With the announcement of its 2024-25 season, La Monnaie de Munt has announced a change to its upcoming Ring Cycle.

The company said that “As previously announced, Romeo Castellucci was engaged to direct Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, spread over two seasons. A massive undertaking that only visionary artists are courageous enough to attempt and a major challenge for any opera house. Having presented ‘Das Rheingold’ and ‘Die Walküre’ earlier this season, we were all set for a continuation on the same strength.”

The statement continued, “As we communicated before, the Castellucci team was aiming for different artistic approaches for each title: one being the production of a full-length film using as yet unexplored technology for ‘Siegfried,’ the other being a double opera and theatre project for the final ‘Götterdämmerung’. After many months of preparation, investigation and study, we have had to come jointly to the conclusion that we could not arrive at a way to realize these concepts within the available timing and budgetary frame. Both Romeo and his colleagues as well as the teams at La Monnaie/De Munt very much regret to have had to come to this inevitable conclusion. We all hope that it will be possible to see the completion of this ambitious project at some stage in the future.”

The company added, “La Monnaie/De Munt, however, has decided to continue the Tetralogy together with the forces of the theatre under the baton of our music director and with the announced casts. After careful consideration, we have invited Pierre Audi to direct the next two titles. We are immensely grateful to him for agreeing to take on this challenge at such short notice and under such time pressure. He will work together with a new production team, including Michael Simon for the sets and Petra Reinhardt for the costumes.”

The news also affected the Gran Teatre del Liceu, who is a co-producer on the original production. For its part, the Barcelona Theater said, that ” as a co-producer it would analyze ever scenario to make a decision of the continuation of the project.”