“Bayreuth is again in the news, thanks to the withdrawal of iconoclastic Danish film-maker Lars von Trier from the 2006 Ring. Von Trier’s Ring would have been a splashy event, making headlines well beyond the opera world. He had already worked on the project for two years. Stage mock-ups were to have begun this month. But The Ring has defeated him. This week he was forced to admit he couldn’t realise his ideas within the limitations of a theatre. Given Von Trier’s evocations on film of psychological awareness and the tangled webs of family (Dogville, The Idiots), he was an inspired choice – but an extremely risky one. He said he preferred David Bowie to Wagner. He had no record in theatre or opera.”