16 November 2021
Der Ring des Nibelungen
In the media libraries of ARD Kultur and Marquee TV
As part of their collaboration, which has already been successful several times, Deutsche Oper and Naxos recorded the two cycles of the RING DES NIBELUNGEN audio visually in November 2021. Other production partners include Norwegian Television NRK, the online platform MarqueeTV and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg. After post-production of the recording, the RING DES NIBELUNGEN will be available in Germany on the ARD Mediathek until 13 July 2022 and from now on internationally on MarqueeTV for a longer period. In autumn 2022, Naxos will release the RING cycle in a DVD or Blu-ray box set.
Welcome
17 November 2021
Die Walküre
Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles; With Brandon Jovanovich, Tobias Kehrer, Iain Paterson, Elisabeth Teige, Annika Schlicht, Nina Stemme, Flurina Stucki, Aile Asszonyi, Antonia Ahyoung Kim, Simone Schröder, Ulrike Helzel, Karis Tucker, Anna Lapkovskaja, Beth Taylor, Eric Naumann
19 November 2021
Siegfried
Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles; With Clay Hilley, Ya-Chung Huang, Iain Paterson, Jordan Shanahan, Tobias Kehrer, Judit Kutasi, Nina Stemme, Soloist of the Knabenchor der Chorakademie Dortmund
21 November 2021
Götterdämmerung
Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles; With Clay Hilley, Thomas Lehman, Jordan Shanahan, Albert Pesendorfer, Nina Stemme, Aile Asszonyi, Okka von der Damerau, Anna Lapkovskaja, Karis Tucker, Meechot Marrero
Eight questions … to Sir Donald Runnicles
Sir Donald Runnicles, General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducts Stefan Herheim’s production of Wagner’s RING.
»The New Beginning of the End«
THE RHINEGOLD is set in a mythical, distant past, populated not by humans, but gods and dwarves. What does this pre-historic past mean to us? ... Questions to the director about the RING.
Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf
An introductory lecture on: Das Rheingold
The eve of the RING is reserved for mythical figures: Gods, dwarves and giants open the struggle for power that will later also determine the fate of mankind. And already here it becomes clear that the unbridled lust for power ultimately only claims victims.
Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf
An introductory lecture on: Die Walküre
People are frozen in a lust for power, mistrust and possessiveness, the gods limit themselves only to monitoring compliance with the old laws instead of questioning their meaning. Thus, the brother and sister Siegmund and Sieglinde are abandoned to death, and the Valkyrie Brünnhilde also falls under the spell when she dares to defy the verdict of her father Wotan.
Questions to Stefan Herheim
"All that lives loves change and transformation. That play I cannot forgo."
It’s precisely this collective humanity that we make into the nucleus of a play. This is acted out among fugitives who have lost their home and are now searching for it in myth. All parts of the RING revolve around the powerlessness of love and the lovelessness of power, and all players are at the mercy of its deceptive mechanisms.
With Jörg Königsdorf
An introductory lecture: Siegfried
Wagner described his SIEGFRIED as a "heroic comedy", which is still a challenge for its directors today in its balance between comic and tragic elements. For Herheim, it is the act of the play that joins the opposites into a whole. The boundaries between animal and human become as blurred as those between the characters and their creator.Our video recommendations
video - 03:06 min.
Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold
video - 02:56 min.
Richard Wagner: Die Walküre
video - 02:30 min.
Richard Wagner: Siegfried
video - 02:59 min.
Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung
Topics
Annika Schlicht: A place of serenity for my soul … The museum
Mezzo-soprano Annika Schlicht sings Fricka in Wagner’s THE RHINEGOLD. To get into her roles, she looks to classical art for inspiration – and finds characters that exude timeless truths.
Clay Hilley: A place of serenity for my soul … my suitcase
Tenor Clay Hilley sings the title role in Wagner’s SIEGFRIED. Here he describes his transient life – and how he can feel at home wherever he hangs his hat.
An essay by Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach
“Luminous love, laughing death!”
Laughing plays a notable role in the RING. It occurs over a hundred times in the libretto and the stage directions of the tetralogy – over three dozen times in SIEGFRIED alone – not including Mime’s laughter composed on one note “Hihihi”, his sniggering, or the orchestra’s reprise of the latter. Essentially laughter can be construed as having two meanings in the RING: mockery and joy.
Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf
An introductory lecture: Götterdämmerung
A group of people are on the run, pause and try to find their footing in the world again through the act of playing. This is how Stefan Herheim's retelling of the RING DES NIBELUNGEN begins, which now finds its conclusion in the here and now in the last part of the tetralogy. A game unfolds that must end with the downfall of a world so that it can start all over again.
Questions to ... Ya-Chung Huang
Ya-Chung Huang grew up in Taiwan and acquired German as an adult learner. In SIEGFRIED he sings the role of the evil dwarf, Mime. Here we asked seven questions to the tenor.
Stefan Herheim in conversation with Jörg Königsdorf
Do we really want to change the world?
How is a better world supposed to be created without great yearning? The final verbal statement is “Keep away from the Ring!” but it’s the music that has the last word. The intrinsic meaning of the “hehrstes Wunder” motif (“sublimest wonder”) must ultimately remain open, as our redemption cannot be materialized on the stage in sublime art. And so the question remains of whether we really want to change the world.
