When Antonio Pappano completes what may be his last performances of Wagner’s monumental cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen in November, he will have been the Royal Opera’s music director for more than 16 years, surpassing the tenure of both Colin Davis and Bernard Haitink, his two immediate predecessors.
This final Ring, opening the new season on September 24, is the culmination of a lifetime’s involvement with Wagner’s tetralogy. “I’ve only conducted it here, but I worked on it [as répétiteur] with Daniel Barenboim at Bayreuth and Michael Gielen in Frankfurt in the 1980s. I’ve been at it for 30 years or more, but this time around, it’s really come together. You can’t conduct the Ring just as pieces of music — you have to