Wagner Die Walküre
Staged version – new production by the Accademia di Santa Cecilia
Thursday, October 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Saturday, October 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Monday, October 27, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Auditorium Parco della Musica di Roma – Sala Santa Cecilia
Orchestra
dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
conductor Daniel Harding
director Vincent Huguet
scenic design Pierre Yovanovitch
costumes Edoardo Russo
light designer Christophe Forey
director of stage design Michele Olcese
in collaboration with
Cast
Siegmund Jamez McCorkle
Sieglinde Vida Miknevičiūtė
Hunding Stephen Milling
Brünnhilde Miina-Liisa Värelä
Wotan Michael Volle
Fricka Okka von der Damerau
Gerhilde, valkyrie Sonja Herranen
Ortlinde, valkyrie Hedvig Haugerud
Waltraute, valkyrie Claire Barnett-Jones
Schwertleite, valkyrie Claudia Huckle
Helmwige, valkyrie Dorothea Herbert
Siegrune, valkyrie Virginie Verrez
Grimgerde, valkyrie Anna Lapkovskaja
Rossweisse, valkyrie Štěpánka Pučálková
The 25/26 Season opens with an unmissable event: the Sala Santa Cecilia will be transformed into a true theatrical stage to host the staged version of one of Richard Wagner’s most beloved operas: Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), conducted by Daniel Harding with stage direction by Vincent Huguet.
This inauguration marks the beginning of an unprecedented journey: for the first time in its history, the Accademia will present the complete Ring of the Nibelung cycle in staged form, a titanic project that will unfold through the 2028/2029 season and which has not been performed in Rome since 1961. It is a venture of great artistic and cultural significance, with the Accademia engaged in an internationally scaled production, entrusted to Harding’s musical vision—tackling the Ring for the very first time—an extraordinary vocal cast, the creative flair of stage director Vincent Huguet, and the designs of Pierre Yovanovitch.
Duration
Act I: approximately 65 minutes
Intermission: 30 minutes
Act II: approximately 90 minutes
Intermission: 30 minutes
Act III: approximately 70 minutes
Daniel Harding, conductor
Daniel Harding took up the Music Director position of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in 2024. He was Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2007 – 2025, Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris from 2016 – 2019 and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2007 – 2017. He is honoured with the lifetime title of Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years. In 2024 he took up the position of Music Director of the Youth Music Culture, The Greater Bay Area (YMCG).
He is a regular visitor to the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. In the US, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony.
Vincent Huguet, director
Vincent Huguet studied history and art history before approaching stage direction under the guidance of Patrice Chéreau and Peter Sellars. In 2012, he directed his first production at the Opéra de Montpellier, followed by work at the Opéra de Rouen, the Opéra Comique, the Opéra de Bordeaux, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. In 2019, he staged Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Vienna State Opera. He brought his production of Dido and Aeneas to the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and began the Mozart–Da Ponte trilogy at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, with Daniel Barenboim. At the Theater Basel, he directed Don Carlos and Rigoletto, his first collaborations with Pierre Yovanovitch, with whom he is now preparing Le nozze di Figaro for the Seoul Opera in 2025. He was resident director at the Victoria de Los Angeles Foundation. Among his upcoming projects are La Cenerentola with Thomas Hengelbrock in Baden-Baden, Lucia di Lammermoor in Basel, and the Ring in Rome with Daniel Harding.
Pierre Yovanovitch, scenic design
Pierre Yovanovitch founded his Paris-based design agency in 2001, after a career as a men’s fashion designer for Pierre Cardin, which led him to pursue his passion for architecture and interior design. He is renowned for his ability to tell stories through design, combining contemporary art, vintage design, and architectural elements to create refined and immersive environments. His portfolio includes residential, scenography, hospitality, and commercial projects. In May 2021, he launched his furniture brand to complement his interior design practice. The brand reflects his iconic approach, with a focus on craftsmanship, carefully selected materials, and sustainability.
Michael Volle Wotan
Michael Volle has graced the stages of the world’s most prestigious opera houses as a dramatic baritone, while continuing to nurture his passion for the concert and Lied repertoire. After several engagements at the opera houses of Mannheim, Bonn, Düsseldorf, and Cologne, he became a member of the ensembles at Zurich Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. His performances have taken him to leading opera houses in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, London, Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, Milan, Florence, and New York, as well as to major festivals such as Bayreuth, Salzburg, Bregenz, and Baden-Baden. Volle has appeared both at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff, as well as in the role of Hans Sachs in a new production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Vienna State Opera.
Miina-Liisa Värelä Brünnhilde
Soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä has gained recognition through recent acclaimed performances, including the role of Die Färberin in two new productions of Die Frau ohne Schatten: at the renowned Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with conductor Kirill Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker, and at the Semperoper Dresden with Christian Thielemann. Her recent successes include her debut as Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Canadian Opera Company, the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos at both the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Finnish National Opera, as well as Ortrud in Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Salzburg Landestheater and Oper Frankfurt. At the Finnish National Opera, she has sung Sieglinde in a new production of Die Walküre and the title role in Strauss’s Elektra at the Landestheater Linz. Equally at home in the Italian repertoire, she recently made her debut as Tosca at the Savonlinna Festival under Lorenzo Passerini and as Turandot at the Finnish National Opera.
Jamez McCorkle Siegmund
American tenor Jamez McCorkle drew critical acclaim with his performance in Omar by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize, which premiered at the Spoleto Festival in 2022 and was subsequently presented at LA Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Carolina Performing Arts Center. Following his recent triumphs in operas such as Ariadne auf Naxos and Jenůfa, he made debuts at the Royal Ballet & Opera, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Staatsoper Hamburg, and with the LA Philharmonic. His recent highlights include returning to the Spoleto Festival; Lear at the Bavarian State Opera; Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Theater Basel; Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera; and the role of Leonard Woolf in Kevin Puts’s new opera The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Vida Miknevičiūtė Sieglinde
Lithuanian soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė’s recent successes have quickly established her as one of today’s leading lyric-dramatic sopranos. She has performed with prestigious orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker and on the stages of the Bavarian State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and Vienna State Opera, earning admiration for her stage presence and emotionally charged interpretations. In recent seasons, she made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Sieglinde and at Victorian Opera in Melbourne as the Countess in Strauss’s Capriccio. She has also appeared at the Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and performed the first act of Die Walküre with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.