A Ring for People and Place: Creating expectation and fulfilling demand

Between 2011 and 2014, Opera North (the national opera company for the north of England) produced its first Ring cycle at home in Leeds, also touring to several northern venues. This chapter takes an ethnographic approach, observing some of the work done by the company in and around the production. Opera North prepared its audience for a Ring cycle, but also worked to create and enhance audience demand for a Ring in Leeds, and to ensure the production's success by setting appropriate audience expectations during the processes of audience preparation. These expectations would be fulfilled by the bespoke production. For a Ring spread over four years (with a full cycle also planned for 2016), this creation and fulfilment of expectation and demand essentially became a cyclical process.