2007 - 2008 A new production concept of Wagner’s Die Walküre is being developed by Kevin Hanek and Kathy Geary, in conjunction with conductor Gerald Steichen, stage director James Marvel, and New York Opera Studio’s Carol and Nico Castel. Taking inspiration from George Lucas’s Star Wars films (Lucas actually referred to the project in its early stages as a “space opera,” and was influenced in part by the 1930s-era Flash Gordon serials as well as the films of Akira Kurosawa), as well as some of the groundbreaking Ring productions which appeared at Bayreuth during the 1920s, prior to the influence of the Nazi regime and the neo-Traditionalist scenic designers (which the regime favored, and which Winifred Wagner’s devotion to Adolf Hitler guaranteed as the new status quo) on Bayreuth productions, this Die Walküre will be set in a distant yet not-entirely unfamiliar future world. The production seeks to attract new audiences into a live theatrical setting, utilizing this culturally resonant scenario as a vehicle and point of entree into Wagner’s timeless mythology. Award-winning artist Ron English will be designing the production, which will commence with a workshop version of Act One, Scene Three featuring Hanek and Geary.