Stage accident stops Darmstadt Das Rheingold.
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| A scene from the Darmstadt Das Rheingold. Image © 2012 Staattheater Darmstadt. |
It seems that the Metropolitan Opera is not the only place where mounting Wagner's epic Ring Cycle is an occupational hazard.
Reports are coming out of Darmstadt, Germany that a Feb. 11 performance of Das Rheingold at the Darmstadt Stadttheater came to an early end when a section of the set came unfastened and crashed onto the stage, landing in the orchestra pit and injuring a musician. This story was first reported (in English) on Norman Lebrecht's blog Slipped Disc.
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| The giants kidnapt Freia in a scene from the Darmstadt Das Rheingold. Image © 2012 Staattheater Darmstadt. |
The Darmstadt production of Rheingold modernizes Wagner's drama, with Wotan as a pinstriped industrialist and the Giants as construction workers in safety helmets. From the photographs on the theater's website, Valhalla appears to be a nuclear plant. The production is by John Dew.
The incident took place towards the end of the two and half hour opera, when a piece of press-board, which framed the action, was 26 feet high and 4 feet wide. Apparently it fell forward with one end landing in the orchestra pit and striking a member of the orchestra in the head. The performance was stopped immediately, and the woman was taken to a nearby hospital.
Perhaps this is why Wagner designed the famous "covered" pit at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus?