The Ring of the Nibelung | Eve

RICHARD WAGNER (1813–1883)
In German with surtitles.
Libretto by the composer.
First performed in Munich in 1869.

It all begins with unspoilt, innocent nature: from the depths of the Rhine, from a slowly building E flat major chord, a cosmos of mythical proportions rises in the prelude to “Das Rheingold”. The world of gods, humans and dwarves emerge from it. But: Richard Wagner places violence and deceit at the beginning of his Nibelung saga. The dwarf Alberich steals the gold of the Rhine from the Rhine daughters and forges it into a ring around which a sinister power struggle breaks out. Alberich loses the ring through a trick to Wotan, the father of the gods, but places a terrible curse on it: whoever renounces love will gain world domination through the ring. However, Wotan has to cede the ring to the giants Fasolt and Fafner, and the ring promptly claims its first victim.
In 1896, George Bernard Shaw described the “Ring” clairvoyantly as a “drama of the present”, which could only have been written after the second half of the 19th century, under the impression of imperial power struggles and advancing industrialisation. The political and socio-critical content of the work is still relevant today and invites artists and audiences to engage with it. The rise of the gods, which culminates in the construction of Wallhall, already foreshadows their fall and end. “The injustice they pursue clings to themselves,” Wagner says in his prose draft of the drama.

PREMIERE: 13 November 2016