The Ring Cycle is a massive undertaking, one that requires an opera company with a built-in infrastructure to do it.<\/p>\n
But it is also the peak of opera production and one that every director \/ manager dreams of doing. So despite, the massive challenge it entailed, Regents Opera’s artistic director Ben Woodward, who is also a conductor, pianist, vocal coach and arranger, and stage director Caroline Staunton, who is a staff director at the Staatsoper Berlin, could not be deterred from putting on a historic, independently-produced “Ring” in the U.K.”<\/p>\n
The project, which opens on Feb. 9, 2025, was so popular that the company had to add another performance of “G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung” to satiate audience’s passion for Wagner’s magnus opus. OperaWire spoke to the two about the “Ring.”<\/p>\n
Ben Woodward: I founded Fulham Opera<\/a> with a selection of others in 2010-11 and we were based in St. John\u2019s Church in Fulham. We started doing opera in there, starting with “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” a little Christmas opera, and then a baritone friend of mine \u2013 he sang the middle king in that \u2013 said “That was great fun, let\u2019s do ‘Rheingold’ \u2013 I want to be Alberich.” I spot a good idea when one\u2019s thrown at me, so that started that. And when you do a successful “Rheingold,” the question then asked is, “Are you going to do the rest?” So we did our first little Ring Cycle in there with me playing the piano for the whole thing in 2014, and then in 2020 a guy called Nick Heath who ran something called Regents Opera<\/a> (also called Opera a la carte \u2013 mainly touring opera around English country houses) wanted to pass it on so it had a legacy, so I essentially bought Regents Opera, the name and the client list off him. And although Regents Park exists, it doesn\u2019t have that geographical connection that Fulham Opera had and so Regents Opera seemed the best name with which to carry on. So that\u2019s when I started doing these insane things. In the meantime, I moved to Berlin, met Caroline \u2013 whether she regrets it or not I don\u2019t know (laughs) \u2013 and she agreed to do this Ring Cycle with us and that\u2019s why we\u2019re here now.<\/p>\n BW: The vision for the company is: we continue with our country house opera stuff \u2013 this year we\u2019ve done “Don Giovanni” and next year we\u2019ll do “La boh\u00e8me” around a variety of country houses in England and indeed in France. But we also do very large opera productions that probably belong in much bigger opera houses in an interesting, immediate, intimate way \u2013 and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve managed to do with this Ring. We\u2019re doing it “in the round” (stage space), and so you\u2019re right next to the people you\u2019re listening to, which makes it very exciting. What happens after the Ring is still up for discussion. As I say, I know we\u2019re doing “La boh\u00e8me” next year on tour and we\u2019ll just see how things go \u2013 the Ring is all-encompassing by its very nature.<\/p>\n BW: The nature of the spaces that we\u2019ve been using means that there is the potential to pack together what we need and move it somewhere and then tweak it depending on other venues. So while there is not yet aggressive planning to bring it to Berlin or bring it to other places there is certainly the potential for it, which is something we have talked about before \u2013 but at this point it\u2019s like a baby, we just want to get it out.<\/p>\n BW: We\u2019re working on every possible marketing strategy we can \u2013 we need it to be full and we\u2019re always looking for new audiences. So we\u2019ve gone from the Freemason\u2019s Hall \u2013 they\u2019ve had a change of management so we\u2019ve had to move, sadly \u2013\u00a0to York Hall in Tower Hamlets. It\u2019s an interesting space: it\u2019s a Ring in a boxing ring essentially \u2013 York Hall is the home of British boxing. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ll be doing any silly marketing with boxing gloves, but we\u2019ll see\u2026 Caroline hates the idea (laughs). Tower Hamlets is an interesting part of London, we\u2019ll be marketing it to the people there, we\u2019ve got ideas about an education project and we\u2019re talking to people\/schools about how that might work. We\u2019re hoping to make this as inclusive and interesting as possible to all people, basically.<\/p>\n BW: They were very generous to us and they were very helpful in terms of the first three operas, but, you know, much like with governments or any other institutions when managements change, things change and it became such that in order to put on the Ring cycle not only do you need the performance nights but you also need a vast amount of time in the space to rehearse it. And the new management didn\u2019t feel they were able to accommodate that. And that\u2019s worked much better actually because it meant that it worked with Caroline\u2019s schedule \u2013 she wouldn\u2019t have been able to do it otherwise. BW: The immersive nature of it and the quality of the singing and the storytelling \u2013 I blame you for much of this (to Caroline, laughing)\u2026 \u201cblame\u201d isn\u2019t quite the right word for it.<\/p>\n Caroline Staunton: When you\u2019re doing a fringe opera production it\u2019s important you cut corners, so, for instance, the venues that we\u2019re using at the moment, there\u2019s no potential to fly in scenery or to do epic scene changes and even the lighting has to be quite reduced because hanging points are limited and so on. But we haven\u2019t scrimped on musical quality because his (Ben Woodward\u2019s) arrangements are absolutely fantastic and his conducting is absolutely brilliant and we use top notch singers, and we do it without a single cut so people compare it to the Jonathan Dove versions, but I mean, he cut them and made drastic changes, they\u2019re not authentic to Wagner, not true to it. We captured as much as we can and when you don\u2019t have much set or location then you put the work into the people and make sure that the emotional journeys of the characters are as vividly realised as possible, and when you have people that are capable of doing that as well as singing the crap out of it\u2026 Then you also don\u2019t have that distance of the orchestra pit, the performance happens around it, so you can hear the voice leaving the singer\u2019s body if you\u2019re in the front row and that makes it different and enthralling \u2013\u00a0you experience it differently. In many ways, once you\u2019ve seen it, it kind of sells itself, it\u2019s just getting them through the door in the first place \u2013\u00a0that\u2019s the hard bit.<\/p>\n BW: I keep it all, it just alters who actually plays it. I keep it as close as possible to the original Wagner. I mean, it is a labour of love. I have now finished “G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung,” it\u2019s all done. I usually spend three hours most mornings, I use a program called Dorico and I type the whole thing into it and I try to alter as little as possible, which might sound ridiculous but\u2026 So if the original is two clarinets running in thirds, and I\u2019ve only got the one clarinet\u2026 if the clarinet is on top I\u2019ll put the oboe underneath it so the oboe will then play it in thirds with the clarinet. Whereas if it\u2019s two oboes in thirds I\u2019ll keep the oboe on top and I\u2019ll put the clarinet underneath to still make the thirds but you\u2019ll get the sonority of the original. So I try to keep the set of colours as close as possible to the original, by being as reasonable as possible. There are other things like for instance, at the beginning of “Valkyrie,” Wagner splits the cellos six ways quite near the beginning and so what I\u2019ve done is I\u2019ve kept the cello on the top because you hear the top voice and then put the rest of the parts into the other string parts because I\u2019ve only got so many strings to play with. So that\u2019s kind of what the process is \u2013 it\u2019s one of condensing\u2026 it feels like it might be imaginative but it\u2019s not as imaginative as you might think, it\u2019s just a re-arrangement of what we do. I\u2019ve also taken out the percussion and the harps (which the director constantly moans about, says Caroline, laughing). The main reason for that is actually financial, you always end up spending twice as much on freelance percussion or freelance harpists, they charge you so much extra in taxis or whatever.<\/p>\n CS: And the space needed\u2026 if you\u2019re going to do percussion then you do it properly so then space is needed for that. And we never really had a generous orchestra space \u2013 the\u00a0 <\/span>string players are amazing to be that cramped together, and we have a very good brass section and they do make noise, so to be that close together\u2026 they really are on board with this, it\u2019s a love project for them as well because the circumstances are not as comfortable as you would like to offer them.<\/p>\n BW: Oh, they have to play out of their skins, they have<\/i> to play out of their skins. It just wouldn\u2019t work otherwise.<\/p>\n OW: Funding constraints often cause difficulties in maintaining standards \u2013 how do you deal with such issues?<\/b><\/p>\n BW: It\u2019s on a knife edge. Opera is always financially extremely difficult to make work. I did an MBA in 2020 with the idea of “maybe I can learn how to make opera pay for itself” and the fact of the matter is it doesn\u2019t. You put money in and you get opera out, you don\u2019t get any money back. So, we\u2019ve had lots of generous donors\u2026 my main job now that I\u2019ve finished the score is to talk to all those donors and say “You know those \u00a3100 pounds you gave us for ‘Siegfried?’ Do you think you could give us \u00a3400 now that it\u2019s the whole Ring?” It\u2019s that kind of thing. I did write an Arts Council grant this week, and I have no idea if that was time well spent or not, we\u2019ll find out in nine weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n CS: That\u2019s why the repertoire system is so strong in Germany because when it comes to a single performance of a single show dependant on chorus, orchestra, stage technicians, etc., there\u2019s no performance in Germany that actually covers the cost of itself through ticket sales, whether it\u2019s sold out or not. So repertoire pieces can quickly be put back up and don\u2019t take the same performance investment which is why it would be a good idea to keep this Ring and try to revive it further down. The issue is that with venue rental rehearsals cost and even just lighting a show\u2026 a two hour show takes quite a considerable time to set up, and a sixteen hour show like the Ring takes considerably longer. And it costs money just to look at light.<\/p>\n BW: The costs are astronomical.<\/p>\n CS: But when Ben took on this project he was absolutely adamant that the singers get a proper salary and the musicians get a proper salary which of course adds hugely to the costs but it takes any amateurism out of the entire equation. And this is an incredibly professionally run project. It\u2019s just that I think Ben got a few sleepless nights.<\/p>\n BW: Just a few. But yes, the fees we are offering are roughly commensurate with Holland Park fees. When I first spoke to our Wotan (or our late Wotan, Keel), I asked him what Holland Park would give him for doing a Wotan \u2013 he told me the figure and I shook his hand off. So that\u2019s what we\u2019re aiming at. There are these wonderful singers who are very serious about their art and are able to work with someone who demands really quite a lot of them.<\/p>\n CS: Here in Germany opera is seen as a job, not as something that\u2019s elite or lofty or exclusive. It takes so many different types of employees to make opera happen and because there is this wonderful quantity of it, it keeps going and it keeps moving, and we ought to keep thinking and communicating. You get those moments during a rehearsal with orchestra where you encounter the specialness of it and the sublimity of what you\u2019re doing and then you do think, \u201cyes, my job is a privilege\u201d but also my job involves very often fourteen hour days and constant compromises and discussions and planning and then reversing the planning when a singer is sick or whatever. Everything is always on such a delicate balance but here it\u2019s just very much treated as a job and there\u2019s a seriousness and an authenticity that goes with it and people don\u2019t waste their time thinking about how special they are because they get to work in something like that. There is this lovely knowledge that there is so much of it happening and there\u2019s also an interdisciplinary support as well. There\u2019s huge awareness of what\u2019s happening in other houses and what other people are doing, not with a jealous eye but an interest in terms of “how are they telling that story, how is that singer doing in that role” and so on. It feels like there is a larger community and it\u2019s lovely how you meet the same people again and again in different times and spaces and you do bond over these things but in a very real, practical way, which is not so much my experience in Ireland or in England where it just feels a bit more of an exception, perhaps because there isn\u2019t that much of it. In these places there\u2019s much more that stagione idea that we\u2019re all here for this one thing and therefore this one thing is the only thing that we need to think of. Whereas at the moment for the last three or four weeks I\u2019ve had three different operas in my head at any one time because I\u2019ve been working on all three of them at the same time, including “G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung” so actually four. So you just need to find a way to stay sane and get on with it. Obviously there is that lovely work that you can do at summer festivals, I\u2019ve been to Salzburg a few times and so on and it\u2019s lovely when you can rock up and only think about “Don Giovanni” for instance. So for example, in the last couple of months I\u2019ve had a Jan\u00e1\u010dek piece, a Strauss piece, I\u2019m starting with a Puccini piece and then Wagner so I\u2019ve had all those four guys in my head for the last couple of months at the same time, but that\u2019s the version of working in opera that I particularly love. They all make you crazy by the way, and also I\u2019m an overly emotional person so I\u2019ve been known to cry in rehearsals (laughs).<\/p>\n CS: There is more work available in Germany and the hours are a bit unregulated. What makes my job difficult is\u2026 I\u2019m officially the regie-assistente or house director but unfortunately rehearsals are rehearsals and most of the time you don\u2019t rehearse more than eight hours a day, but then other things take up the other hours of the day, mostly rehearsing the other pieces. We\u2019re very unregulated, our job is very undefined and in many ways you decide yourself what makes you good at your job which means putting in the extra hours, being at all the lighting rehearsals and all that kind of thing. And I\u2019d imagine in England it\u2019s much more controlled in terms of how many hours you\u2019re actually working and it\u2019s also probably better paid.<\/p>\n BW: The thing is, you\u2019re on a salary though\u2026<\/p>\n CS: And during Covid that was amazing because the one thing you couldn\u2019t do is be in a rehearsal room with people which is literally what I live for but the salary kept coming \u2013 they protected us all, it was really extraordinary, all the freelance people, otherwise it would have been a disaster.<\/p>\n BW: The nice thing about the German “fest” system of course is that all the singers and all the music staff get a salary, thirteen months a year, and the ensemble singers as well \u2013 it\u2019s quite a different thing. I did at one point do a projection of what it would cost to create a British “fest” system, in the UK. Back of an envelope numbers\u2026 I still reckon that to make one “fest” theatre in every county in the UK it would still cost much less than what we spent on the Olympics, but you know, it\u2019s just a mad thing\u2026 it\u2019s, you know, priorities of different countries\u2026<\/p>\n CS: It depends on the time that you have, and obviously it depends on the availability of the singers, so the frustrating thing for instance is when you\u2019re trying to revive a piece and the main role doesn\u2019t come until two days before you\u2019re about to be on stage, or each piece has its own circumstances and you just decide what\u2019s the best way to deal with it or indeed to throw a fit and say, “there are lots of changes here.” But then you also decide how much time you get on stage and obviously they want to perform as much as possible but there are certain shows where for example in order to get the set up done in time you can\u2019t rehearse in the morning if you\u2019re going to have that show on in the evening so that becomes a lost opportunity to rehearse on the stage. Sometimes you can rehearse on the stage running with half the sets and not all of the sets, or not with the dangerous part of the sets that you want to teach the people how to use and all that sort of thing. So it\u2019s a constant negotiation and you have to constantly keep your eye on the ball and then just somehow manage to get through everything. And as I say the Strauss opera that I\u2019m working on at the moment, “Die Frau ohne Schatten” is just long, it\u2019s very, very long and there are very many scenes and then on top of that. There are dancers and there are extras and there are children actors as well at the end, and I\u2019m trying to rehearse every aspect of the show so I\u2019m not yet managing any sort of a run through \u2013 that\u2019s what we\u2019re running on Tuesday when we\u2019re on stage but then it\u2019s only once with piano, once with orchestra and then the next one is a performance and so everyone is feeling a little bit like “right, okay” (laughs).<\/p>\n BW: There\u2019s never<\/i> enough rehearsal time!<\/p>\n CS: No, there\u2019s never enough rehearsal time. Also, I hate performance, I just love rehearsals, I\u2019m like Stanislavski. Stanislavski rehearsed “Otello” for two years and then never let it actually perform because he felt it wasn\u2019t good enough (laughs). I adore rehearsals but when it comes to performances I\u2019m a nervous wreck because there\u2019s nothing more I can do, it just has to happen.<\/p>\n CS: Yes, I got to know Ben during lockdown and then coming out of lockdown we started doing opera evenings in a wine bar close to the opera house in the centre. Ben\u2019s really good with music and he was coaching them on arias and I came in with just some basic scenic approaches and we are both of the belief that once you combine a scenic element or a staged element with the singing element than the singing also improves. There\u2019s something about refocusing your attention on the text and on the context of what it is that you\u2019re singing that it instantly becomes less of a listen-to-my-wonderful-voice kind of experience and much more of a theatrical moment of a character really establishing something or saying something about themselves. So Ben saw that happening and we realised that in the rehearsal room as well we communicate very well with each other and we weirdly have the same goals and we overlap in terms of where it needs to be. How much of an impasse there can be in a rehearsal room if you and the musical director don\u2019t see eye to eye. If the Stage Director and the Music Director don\u2019t see eye to eye and don\u2019t have a relationship everything just takes six times longer and then no one\u2019s happy as well with the outcome, so that\u2019s an absolute serendipity that we agree so much artistically and what the goal is and where we want to bring singers with their singing and their interpretation.<\/p>\n BW: Yes, it seems to work.<\/p>\n CS: Also, I\u2019m not a radical director \u2013 at least not yet, or not with the Ring \u2013 so it\u2019s not like I say “Can we stop playing here” and I need to have four minutes of silence because I have to do some dumb show acting, so none of those kinds of demands. Also in general, if I ask for something Ben is usually quite amenable and if he\u2019s not amenable then he explains the error of my ways\u2026<\/p>\n BW: And vice-versa\u2026 CS: So Wagner used this idea of Gesamtkunstwerk<\/i> which is the idea of the coming together of the various elements of what it takes to stage successful opera which is the musical element but also the text element and the scenic element and the movement element and how it all comes together to create this total work of art. So I\u2019ve got a further take on this artwork theme which is to use the idea of the modernist art gallery to look at this notion of what happens once an object is presented for contemplation as an art work. So there\u2019s the object and then there is what we called “plinthing.” In the act of plinthing the object transforms itself and offers itself as an artwork object and I\u2019m interested then in how the subject encounters it and also what happens to the subject during the encountering of the artwork, how it changes them. So that\u2019s the central metaphor for what I\u2019ve been doing, this idea of the “Rheingold” in itself but also as a source of power and also related to the experience of love. Specifically \u2013 and this is recurrent throughout the entire Ring cycle \u2013 there is the idea that the test of how much you love something is how you are once you lose it. It\u2019s extraordinary, I hadn\u2019t fully appreciated how sad “G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung” is. Siegfried in our production is not a traditional brainless hero just looking to stick his sword into things, he\u2019s actually a very damaged, troubled man-child as a result of the origin story of his parents and the involvement of Wotan who\u2019s also lost children, he lost his son \u2013 he was involved in the murder of his own son and then had to sacrifice Br\u00fcnnhilde through pride but also through grief. Then you get this incredible villain in Hagen, who\u2019s Alberich\u2019s offspring, very much in counterpoint to what Sigmund was for Wotan. And something we\u2019ve done throughout as well is that we have the black Alberich and the white Wotan, so Wotan has always seen himself as a kind of reflection of Alberich, one is white, one is black but the two of them are inextricably related. Then there\u2019s the son of Alberich, very much the counterpoint to Sigmund and then just working through this inevitability \u2013 talk about spoilers, when you call your opera “Twilight of the Gods” you\u2019re not in too much doubt about how all of this ends, you know.<\/p>\n CS: It\u2019s one person in charge of both, stage and costumes. I have quite a lot of input into the stage designs because especially on a reduced budget it needs to be dramaturgically very astute, so I tend to conceive it and she makes it looks good. And then the costumes are very much her ideas. Then of course there is the make-up troupe. This is part dramaturgical and part\u2026 well, if you have eight Valkyries and they all want to look hot, well, you need make-up artists.<\/p>\n BW: The singing and the story are both fantastic and it is complete, from the first note of “Rheingold” to the last note of “G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung” we\u2019re not making any cuts, it is the whole Ring cycle, fully staged, with orchestra, in an interesting space, done “in the round.” It\u2019s the only full Ring cycle that\u2019s happening in the UK next year, there are no other Ring cycles.<\/p>\n CS: The best thing has been the work with the performers. I come from a teaching background \u2013 I used to teach poetry and Shakespeare and that kind of thing \u2013 so I\u2019ve always just loved to see that element of how\u2026 the act of interpreting a text, and using words and language and seeing how that changes into an attitude or a motivation or a mission. Singing is such an incredibly athletic, almost Olympian activity but then when you are on top of that you can also then get through to actioning text and using text in a way where there is genuine connection between people. It\u2019s the nicest thing about staging it in this way rather than in the traditional proscenium with the orchestra pit \u2013 in the traditional way there is always the concern of the voices having to carry and go out to the front, but here, because the orchestra is actually behind the singers it means that I can be completely reckless with where I\u2019m telling them to stand and which direction to sing in and to keep it moving and so on. Also the text itself is so fascinating, I think Wagner is also quite underrated as a librettist and one of the major artistic features of the Ring are the alliteration games that he plays throughout. On top of that his word choice in so many moments is just incredible, and then the marriage of this poetic element to the leitmotifs, which is one of the most significant features of the orchestral scores (apart from their brilliance). The leitmotifs are these recurring patterns of melodies that are linked to specific events or sometimes specific objects \u2013 there\u2019s the spear motif, there\u2019s the curse motif, there\u2019s the love motif, there are lots of motifs but it just gives you so much information to incorporate into the staging. And again, we\u2019ve reduced down on big flying scenery but we try to get as much from the score and the text into the staging and you then find that a gesture can be as meaningful as an expensive piece of scenery or timing a look between two people at the right moment or that kind of thing. And then Ben\u2019s provided me with singers who are not only up for this challenge but are very capable of fulfilling it. So, that\u2019s my favourite part, yes.<\/p>\n BW: Rehearsals\u2026 (laughs) This thing has been an enormous project. Creating the score is one thing and then seeing the whole growth of it \u2013 it\u2019s been a huge project, from testing every possible bit of everyone, and making this whole thing work, to making sure all the relationships work, to making sure that everyone is doing a nice job and everyone is as happy as we can possibly keep them and to make it happen in such a way that everyone\u2019s paid and we all make a tremendous, extraordinary piece of art with it. The reason for doing this has been to tell the Ring story and for me to conduct it with magnificent singers and a fantastic artistic partner. That\u2019s what this enterprise has been about and it\u2019s been a huge enterprise. Don\u2019t know what will be next, but we\u2019ll figure something out. BW: Sleep, what\u2019s that?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Photo Credit: Frances Marshall, Marshall Light studios \/ Sara Porter) The Ring Cycle is a massive undertaking, one that requires an opera company with a built-in infrastructure to do it. But it is also the peak of opera production and one that every director \/ manager dreams of doing. So despite, the massive challenge it entailed, Regents Opera’s artistic director {…}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":93546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,254],"tags":[24259,24260,5293,15926],"class_list":["post-93501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-interviews","tag-ben-woodward","tag-caroline-staunton","tag-fulham-opera","tag-regents-opera"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOW: What\u2019s the vision for Regents Opera?<\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: Does the Ring then go onto other cities, or will you be putting it on in London only?<\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: Is this Ring doing anything in particular to cultivate interest in opera with future generations\/younger people?<\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: Putting on the whole Ring cycle is a challenge in all sorts of ways. What was your reaction when you found out that the Freemason\u2019s Hall (your original venue) could no longer host “G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung,” <\/i>the last opera in the cycle? <\/b><\/h3>\n
\n<\/b><\/p>\nOW: Your Ring cycle opens in February 2025 and it\u2019s already sold very well (we\u2019re in October 2024). You\u2019ve even had to add an extra performance of “G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung” due to box office demand. Impressive results for one of the most demanding set of operas out there. What do you think is making this such a success?<\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: You\u2019ve re-orchestrated the entire Ring Cycle \u2013 that\u2019s a huge undertaking. Can you tell us a bit more about the process, how you went about it, any challenges encountered?<\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: You both live in Berlin, Germany. What lessons are there \u2013 if any \u2013 for opera in the UK? <\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: How about financially, any particular differences between Germany and the UK? <\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: So, Caroline, as a Stage Director, it\u2019s more up to you then, how you go about it and how many hours you put in for rehearsals and that sort of thing? <\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: So do you normally feel you get enough rehearsal time? <\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: Is this your first collaboration with Regents Opera? <\/b><\/h3>\n
\nCS: And vice-versa\u2026<\/p>\nOW: What\u2019s the main idea or inspiration behind this Ring? <\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: Are you working with a set designer and a costume designer? <\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: Why should audiences come to watch\/listen to this Ring?<\/b><\/h3>\n
OW: What\u2019s been the best part of directing the Ring with Regents Opera so far? <\/b><\/h3>\n
\nCS: Sleep!<\/p>\n