The Ring of the Nibelung | Third day

Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883)
In German with surtitles.
Libretto by the composer
First performed in Bayreuth in 1876

The thread of fate is broken. Siegfried, Wotan’s grandson, who wears the Ring of the Nibelung on his finger, the hero sent by God to save the world, dies in the forest. The murderer is Hagen, Alberich’s son, who was conceived to conquer power. Wagner composed Siegfried, a funeral march that holds the breath of the world, a requiem of leitmotifs. Even the superhumanity of Siegfried, the ‘most marvellous hero in the world’, strengthened by the love of Brünnhilde, the now human daughter of the gods, can no longer change things for the better.

The world is out of joint, dominated by greed, deceit, revenge, fear and desolation. Alberich’s ring curse has come true, Erda’s warning has been fulfilled. Wotan’s spear has been smashed, the gods are defenceless and helpless at the mercy of Alberich’s claim to power, nature has been robbed of its regulating powers. The “Ring” world is at an end, the conflict of the father of the gods between utopia and reality can no longer be resolved.

Wagner lets all history sink into a sea of sound: a purifying world fire. The utopia will nevertheless endure. As a young court conductor, Wagner himself stood fearlessly on the revolutionary barricades in burning Dresden, hand grenades at his side. At the end of his life, he shows Wotan as a tragic, unsurvivable figure. These contradictions must be endured. In the past, today and in the future.

PREMIERE: 23 April 2017