Artistic Director and Conductor of Regents Opera, Ben Woodward

I find myself on a train right now, thinking furiously about the next opera. Within the past three days I have conducted orchestra alone rehearsals of Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried, and today we will spend six hours on the Prologue and Act 1 of Götterdämmerung. Previous days saw me running between different locations conducting production rehearsals of Walküre and Rheingold, having spent all of December in production rehearsals for Götterdämmerung. For the next few days, I will continue running three session days in three different locations across London, putting together one or other of these remarkable operas, and whilst I am already feeling a certain degree of tiredness, I can’t remember a time in my life when I’ve felt more alive.

As well as keeping all four operas bubbling around in both my head and those of the singers, there’s also the extra plates I’m keeping spinning. Meetings with the PR team, realising, as I was conducting the Walküre production call, that I’ve totally forgotten to put the Assistant Stage Manager’s name in the programme, and writing to the programme designer to catch that before print deadline. Trying to call various donors who have made this possible to harvest their pledges into actual money in the bank account. Inviting 'industry' people to make sure they all come and see it, writing a newsletter for our subscribers (and not forgetting). Then answering those persistent emails from audience members asking if indeed we are singing it all in German and if there will be surtitles...Yes, of course we are, and yes there will!

Then there’s the apprehensive constant checking of the ticketing website. How close are we to getting that all-important 85% capacity so that we might just break even? When does the next bit of advertising hit? The ads hit the Covent Garden tube station tomorrow, right? Has the guy from the national paper interviewing me for a preview article chosen a date yet, cos I’m really going to struggle to fit it in?

'Wagner’s music infects you; Wagner’s drama takes over your entire being'

Cue a text from my wife, singing Brünnhilde, in a production call on the Götterdämmerung Prologue that we haven’t done since before Christmas: 'I’m not sure I can remember all of these words!'. I tap out a quick reply: 'Of course you can darling, you’re brilliant'. Now back to writing...

I suppose the questions anyone might ask of me, as they see this crazy-eyed, hyper-focussed man on the train, are; Why on earth are you doing this? Why are you doing this to yourself? As well as; Why are you trying to tell this story? Why are you risking life, limb and your company’s possible bankruptcy to give a Ring Cycle that will be gone 21 days after it begins?

Well, because it’s brilliant, that’s why. Every single person I’m working with is an astonishing artist in some way, shape or form. I think many of them sing and tell stories better than numerous people I’ve seen sing this repertoire in international houses.

When I conduct this music, I am quite fundamentally in the right place at the right time, and when I watch what Caroline Staunton, our remarkable director and also (oddly for a conductor/director pairing) one of my dearest friends, does with these stories, I am frequently moved...occasionally disturbed... and, many times, enlightened.

I often quote: 'Why does a painter paint? Why does a sculptor sculpt? Because he has to'. That sentiment is so clearly the case with my whole team and this incredible work. I know that from the moment I take that breath before the first downbeat until the next 2.5-5 hours (dependent upon the opera) is up, we’re all doing what we simply have to be doing – what we were put on the planet to do.

Wagner’s music infects you; Wagner’s drama takes over your entire being, and, if you’re in the middle of putting on a Ring Cycle, it takes over your entire life. In my case, it has been over three years, as I’ve woken up early and rearranged the score of the entire Ring Cycle for 22 instruments. I have rewritten every bar, and considered how it might be possible to perform this on a budget, with no sign of any King Ludwigs crawling out of the woodwork to help us.

I’m still not wholly sure how the money is going to pan out, and I’m desperate to sell more tickets. I think it’s going to be one of the most momentous stagings of operatic art in 2025, and I want the world to see this Ring.

Now, who’s the next person I need to email to make sure that might happen?

Ben Woodward is Artistic Director and Conductor of Regents Opera. regentsopera.com

Regents Opera will perform complete Ring Cycles with Woodward’s own 22-piece arrangement at York Hall, Bethnal Green on the following dates:

· Cycle 1: 9, 11, 13, 16 February

· Extra Götterdämmerung: 20th February

· Cycle 2: 23, 25, 27 February, 2 March

Tickets from ticketsource.co.uk/regents-opera