In the god-forsaken district of early-1860s Lower Manhattan known as the Five Points, the vicious Nativist, Bill “The Butcher” Cutting, is the supreme overlord of an area riddled with crime, prostitution, theft and murder, as the American Civil War still rages on. Sixteen years after the brutal murder of his father at Bill’s hands, an orphaned Irish-American, Amsterdam Vallon, returns to avenge his untimely death; however, a lot has changed since then. Who can remember the once-innocent boy and now a young man bent on revenge, who works his way up to the hierarchy of Five Points? Will Amsterdam ever taste the dangerous but sweet fruit of retribution?

Antonio Pappano conducts Barrie Kosky’s bold new imagining of Wagner’s Das Rheingold with an outstanding cast including Christopher Maltman (Wotan) and Christopher Purves (Alberich).