More than anything in the world, the water nymph Rusalka yearns to become human to win the heart of a young prince. But this metamorphosis comes at a price: she will lose her voice and be damned forever should their love story fail. No reflection of a silver moon in the dried-up lake below. International Opera Awards 2020 nominee Dirk Schmeding stages Antonín Dvořák’s opera Rusalka at Staatstheater Braunschweig far removed from its usual poetic fairytale world. Stuck in the horror vision of a decaying no man’s land, US soprano Julie Adams embodies the title character lost between two worlds.

Get ready for Das Rheingold, the first chapter in Richard Wagner’s four-part epic, The Ring of the Nibelung. Travel to a world where gods, giants, and dwarves vie for control over the realms of myths and mortals.

A father’s blinding ambition and a daughter’s profound defiance drive the story forward in the cycle’s dramatic second installment. This Ring production is partly #MeToo, partly environmental—and almost entirely American.