Robert Wierzel has lit opera on stages in Paris, Tokyo, Toronto, San Francisco, and dozens of stops in between. But when the Atlanta Opera opened Twilight of the Gods (Götterdämmerung) on May 30 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, it capped something rarer than most of his credits: the finale of a complete Ring Cycle, the first in the Southeast and the first completed anywhere since before the pandemic.
Wagner’s Ring Cycle spans four operas and fourteen hours of music. Its production is considered one of the most demanding undertakings in all of opera. The Atlanta Opera built toward this moment over four years. Twilight of the Gods, the story of a hero betrayed, a ring of power reclaimed, and an entire world consumed by fire, is where it all ends.
Wierzel has been there for all of it, working alongside stage director Tomer Zvulun and scenic and projection designer Erhard Rom to build the production’s visual world of this production. His take on what it takes to light the end of everything.
The Ring Cycle is four operas, four years, four separate design challenges, but the story is one continuous arc. How do you make the lighting in Twilight of the Gods feel like a conclusion rather than just another installment?
Much of that has to do with the set design and projections and the creation of a worldview for the action to happen in. Erhard [Rom] uses recurring images that link the four operas together in different ways. Actually, as we worked and developed each opera, we discovered new ideas which we then incorporated into the whole. One of my most influential collaborators, John Conklin, once told me: if you are open to what one is creating onstage, the piece will start to tell you what is needed. I have found that to be very true.
A lighting cue in opera often lives inside the music, not the stage directions. Give an example from Götterdämmerung where you followed the score rather than the stage action?
Lighting, like music, is a non-verbal form of communicating. Much of lighting is making sure the storytelling is clear. In Act I, when Siegfried arrives at the hall of the Gibichungs, there is a lighting cue that highlights him on the upper level, giving him a presence that reflects his importance, which is based on his previous actions across the entire cycle.
Götterdämmerung ends with a funeral pyre, the Rhine flooding its banks, and Valhalla consumed by flames. The production uses haze and fire effects to bring all of that to life. How do you design lighting around elements like those?
Smoke effects are actually in the purview of the lighting department. We get to specify where and what kind of smoke effects are appropriate, in association with the director, technical director, and others. However, in our production, many of the smoke effects the audience experiences come from projections. Many opera companies have strict rules concerning actual smoke onstage — not all will allow it. We are fortunate that the Atlanta Opera does. One has to be serious and responsible when using smoke onstage.
Read More:
• Atlanta Opera will close season with Wagner’s ‘Das Rheingold’
• Rodell Rosel talks bringing ‘Siegfried’ to life with Atlanta Opera
In a production this physically large, how do you make sure the audience never loses sight of what’s happening on a singer’s face?
Careful lighting! Seriously, though, we can use follow spots judiciously to keep the performer’s face balanced in the larger stage picture. Sometimes creating shadows and obscuring the face for dramatic effect can also be effective. Each performer in many scenes has a lighting technician who follows them throughout the stage. It is a highly skilled job.
For someone sitting in Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre who has never seen a Wagner opera before, what will they experience in the lighting that they probably won’t even realize is happening?
Hopefully, how the projections, lighting, costumes and staging are all but seamless — meaning all the elements work together to transform the space both emotionally and psychologically.
What does a Ring Cycle ask of a lighting designer that no other work in the repertoire does?
I would say patience, stamina, and fortitude.
Twilight of the Gods runs through June 7, 2026, at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Tickets are available at atlantaopera.org,
