'''Der Ring des Nibelungen''', ('''The Ring of the Nibelung'''), is a
cycle of four
epic music dramas by the German composer
Richard Wagner. The
operas are based loosely on characters from the
Norse sagas and the
Nibelungenlied. The works are often referred to as "The Ring Cycle", "Wagner's Ring", or simply "The Ring".
Wagner wrote the
libretti and
music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four operas that constitute the Ring cycle are, in the order of the imagined events they portray:
★ ''
Das Rheingold'' (''The Rhinegold'')
★ ''
Die Walküre'' (''The Valkyrie'')
★ ''
Siegfried''
★ ''
Götterdämmerung'' (''Twilight of the Gods'')
Although individual operas are performed as works in their own right, a full understanding of the story of the Ring cycle requires attendance at all four operas, which is considered a worthy goal among Wagner fans.
The Title
Wagner's title is rendered in English as ''The Ring of the Nibelung''. However the word
''Nibelung'' frequently confuses English speakers, resulting in misunderstanding of the German title, the English title, or how to use the word outside the title. The word Nibelung is in the singular. The Nibelung of the title is the
dwarf Alberich, and the Ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhinegold. The title therefore means "Alberich's Ring".
[1]
Content
The cycle is a work of extraordinary scale. Perhaps the most outstanding facet of the monumental work is its sheer length: a full performance of the cycle takes place over four nights at the opera, with a total playing time of about 15 hours, depending on the
conductor's pacing. The first and shortest opera, ''Das Rheingold'', typically lasts two and a half hours, while the final and longest, ''Götterdämmerung'', can take up to five hours in performance.
The cycle is modelled after ancient
Greek dramas that were presented as three tragedies and one
satyr play. The ''Ring'' properly begins with ''Die Walküre'' and ends with ''Götterdämmerung'', with ''Rheingold'' as a
prelude. Wagner called ''Das Rheingold'' a ''Vorabend'' or "Preliminary Evening", and ''Die Walküre'', ''Siegfried'' and ''
Götterdämmerung'' were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, of the
trilogy proper.
The scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of
gods,
heroes, and several mythical creatures, over the eponymous magic Ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continues through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of ''Götterdämmerung''.
The music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an
orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the
Wagner tuba,
bass trumpet and
contrabass trombone. He eventually had a purpose-built theatre (the
Bayreuth Festspielhaus) constructed in
Bayreuth in which to perform this work. The theatre had a special stage which blended the huge orchestra with the singers' voices, allowing them to sing at a natural volume. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during the long performances. The acoustics of this performance space are among the best in the world. In other performance venues singers sometimes find it difficult to achieve this balance between voice and orchestra.
Story
The plot revolves around a magic ring that grants the power to rule the world, forged by the
Nibelung dwarf Alberich from gold stolen from the river
Rhine. Several mythic figures struggle for possession of the Ring, including
Wotan (Odin), the chief of the
Gods. Wotan's scheme, spanning generations, to overcome his limitations, drives much of the action in the story. The hero
Siegfried wins the Ring, as Wotan intended, but is eventually betrayed and slain. Finally, the
Valkyrie Brünnhilde, Siegfried's lover and Wotan's estranged daughter, returns the Ring to the Rhine. In the process, the Gods are destroyed.
For a detailed plot synopsis, see the articles for the individual operas.
Wagner created the story of the ''Ring'' by fusing elements from many
German and
Scandinavian myths and
folk tales. The
Old Norse ''
Eddas'' supplied much of the material for ''Das Rheingold'', while ''Die Walküre'' was largely based on the ''
Volsunga saga''. ''Siegfried'' contains elements from the ''Eddas'', the ''Volsunga Saga'' and ''
Thidreks saga''. The final opera, ''Götterdämmerung'', draws from the
12th century High German poem known as the ''
Nibelungenlied'', which appears to have been the original inspiration for the ''Ring'', and for which the cycle was named. (For a detailed examination of Wagner's sources for the Ring, and his treatment of them, see among other works
Deryck Cooke's unfinished study of the ''Ring'', ''I Saw the World End'', and Ernest Newman's ''Wagner Nights''. Also useful is a translation by Stewart Spencer (''Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung: Companion'', edited by Barry Millington) which, as well as containing essays--including one on the source material--provides an
English translation of the entire text which seeks to remain faithful to the early medieval
Stabreim technique Wagner used.)
In weaving these disparate sources into a coherent tale, Wagner injected many contemporary concepts. One of the principal themes in the ''Ring'' is the struggle of
love, which is also associated with
Nature and
freedom, against
power, which is associated with
civilization and
law. In the very first scene of the ''Ring'', the scorned dwarf Alberich sets the plot in motion by renouncing love, an act that allows him to acquire the power to rule the world by means of forging a magical ring. In the last scene of that opera this ring of power is taken from him, so he places a curse on it: “Whosoever holds the ring, by the ring they shall be enslaved.”
Since its inception, the ''Ring'' has been subjected to a plethora of interpretations.
George Bernard Shaw, in , argues for a view of the ''Ring'' as an essentially
socialist critique of
industrial society and its abuses. Robert Donington in ''Wagner's Ring and its Symbols'' interprets it in terms of
Jungian psychology as an account of the development of
unconscious archetypes in the mind, leading towards
individuation.
Peter Kjærulff, in ''The Ringbearer's Diary'', interprets the ''Ring'' as an attempt to expose a structure of ideas he refers to as
The Cursed Ring, which he also links to
J. R. R. Tolkien's ''
The Lord of the Rings'' and
Herodotus's ''The
Ring of Gyges''.
Music
In his previous operas, Wagner had tried to disguise the song breaks as part of the music. For the ''Ring'' he decided to adopt a
through-composed style, where each act of each opera would be a complete song with no breaks whatsoever. In the essay
Opera and Drama[2] (1852) Wagner describes the way in which poetry, music and the visual arts should combine to form what he called ''The Artwork of the Future''. He called these artworks "music-dramas", and thereafter very rarely referred to his works as operas.
As a new foundation for his music-dramas, Wagner adopted the use of what he called ''Grundthemen'', or "base themes", although they are usually referred to elsewhere as
leitmotifs. These are recurring
melodies and/or
harmonic progressions, sometimes tied to a particular
key and often to a particular
orchestration. They musically denote an action, object, emotion, character or other subject mentioned in the text and/or presented onstage. Wagner referred to them in ''Opera and Drama'' as "guides-to-feeling", and described how they could be used to inform the listener of a musical or dramatic subtext to the action onstage in the same way as a
Greek Chorus did for
Attic Drama. While other composers before Wagner had already used leitmotifs, the ''Ring'' was unique in the extent to which they were employed, and in the ingeniousness of their combination and development.
Any important subject in ''The Ring'' is usually accompanied by a leitmotif; indeed, there are long stretches of music which are constructed exclusively from them. One such example occurs in ''
Götterdämmerung'': Siegfried's journey down the river Rhine is described first through a rhapsody on the Siegfried theme which then merges into the Rhine theme and finally into the motifs denoting the Gibichung Hall. There are dozens of individual motifs scattered throughout the ''Ring''. They often occur as a musical reference to a presentation of their subject onstage, or to a direct reference in the text, or more subtly implied by the text. Many of them appear in several operas, and some even in all four. Sometimes, as in the character of the Woodbird, a cluster of motives is associated with a single character.
As the cycle progresses, and especially from the third act of ''
Siegfried'' on, these motives are presented in increasingly sophisticated combinations. Wagner also used his father-in-law
Franz Liszt's technique of "metamorphosis of themes" to effect a dynamic development of many leitmotifs into quite different ones with a life all of their own. A clear example occurs in the transition from the first to the second scene of ''
Das Rheingold'', in which the musical theme associated with the ring of power, newly forged, transforms into that of
Valhalla, Wotan's just-completed fortress, intended as a base from which he as chief of the gods can impose his law on the world, embodied by his spear. Thus an implication is made which is left unstated in the libretto; but regardless of how a listener might make the implied connection by associating the "ring" motive with Valhalla (which will be destroyed along with the ring), the burden of the argument at this point is entirely musical. The most important result of this kind of technique is the setting up of an infinitely complex web of musico-conceptual associations which continues to provide material for discussion.
Aspects of the leitmotif system did attract criticism for being too obvious. Some have misunderstood the function of leitmotives, imagining that they are simply to inform the listener which character, object or idea has just arrived on stage or been mentioned, but this is no more what leitmotives are for than, for example, Debussy wrote "La Mer" to describe the sea to people who hadn't seen it for themselves. Several critics, such as
Theodor Adorno in his essay ''In Search of Wagner'', have speculated that Wagner himself did not know how to end the cycle, and merely spun together a few obvious motives. Adorno claimed that the final bars of the Ring (the so-called "Redemption through love" motif) were only used because they were the most beautiful sounding.
George Bernard Shaw dismissed this motif, saying ''"the gushing effect which is its sole valuable quality is so cheaply attained that it is hardly going too far to call it the most trumpery phrase in the entire tetralogy"''.
The advances in
orchestration and
tonality Wagner made in this work are of seminal importance in the history of Western music. He wrote for a very large orchestra, with a palette of seventeen different instrumental families used singly or in a myriad of combinations to express the great range of emotion and events of the drama. Wagner even went so far as to commission the production of new instruments, including the
Wagner tuba, invented to fill a gap he found between the tone qualities of the French horn and the trombone, as well as variations of existing instruments, such as the
bass trumpet and a
contrabass trombone with a double slide.
In addition Wagner weakened traditional tonality to the extent that most of the ''Ring'', especially from ''Siegfried'' Act III onwards, cannot be said to be in traditionally defined "
keys", but rather in "key areas", each of which flow smoothly into the following one. This fluidity avoided the musical equivalent of "full stops" or "periods", and was an important part of the style that enabled Wagner to build the work's huge structures - ''
Das Rheingold'' is unbroken at two-and-a-half hours long. Tonal indeterminacy was heightened by the vastly increased freedom with which he used
dissonance. Simple major or minor (i.e. consonant)
chords are rare in the ''Ring'', and this work, together with ''
Tristan und Isolde,'' is frequently cited as a milestone on the way to
Arnold Schoenberg's revolutionary break with the traditional concept of key and his rejection of consonance as the basis of an organising principle in music.
List of Characters
★ The Gods
★
★
Wotan, ''King of the Gods (God of light, air, and wind)'' (bass-baritone)
★
★
Fricka, ''Wotan's consort, goddess of marriage'' (mezzo-soprano)
★
★
Freia, ''Fricka's sister, goddess of love/youth'' (soprano)
★
★
Donner, ''Fricka's brother, god of thunder'' (baritone)
★
★
Froh, ''Fricka's brother, god of spring/happiness'' (tenor)
★
★
Erda, ''goddess of wisdom/Earth'' (contralto)
★
★
Loge, ''demigod of fire'' (tenor in ''Das Rheingold'', represented musically elsewhere)
★
★ The
Norns, ''the weavers of fate, daughters of Erda'' (contralto, mezzo-soprano, soprano)
★ The
Wälsungs, offspring of Wotan (disguised as Wälse) and a mortal woman
★
★
Siegmund (tenor)
★
★
Sieglinde, ''his twin sister'' (soprano)
★
★
Siegfried, ''son of Siegmund and Sieglinde'' (tenor)
★ The
Valkyries, warrior-maidens, daughters of Wotan and Erda
★
★
Brünnhilde (soprano)
★
★ Waltraute (mezzo-soprano)
★
★ Helmwige (soprano)
★
★ Gerhilde (soprano)
★
★ Siegrune (mezzo-soprano)
★
★ Schwertleite (mezzo-soprano)
★
★ Ortlinde (soprano)
★
★ Grimgerde (mezzo-soprano)
★
★ Rossweisse (mezzo-soprano)
★ The Rhinemaidens
★
★ Woglinde (soprano)
★
★ Wellgunde (soprano)
★
★ Flosshilde (contralto)
★ Giants
★
★
Fasolt (bass-baritone)
★
★
Fafner, ''his brother, later turned into a dragon'' (bass)
★
Nibelungs
★
★
Alberich (baritone)
★
★
Mime, ''his brother, and Siegfried's foster father'' (tenor)
★ Mortals
★
★
Gunther, ''King of the Gibichungs, son of King Gibich and Queen Grimhilde'' (baritone)
★
★
Gutrune, ''his sister'' (soprano)
★
★
Hagen, ''their half-brother, son of Alberich and Queen Grimhilde'' (bass)
★
★ Hunding, ''Sieglinde's husband, chief of the Neidings'' (bass)
★ The Voice of a Woodbird (soprano)
Orchestration
Wagner scored the Ring for an exceptionally large orchestra, but was very specific about how many instruments should play each part. In the strings there are 16 first and 16 second
violins, 12
violas, 12
violoncellos and 12
double basses. The woodwinds include 3
flutes and 1
piccolo, 3
oboes and 1
cor anglais, 3
clarinets and 1
bass clarinet, and 3
bassoons (with a note that contrabassoon(s) should be used if the bassoons used are unable to play the low A occasionally required). The brass section contains 8
horns, the last four players doubling on 2 B flat tenor and 2 F bass
Wagner tubas, 3
trumpets and 1
bass trumpet as well as 3
tenorbass trombones, 1
contrabass trombone (doubling on
bass trombone) and 1 contrabass
tuba. The percussion section contains 2 pairs of
timpani, a
triangle, a pair of
cymbals, a
side drum and a
carillon or
glockenspiel. In
Das Rheingold, the orchestra is completed with 6
harps plus one offstage harp. In several sections of the cycle, Wagner also calls for a thunder machine, 18 anvils, offstage horns and several stierhorns.
History of the Ring Cycle
Composition of the text
Main articles: Der Ring des Nibelungen: Composition of the text
In
summer 1848 Wagner wrote ''The Nibelung Myth as Sketch for a Drama'', combining the medieval sources previously mentioned into a single narrative, very similar to the plot of the eventual ''Ring'' cycle, but nevertheless with substantial differences. Later that year he began writing a libretto entitled ''Siegfrieds Tod'' ("Siegfried's Death"). He was likely encouraged by a series of articles in the ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'', inviting composers to write a "national opera" based on the
Nibelungenlied, a
12th century High German poem which, since its rediscovery in 1755, had been hailed by the
German Romantics as the "German
national epic". ''Siegfrieds Tod'' dealt with the death of Siegfried, the central heroic figure of the
Nibelungenlied.
By 1850, Wagner had completed a musical sketch (which he abandoned) for ''Siegfrieds Tod''. He now felt that he needed a preliminary opera, ''Der junge Siegfried'' ("The Young Siegfried", later renamed to "Siegfried"), in order to explain the events in ''Siegfrieds Tod''. The verse draft of ''Der junge Siegfried'' was completed in May 1851. By October, he had made the momentous decision to embark on a cycle of four operas, to be played over four nights: ''Das Rheingold'', ''Die Walküre'', ''Der Junge Siegfried'' and ''Siegfrieds Tod''.
The text for all four operas was completed in December 1852, and privately published in February 1853.
Composition of the music
Main articles: Der Ring des Nibelungen: Composition of the music
In November
1853, Wagner began the composition draft of ''Das Rheingold''. Unlike the verses, which were written as it were in reverse order, the music would be composed in the same order as the narrative. Composition proceeded until 1857, when the final score up to the end of Act II of ''Siegfried'' was completed. Wagner then laid the work aside for twelve years, during which he wrote
Tristan und Isolde and
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
By 1869, Wagner was living at
Tribschen on
Lake Lucerne, sponsored by
King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He returned to ''Siegfried'', and, remarkably, was able to pick up where he left off. In October, he completed the final opera in the cycle. He chose the title ''Götterdämmerung'' instead of ''Siegfried's Tod'' for this opera. In the completed work the gods are destroyed in accordance with the new pessimistic thrust of the cycle, not redeemed as in the more optimistic originally planned ending. Wagner also decided to show onstage the events of ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre'', which had hitherto only been presented as back-narration in the other two operas. These changes resulted in some discrepancies in the cycle, but these do not diminish the value of the work.
Performances
First productions
On King Ludwig's insistence, and over Wagner's objections, "special previews" of ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre'' were given at the National Theatre in Munich, before the rest of the Ring. Thus, ''Das Rheingold'' premiered on
September 22 1869, and ''Die Walküre'' on
June 26 1870. Wagner subsequently delayed announcing his completion of
Siegfried in order to prevent this opera, too, being premiered against his wishes.
Wagner had long desired to have a special festival opera house, designed by himself, for the performance of the Ring. In 1871, he decided on a location in the
Bavarian town of
Bayreuth. In 1872, he moved to Bayreuth, and the foundation stone was laid. Wagner would spend the next two years attempting to raise capital for the construction, with scant success; King Ludwig finally rescued the project in 1874 by donating the needed funds. The
Bayreuth Festspielhaus opened in 1876 with the first complete performance of the Ring, which took place from
August 13 to
August 17.
Notable Contemporary productions
The complete cycle is performed most years at the
Bayreuth Festival: the first staging of a new production becomes a society event attended by many important and popular people like politicians, actors, musicians and sportsmen. Tickets are hard to get and are often reserved years in advance.
The Ring is a major undertaking for any opera company: staging four interlinked operas requires a huge commitment both artistically and financially. In most opera houses, production of a new Ring cycle will happen over a number of years, with one or two operas in the cycle being added each year. Bayreuth is unusual in that a new cycle is almost always created within a single year. The Ring cycle has been staged by opera companies in many different ways. Early productions often stayed close to Wagner's original
Bayreuth staging. Trends set at Bayreuth have continued to be influential. Following the closure of the Festspielhaus during the
Second World War, the 1950s saw productions by Wagner's grandsons Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner (known as the 'New Bayreuth' style) which emphasised the human aspects of the drama in a more abstract setting. Perhaps the most famous modern production was the centennial production of 1976 directed by
Patrice Chéreau and conducted by
Pierre Boulez. Set in the
industrial revolution, it replaced the depths of the Rhine with a hydroelectric power dam and featured grimy sets populated by men and gods in business suits. This drew heavily on the reading of the Ring as a revolutionary drama and critique of the modern world, famously described by George Bernard Shaw in 'The Perfect Wagnerite'. Early performances were booed, but the production is now often regarded as revolutionary. Ring productions tend to fall into two camps: those which try to remain fairly close to Wagner's original stage design and direction, and those which seek to re-interpret the Ring for modern audiences, often inserting stage pictures and action which Wagner himself might not recognise. The production by
Peter Hall, conducted by
Georg Solti at
Bayreuth in 1983 is an example of the former, while the production by
Richard Jones at the
Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1994–1996, conducted by
Bernard Haitink, is an example of the latter.
Another interesting complete Ring cycle was begun in 2004, performed by the
English National Opera at the
Coliseum Theatre near
London's Trafalgar Square. The production is notable for its use of contemporary minimalist sets and costumes. Many of the scenes look like rooms from
Ikea and indeed the production is sponsored by the
MFI furniture company.
Certain opera companies, such as the
Seattle Opera, produce entirely new Ring cycles every 4 to 6 years. Seattle Opera's next cycle will be performed in August 2009.
The
Lyric Opera of Chicago, under the direction of
Sir Andrew Davis, performed three complete cycles of ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' in the 2004–2005 season to mark the company's 50th anniversary.
2004 saw the first full
Australian production of the Ring Cycle, in
Adelaide. The corresponding recordings are the first from the cycle to be released in the
SACD format.
The
Canadian Opera Company conducted its first complete Ring Cycle in 2006 upon the opening of the new
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. This production is notable for the stage direction by prominent, worldwide known Canadian film directors
Atom Egoyan and
François Girard.
The
Royal Danish Opera performed a complete Ring cycle in May 2006 in its new waterfront home, the
Copenhagen Opera House. This version of the ring tells the story from the viewpoint of Brunhilde and has a distinct feminist angle. For example, in a key scene in Die Walkure, it is Sieglinde and not Siegmund who manages to pull the sword Notung out of a tree. At the end of the cycle, Brunhilde does not die, but instead gives birth to Siegfried's child.
The touring "Russian Ring," created at the
Kirov Opera in
Saint Petersburg in 2003, was brought to New York's
Metropolitan Opera by principal guest conductor
Valery Gergiev in July 2007. It has also been seen at Cardiff, Wales, and Costa Mesa, California.
In 2008,
San Francisco Opera will be presenting an "American Ring" cycle in a co-production with the
Washington National Opera, directed by Francesca Zambello. March 2006 saw the premiere of this cycle's production of ''Das Rheingold'' at the
Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
It is possible to perform The Ring with fewer resources than usual. In 1990, the City of Birmingham Touring Opera (now
Birmingham Opera Company), presented a two-evening adaptation (by
Jonathan Dove) for a limited number of solo singers, each doubling several roles, and 18 orchestral players. This version made its American premiere at the
Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, in
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Subsequently, it was performed in full at
Long Beach Opera in January 2006, and was performed in full with the
Opera Theater of Pittsburgh in July 2006.
Recordings of the complete Ring Cycle
The complete Ring Cycle has been performed many times, but relatively few full commercial recordings exist, probably due to financial considerations. The four operas together take about 14 hours, which makes for a lot of records, tapes, or CDs, and a lot of studio time. For this reason, many full Ring recordings are the result of "unofficial" recording of live performances, particularly from
Bayreuth where new productions are often broadcast by German radio. Live recordings, especially those in
monaural, may have very variable sound but often preserve the excitement of a performance better than a studio recording.
Here are some of the best-known and most appreciated recordings of the complete Ring Cycle:
★
Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the
La Scala Opera Orchestra, 1950. Recorded live. Mono sound. [Music & Arts]
★ Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro della Radio Italiana (
RAI orchestra and chorus), 1953. Recorded live. Mono sound. [EMI]
★
Clemens Krauss conducting the
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1953. Recorded live. Mono sound. [Gala, Archipel]
★
Joseph Keilberth conducting the
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1955. Recorded live. Stereo sound. [Testament]
★ Joseph Keilberth conducting the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1952 and 1953. Recorded live. Mono sound. Various labels.
★
Hans Knappertsbusch conducting the
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1956. Recorded live. Mono sound. [Music & Arts]
★ Hans Knappertsbusch conducting the
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1958. Recorded live. Mono sound. [Melodram]
★
Georg Solti conducting the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, 1958–1965. Recorded in the studio. Stereo sound. [Decca/Polygram records]/
★
Herbert von Karajan conducting the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 1966–1970. Recorded in the studio. Stereo sound. [Deutsche Grammophon/Polygram]
★
Karl Böhm conducting the
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1967. Recorded live. Stereo sound. [Philips]
★
Hans Swarowsky conducting the
Großes Symphonieorchester, 1968. Recorded in the studio. Stereo sound (Remastered in 1995). [Weltbild Verlag]
★
Reginald Goodall conducting the
English National Opera Orchestra, 1975. Recorded live. Stereo sound. Sung in
English, using
Andrew Porter's translation. [Chandos]
★
Pierre Boulez conducting the
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1980–1981. Recorded live. Stereo sound. [Philips]
★
Marek Janowski conducting the
Staatskapelle Dresden, 1980–1983. Recorded in the studio. Stereo sound. [RCA]
★
Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting the
Bayerische Staatsoper, 1989. Recorded live. Stereo sound. [EMI Classics]
★
James Levine conducting the
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, 1987–1989. Recorded in the studio. Stereo sound. [EMI Classics]
★
Günter Neuhold conducting the
Badische Staatskapelle, 1993–1995. Recorded live at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Stereo sound. [Bella Musica, Documents]
The Solti recording was the first stereo studio recording of the complete cycle, and it remains popular. First-time buyers looking for a Ring recording are often recommended the Solti CDs, and in a poll on the
BBC's long running radio programme "CD Review", this set was voted as the greatest recording of the 20th century.
[3] Although Solti's was the first ''studio'' stereo recording, the cycle had previously been recorded live in stereo by
Decca engineers at the Bayreuth Festival in 1955 under the baton of
Joseph Keilberth. Although unavailable for over 50 years, this cycle has now been issued on CD and vinyl by Testament to great critical acclaim.
The Ring cycle is also available in a number of video or DVD presentations. These include:
★
Pierre Boulez conducting the
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1980–1981. [Philips]
★
James Levine conducting the
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, 1990.
[Deutsche Grammophon 073 043-9]
★
Daniel Barenboim conducting the
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, 1991–1992 [Warner Classics]
★
Bertrand de Billy conducting the Orchestra of the
Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2006 [BBC Opus Arte]
The first three of these are also available as audio recordings.
The Ring in popular culture
''Der Ring des Nibelungen'', because of its size and seriousness, lends itself well to
parody. One well-known parody is
Looney Tunes' ''
What's Opera, Doc?'' in which
Bugs Bunny plays Brünnhilde and
Elmer Fudd plays Siegfried. (A lesser known 1943 Looney Tunes cartoon, "Herr meets Hare," which was never re-released after the war, stars an unlikely pairing of Hermann Goering playing Siegfried and Bugs playing, again, Brünnhilde, in an almost identical sequence as 'What's Opera, Doc?', including Bugs on an absurdly fat horse.)
CD of Anna Russell's
"Der Ring des Nibelungen
(An Analysis)"
's "The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis)" is not really a parody, since it follows Wagner's story and actually discusses many of the Ring's leitmotifs as academically as she makes them entertaining. However, Russell draws attention to some of the more unusual elements in the plot that people often miss, to the delight of her audience.
Anthony Burgess's version of the Ring Cycle is the 1961 novel ''
The Worm and the Ring'', which transposes the action to an Oxfordshire grammar school.
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings appears to borrow some elements from ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''; however, Tolkien himself denied that he had been inspired by Wagner's work, saying that "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." The resemblance comes about because Tolkien and Wagner both drew upon the ''
Völsunga saga'' and the ''
Poetic Edda''.
References
★ Cooke, Derek, ''I Saw the World End: A Study of Wagner's Ring''. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
★ Di Gaetani, John Louis, ''Penetrating Wagner's Ring: An Anthology''. New York: Da Capo Press, 1978.
★ Gregor-Dellin, Martin, (1983) ''Richard Wagner: His Life, His Work, His Century.'' Harcourt, ISBN 0-15-177151-0
★ Holman, J.K. ''Wagner's Ring: A Listener's Companion and Concordance''. Portland OR: Amadeus Press, 2001.
★ Lee, M. Owen, (1994) ''Wagner's Ring: Turning the Sky Round.'' Amadeus Press, ISBN 978-0879101862
★ Magee, Bryan, (2001) ''The
Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy.'' Metropolitan Books, ISBN 0-8050-6788-4
★ Magee, Bryan, (1988) ''Aspects of Wagner.'' Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-284012-6
★ Millington, Barry (editor)(2001) ''The Wagner Compendium.'' Thames and Hudson, ISBN 0-500-28274-9
★ Sabor, Rudolph, (1997) ''Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen: a companion volume.'' Phaidon Press, ISBN 0-7148-3650-8
★ Spotts, Frederick, (1999) ''Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival.'' Yale University Press ISBN 0-7126-5277-9
★ Shaw, George Bernard (1883) ''The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Nibelungen's Ring.''
[1]
Source notes
1. Magee, Bryan, (2001) ''The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy.'' Metropolitan Books, ISBN 0-8050-7189-X page 109.
2. http://users.belgacom.net/wagnerlibrary/prose/wlpr0063.htm
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/cdreview/pip/4wwtd/
External links
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