Film based on the opera of Richard Wagner

“Ninety minutes of continuous imagery-flux modulated on the great Wagnerian Leitmotivs. The choice is a work of genus and works perfectly. Rarely has the image belonged so literally to the sound. Video and opera. Video and theater. For these two plastic artists the theatrical is the major impulse for their video graphical work, which is very far removed from all recorded theatrical performances and live opera transmissions. Here, one is faced with the recreation of Wagner’s visionary universe by means of electronic images and sounds.” Konrad Maquestiau & Koen Van Daele, Articles, winter 88-89

“The artists have taken freely from both operas to create their own complex statement about contemporary culture and values. Wagner’s music remains at the heart of the piece, and just as he used certain instruments and melodies to accompany specific characters and situations, the Theys have developed pictorial motifs for the different characters and events. In this version however, the Ring has been replaced by the television image. Instead of forging the Rhinegold into a ring, the dwarf Alberich takes the video noise (the snow on an empty television channel) and discovers that he can form images. His possession of the source of electronic image-making enables him to reproduce reality and have power over the world.
Working with a low budget, simple props and a small cast, the Theys have made clever and efficient use of video effects to generate enough images from limited basic material to unfold the narrative. For example, the giants, gods and dwarfs are given their appropriate sizes by electronic shrinking or stretching and successive horizontal or vertical sliding of frames effectively suggests large spaces and long distance traveling. With wit and intelligence they have exploited video’s inherent properties to fashion a work which could exist in no other medium and no other time but the present.” Joan Hanley, Program Museum of the Moving Image, New York, March 1989

“Just like the master himself changed the traditional opera in a spirit of genius modernity, the Theys brothers reinterpret “The Ring” by using electronic images with love for Wagner’s oeuvre and pay a tribute to him in a video film of overwhelming virtuosity, giving the mass culture, and especially television, in all its power, a critical and wild vision.” Marc-Alexandre Pierson, Cartes sur Cables n° 12, April-May-June 1987