Department of Speculation

Post, 2011 SFO Ring

San Francisco Opera hasn't announced when they're doing the Ring next, though since it's known that Eun Sun Kim will conduct, it'll be before her contract expires at the end of the 2030-31 season. Given the problematic financial environment for the arts just now, well, it could be a ways out.

Still, as I wrote in my Santa Fe Die Walküre review, we're at a moment of generational change in Wagner singing. Let's take some time to speculate as to who might be the next SFO Ring. I have absolutely no inside information on casting; these are strictly my hallucinations. Also, my lists are in alphabetical order, not the order in which I'd like to see these roles cast.

Wotan

• Nicholas Brownlee
• Ryan Speedo Green (singing his first this year, in Santa Fe and LA; apparently signed for the next Met Ring)
• Brian Mulligan (sang it in Europe, in concert, with YNS)

Fricka / Waltraute / Norn

• Jamie Barton
• Tanja Ariane Baumgartner
• Raehann Bryce-Davis
• Irene Roberts
• Sarah Saturnino
• Annika Schlicht

Alberich

• Tomas Konieczny
• Falk Struckmann

Brünnhilde

• Lise Davidsen (can SFO pay her fees?)
• Christine Goerke
• Anja Kampe (an impressive Isolde last year in SF)
• Camilla Nylund (an impressive Kaiserin in 2023 in SF)
• Tamara Wilson

Sieglinde

• Vida Miknevičiūtė
• Irene Roberts (I know, I know, she's a mezzo, but believe me she has the vocal chops for this)
• Elisabeth Strid

Siegmund

• Clay Hilley
• Brian Jagde
• Brandon Jovanovich
• Jamez McCorkle
• Simon O'Neill
• Russell Thomas

Siegfried

• Daniel Brenna
• Clay Hilley
• Simon O'Neill?
• Andreas Schager
• Stefan Vinke

Loge / Mime

• Russell Thomas
• Brenton Ryan

Hunding / Hagen

• Peixin Chen
• Jongwon Han
• Soloman Howard

Who do you like?