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A quick overview of Richard Wagner’s epic 15-hour four-opera cycle.

Premiered

1869 (Das Rheingold)
1870 (Die Walküre)
1876 (Siegfried)
1876 (Götterdämmerung)

Music by

Richard Wagner

Libretto by

Richard Wagner

Language

German

Influenced chiefly by the great Scandinavian and Germanic epics but also by Greek mythology, Richard Wagner laid the groundwork for his magnum opus, Der Ring des Nibelungen (also known as the Ring cycle), in 1848 at the age of 35. He first assembled a libretto for Siegfrieds Tod (later renamed Götterdämmerung) in 1848, followed by Der junge Siegfried (renamed Siegfried) in 1851, and finally Die Walküre and Das Rheingold from 1851–52.

While Wagner wrote the libretti for the Ring in reverse order, he composed the music for this all-encompassing project in linear fashion, completing work on the full saga in 1874. The composer’s plans for the Ring cycle were so ambitious that Wagner had to build his own specially designed opera house in Bayreuth to do justice to its theatrical and musical demands.

Das Rheingold was the first of the Ring operas to be staged, premiering in Munich on September 22, 1869. Although Wagner called the opera a “preliminary evening” to the Ring cycle, Das Rheingold is a significant art work in its own right and was the first of Wagner’s compositions to adhere to the philosophical principles outlined in Oper und Drama.

Die Walküre is the second of the four operas that make up Wagner’s Ring cycle. The composer had long been attracted to the legend of Siegfried, the great hero of Norse mythology. Die Walküre, the most popular of the four operas and the one that most easily stands alone. It contains some of the composer’s most brilliant moments, including the “Ride of the Valkyries,” the “Magic Fire Music,” and Wotan’s farewell.

Wagner intended the Ring to embody his vision of a revolutionary new kind of opera—a “synthesis of the arts.” The story he concocted is a synthesis in its own right, mixing an extraordinary array of disparate source material. Wagner drew from ancient Nordic myth, medieval German epic, a variety of sagas and fairy-tales, and even modern folklore scholarship and commentary on these sources.

This hybrid aspect is particularly apparent in Siegfried. The dragon-slaying hero is featured in several of the medieval sagas based on pre-literary traditions that Wagner used, most notably including the epic German Nibelungenlied and the Icelandic Völsunga Saga. In a creative flash, Wagner fused Siegfried’s family tree with the gods and their cycle of destruction as depicted in the Eddas—written texts that recount stories from pre-Christian Nordic mythology—and thus forged a completely new story linking the supernatural and human realms.

Götterdämmerung is the last of the four operas that comprise Wagner’s Ring cycle. While all of the operas in the Ring cycle exemplify Wagner’s affinity for thematic linking through his creation of leitmotifs, it was not until Götterdämmerung that this skill reached such complexity that each key, modulation, and harmony was designed to play a dramatic role, responding to and pointing towards some action or emotional state or idea.

The composition of the full cycle was an epic journey that took Wagner 27 years to complete. After hearing Götterdämmerung for the first time, Gustav Mahler is rumored to have remarked, “It is the devil’s own work. No mortal could have created such a thing.”

Scored for an immense orchestra, which Wagner uses with the utmost complexity as well as delicacy, and demanding unprecedented power and stamina from its principal singers, the Ring cycle was a deliberate and successful attempt to create a new art form, the music-drama.

Scene I

The three Rhinemaidens, guardians of the river’s golden treasure, laugh and play, scarcely noticing the Nibelung Alberich. The lustful Alberich tries with no avail to catch the Rhinemaidens as they dart through the waters, taunting him. Suddenly, sunlight illuminates the river’s treasure, the Rhinegold.

The Rhinemaidens explain that this gold is all-powerful: if fashioned into a Ring, its wearer would rule the world. But, they insist that the gold is safe, since whoever would steal the treasure must renounce love. Hearing this secret, Alberich renounces love and escapes with the Rhinegold. The waters are plunged into darkness as the Rhinemaidens lament their loss.

Scene II

As the sun rises, Fricka and Wotan are asleep on a mountaintop, while their new home, the fortress Valhalla, gleams in the distance. When they awaken, Wotan hails Valhalla as the fulfillment of his dreams. Fricka reproaches her husband for having promised her sister Freia to the giants Fafner and Fasolt as payment for constructing the fortress. Wotan replies that he never meant to keep his word and that Loge will help the gods solve their dilemma. When Fafner and Fasolt arrive to claim Freia, Wotan protests that he made the pact in jest, informing them that they must settle for another fee. But, Fasolt, smitten with Freia, balks. Fafner, aware that the gods would lose their eternal youth and power without Freia’s golden apples, decides to abduct her. As the giants drag Freia away, her brothers Froh and Donner attempt to thwart them. Wotan intervenes, reminding them that all treaties are guaranteed by the writings on his spear. Denied Freia’s golden apples, the gods begin to weaken and age.

Loge, who helped Wotan draw up the contract with the Fafner and Fasolt, arrives and suggests that the giants might find the Rhinegold an acceptable substitute for Freia. He then relates how Alberich stole the gold, forging it into a Ring in order to gain world dominance. Wotan is enthralled by the absolute power the Ring imparts; Fricka is intrigued by its power to keep a philandering husband faithful, so she urges Wotan to obtain it. Loge suggests that Wotan steal the gold, as Alberich did, and restore it to the Rhinemaidens. Fafner, desiring the gold, advises Wotan to use his wits to gain the treasure. The giants leave, taking Freia hostage until evening, when they will return to claim the Nibelung’s gold as ransom. Wotan asks Loge to accompany him to the nether world to seek Alberich’s treasure.

Scene III

In the dark underground caverns of Nibelheim, Alberich’s slaves clang their anvils as they work on his gold. Wearing the all-powerful Ring, Alberich torments his brother, Mime. Alberich tries on the Tarnhelm, the magical helmet Mime has forged, which can transform the wearer into any size or shape. Alberich uses the Tarnhelm to make himself invisible, thrashes Mime, and then vanishes to torment his slaves. Wotan and Loge arrive and encounter Mime, who confesses that he had hoped to regain the Ring he forged by using the Tarnhelm. Wotan and Loge offer to help the Nibelungs free themselves from Alberich’s tyranny.

Alberich returns, driving slaves bearing mounds of gold. He suspiciously questions Wotan and Loge, warning of his plan to overthrow the gods and rule the world. When Loge asks Alberich what would happen if someone stole the Ring while he slept, the Nibelung extols the powers of the Tarnhelm. Loge asks for a demonstration, and Alberich transforms himself into a large serpent, then back again. Loge asks whether the Tarnhelm could also transform him into something small—a toad, for instance. When Alberich demonstrates this, Wotan traps him and Loge seizes the Tarnhelm. Wotan and Loge bind Alberich and drag him to the surface of the earth.

Scene IV

Back on the mountaintop, Loge and Wotan tell Alberich that they will free him only if he yields his gold. Alberich feels sure that the Ring will replenish his fortune, so he orders his slaves to surrender the gold to Wotan. Alberich asks for the return of the Tarnhelm, but Loge says the gods will keep it. Wotan also demands the Ring as part of the booty, reminding Alberich that it was not rightfully his. Though Alberich replies that Wotan is as much a thief as he, Wotan tears the Ring from Alberich’s finger. As Loge frees Alberich, the Nibelung places a curse upon the Ring: until it returns to him, trouble, envy, and death will befall all who possess it.

Alberich leaves as the other gods approach, followed by the giants with their hostage, Freia. Saddened at losing Freia, Fasolt agrees to accept the Nibelung gold only if it will hide Freia from his view. When all the gold is piled in front of Freia, Fafner complains that he can still see her hair and demands that the Tarnhelm be added to the pile. Fasolt then complains that he can see the gleam of Freia’s eye, so Fafner demands the Ring, now on Wotan’s finger. When Wotan refuses, the giants begin to seize Freia. Erda, the earth goddess, suddenly appears and warns Wotan to yield the Ring, which spells doom for the gods. Wotan surrenders the Ring, and Freia is released. Fafner and Fasolt quarrel over their booty. Fafner kills Fasolt, claiming the Ring, the Tarnhelm, and the hoard for himself. Alberich’s curse has taken effect.

Fricka urges Wotan to turn his thoughts to their new home. Donner summons lightning and thunder to form a rainbow bridge to the fortress. Noting how the setting sun gilds it, Wotan tells Fricka their abode is called Valhalla. Wotan leads the other gods—all except Loge, who claims that they are doomed—across the rainbow bridge. The Rhinemaidens, in the valley below, lament their lost treasure.

Act 1

An exhausted fugitive seeks refuge in a dismal home built around a mighty tree. Sieglinde tends to her unexpected visitor. When her husband Hunding arrives home, the stranger relates his sad tale: attempting to protect a young woman from an unwanted arranged marriage, he killed her brothers and was then forced to escape her avenging kinsmen. Hunding reveals that he had been part of the hunting party searching for the stranger. He offers Siegmund shelter for the night, but advises him to prepare for a fight the next day.

Sieglinde drugs Hunding’s drink so that the stranger can flee to safety. She, too, had been an unwilling bride and remembers that at her wedding, an unknown old man had thrust a sword deep into a tree trunk, but no man had the strength to pull it out. The stranger realizes that this must be the sword his father had promised him and rejoices in reborn hope and newfound love for Sieglinde. Sieglinde recognizes him now as her long-lost twin brother, Siegmund. In great excitement, Siegmund triumphantly pulls the sword from the tree, and the lovers run off into the night.

Act 1

Mime has set up a metal forge in a deserted area near the spot where a transformed Fafner guards the Gold, the Ring, and the Tarnhelm. Siegfried demands a sword from Mime, but every weapon the Nibelung forges is easily shattered by Siegfried. Commanding Mime to reforge the fragments of a sword purportedly left to Siegfried by his deceased parents, the young man learns more from Mime about his heritage.

Wotan, who now wanders the world incognito, approaches Mime and challenges him to a battle of wits, proposing that they each pose three questions to the other. When Mime is unable to answer the final question, Wotan reveals to him that only a fearless person can reforge Siegfried’s sword and that same fearless person will kill Mime. After Wotan departs, the terrified Mime resolves to teach Siegfried fear in order to save himself. But Mime finds himself on the horns of a dilemma: if Siegfried learns fear, who will forge the sword that can kill Fafner and regain the golden hoard?

When Siegfried returns to Mime to claim his sword, Mime is eager to teach the young man to fear. Siegfried, still immune to fear, successfully reforges Siegmund’s sword and goes off with Mime to reclaim the golden hoard from Fafner. Mime has brewed a poisoned drink to offer to Siegfried after he triumphs over Fafner.

Prologue

On the Valkyries’ rock. Three Norns, daughters of Erda, spin the golden rope of world knowledge, which was once tied to the World Ash Tree before Wotan desecrated it to make his spear, thereby establishing his rule over the universe. Though the Norns try to keep the rope taut, it snaps—breaking the connection between past and future. As the Norns’ primeval wisdom comes to an end, the downfall of the gods becomes imminent. Siegfried and Brünnhilde, leading her horse Grane, emerge from a cave. Brünnhilde comments that her love for Siegfried would be false if she kept him from performing new heroic deeds, and the couple exchanges gifts to signify their fidelity. Brünnhilde gives Siegfried Grane, and Siegfried departs to pursue his heroic destiny, after putting the Ring of the Nibelung on her finger.

Act I

The hall of Gunther’s court on the Rhine. Alberich’s illegtimate son, Hagen, plots to regain the ring for his father. His legitimate half-siblings and the leaders of the Gibichungs, Gunther and Gutrune, have inherited the kingdom. Hagen advises them that they each must marry immediately in order to retain the respect of their subjects. Hagen suggests that Gunther marry Brünnhilde and that Gutrune marry Siegfried. Though interested, the siblings seem skeptical, and Hagen outlines his plan to supply Gutrune with an amnesiac potion which she will give to Siegfried to make him forget his past, including Brünnhilde. Once Gutrune has seduced the hero, they will convince him to woo Brünnhilde on Gunther’s behalf. The siblings agree as Siegfried’s horn is heard. Siegfried joins the court and wholly duped, drinks the potion. The siblings tell him of Gunther’s love for Brünnhilde, and the spellbound Siegfried agrees to disguise himself and woo Brünnhilde in Gunther’s place. Gunther and Siegfried immediately leave to find Brünnhilde and Hagen is left to guard the hall and savor his victory.

Meanwhile, Brünnhilde sits before her cave, awed by the wonder of the ring. She is approached by her sister Waltraute who tells her of Wotan’s resignation to the downfall of Valhalla. Despite Waltraute’s pleading, Brünnhilde refuses Wotan’s last wish: to free the gods from the curse by returning the ring to the Rhinemaidens. Brünnhilde argues that the ring symbolizes her eternal love for Siegfried and that she will never be parted from it. Waltraute departs distraught as Brünnhilde hears Siegfried’s approaching horn. Prepared for her true love, Brünnhilde is terrified when Siegfried, disguised as Gunther, appears through the flames and tears the ring from her finger. He forces her into the cave and lays his sword between them as proof that his wooing of Gunther’s bride is chaste.

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