary Poppins-style carpetbag to represent the mighty Rhine River. Then a trio of playful and posh Rhinemaidens (Diana Newman, Annie Rosen and Lindsay Ammann) bob and swirl "underwater" thanks to crane contraptions that look like they were patented in the 1880s."
Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended
"...Gone are the days when this event felt more like an insider’s convention, a cosplay of kilts and top hats, horned helmets and musty gowns. (Although we will admit to being disappointed at not seeing at least one dress kilt. This is a performance of Wagner, after all!) The diversity and volume of Saturday’s opening night audience spoke well of Lyric Opera’s ongoing outreach efforts. This crowd made it clear that a night at the opera in Chicago is an exciting and highly anticipated community event."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...Animated under the musical leadership of Lyric’s music director, Andrew Davis, and marvelously sung by a theatrically savvy cast of characters, this brand-new “Rheingold” bristles with the vitality and wit imprinted on a design conceived by the late South African Johan Engels and brought to fruition by British designer Robert Innes Hopkins."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...As an opera combining such a diverse scenery and characters along with numerous visual effects, Das Rheingold can be challenging to stage. Director David Pountney, however, manages it superbly, envisioning the whole in steampunk style. This comes out most strongly in the set and costume designs for the dwarvish underworld in Scene Three, and to a lesser extent throughout. Scenery designer Robert Innes Hopkins makes use of an original design of Johan Engels (1952-2014) comprising a large superstructure that breaks apart to form the bodies of the giants Fasolt and Fafner. Its innumerable moving parts also help create the effect of the Rhinemaidens' riverine home as well as the gods heavenly one. Marie-Jeanne Lecca's imaginative costumes and Sarah Hatten's wigs and makeup combine the gothic with the carnivalesque to create a truly fantastic aesthetic."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Das Rheingold is a spectacular grand opera that is a wonderful way to introduce opera to teens and young adults. It demonstrates wonderful, often whimsical, live storytelling with fantastic visuals and terrific music sung by world class performers. Das Rheingold is a special work that moves into one of my all-time favorite stage operas. Das Rheingold is an example of the genius of Richard Wagner. Das Rheingold is special."
Classical Voice America - Highly Recommended
"...Grounded in a storyteller’s fanciful touch, the production overall was musically strong and theatrically savvy. Among the novel ideas, Fasolt and Fafner — the giants who build Wotan’s new palace for an agreed-upon price that Wotan does not intend to pay — appear as huge puppet heads, with hands and arms affixed to high towers, the actual singers perched somewhere partway up. The puppet heads were so big that it was actually disconcerting to hear German basses Tobias Kehrer and Wilhelm Schwinghammer sing without amplification. It’s not that their voices weren’t stentorian. They were. It’s just that they sounded underscaled in this context."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...There are so many delightful touches like that in this operatic adventure. At one point, the majestic Okka Von Der Damerau (Erda) rises from below the stage to deliver a potent message. And even with all these magnificent sensory treats competing for best moment, the ending gets the award. It's breathtakingly stunning as the gods go to Valhalla. I've often heard people shout out 'bravo' or 'brava' at the Lyric. I've never heard squealing and hooting at the end of an opera. It was accompanied by thunderous applause and a standing ovation."
NewCity Chicago - Recommended
"...Blessedly and uncharacteristically, Sir Andrew Davis lulled his marvelous orchestra into a musical frenzy that never overpowered the singers. The lust-and-greed-filled brother-goliaths Wilhelm Schwinghammer and Tobias Kehrer make propitious Lyric debuts. Okka von der Damerau (Erda) delights and frightens in her American inauguration. Rodell Rosel (Mime) crows jubilantly and writhes grotesquely in turn."
