FanFaire celebrates Richard Wagner and the Ring of the Nibelung I.

Richard Wagner's RING OF THE NIBELUNG
(Der Ring des Nibelungen)

IMAGE: Wagner's Ring Cycle - scenes from the Metropolitan Opera production

(From photos by Johan Elbers and Winnie Klotz, courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)

Der Ring des Nibelungen is Richard Wagner's masterwork. It is thought to be the most monumental work of art to be created by one mind. It all started with his idea for a dramatic poem to be set in music which he entitled "Siegfried's Death", and was inspired by the story of a hero's death as told in the "Nibelungenlied" - the tales of Germanic mythology:

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The hero Siegfried (descended from both gods and humans), while under the spell of a love potion, betrays the woman he loves - the goddess-turned mortal Brünnhilde. In vengeance she plots his death, but in the end she realizes the truth and her all-consuming love compels her to leap into the hero's funeral pyre to become one with him in death.

She returns her symbol of love, the RING that Siegfried gave her, back into the river Rhine to be reclaimed by the Rhinemaidens, the rightful guardians of the gold from which the RING was forged. By her immolation, Brünnhilde redeems the world; and by returning the RING, cleanses it of the curse: the curse of death that Alberich, chief Nibelung - god of the Underworld, renouncer of love, and stealer of the Rhinegold - had wished upon whoever touched his RING of power.

Wotan, Brünnhilde's father and supreme god of the skies, whose lust for power drove him to rob the Nibelung of his RING, perishes as well taking all of his kingdom Valhalla down with him. And so, with the RING back where it should never have been taken from, the cycle completes itself. In the end, love reigns over evil and the old world crumbles, giving way to the new. -- © GCajipe /FanFaire

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Wagner	Operas	RingCycle	RingDiscs

A WAGNER DISCOGRAPHY SUGGESTED READING CREDITS
RING AT THE MET BRÜNNHILDE OF OUR TIME LORD OF THE RING

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