The 15-hour ‘Everest’ of music that may change you forever
by Brook Turner · Australian Financial ReviewBrook Turner
Sep 10, 2026 – 5.00am
There are warnings from the start. The voice that bids us to turn off our phones and ensure all “hearing aids aren’t turned up too loud”, for instance. Or the people pacing the lobby of Deutsche Oper Berlin like expectant parents, some with walking poles, like they’re limbering up for Everest.
Which is in a sense what we are about to do: scale “the single most astonishing cultural achievement of the whole of the 19th century,” as The Rest is History podcaster Tom Holland described Wagner’s Ring Cycle to a sold-out Royal Albert Hall audience gathered for its 150th anniversary in London in January. The occasion is Deutsche Oper’s staging of Stefan Herheim’s polarising production. Over six days we will spend 15 hours – more than 20 with extended intermissions to resurrect cast and audience – deep in the belly of the beast.
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