Prologue

The Norns meet to remember the past and to look to the future. They try to piece together the fragments of their memories to a complete story and to understand its meaning, but they repeatedly lose the thread of the narrative.

Siegfried bids Brünnhilde farewell. She sends him off to prove his mettle with his new deeds. As a sign of his fidelity, Siegfried leaves Brünnhilde his ring. She offers him her horse, Grane.

Act one

Scene one

Gunther has achieved great power, but his half-brother Hagen thinks Gunther still lacks something necessary for great renown: a wife, and his sister Gutrune is also still unwed. Hagen knows just the right candidates: the beautiful Brünnhilde for Gunther and Siegfried for Gutrune. But to win over Brünnhilde requires daring boldness, and it would require great effort on Gutrune’s part to capture Siegfried, in case he surfaces.

Siegfried actually appears. Gunther receives him warmly and offers him his friendship. Gutrune offers the guest wine. Now, all he can dream about is Gutrune and asks Gunther for her hand in marriage. Gunther agrees to become his brother-in-law, but in return Siegfried should convince Brünnhilde to marry him. Siegfried agrees and reaffirms his alliance with Gunter, swearing their brotherhood in blood.

Hagen, Alberich’s illegitimate son, wants Siegfried’s help to obtain the ring that his father told him about, which grants endless power.

Scene two

Brünnhilde is surprisingly visited by the Valkyrie Waltraute, who reports to her that Walhall is in decline. Wotan has withdrawn entirely. Waltraute communicates Wotan’s last words: he asks Brünnhilde to return the ring to him. But Brünnhilde will have none of this: she wants to keep Siegfried’s present. Let Valhalla perish – she will not surrender the ring. Waltraute departs without success.

Brünnhilde can sense that Siegfried is returning. She runs toward him – and discovers to her horror a stranger before her. The new arrival tells Brünnhilde that she must become Gunther’s wife.

Brünnhilde tries to escape, but he overcomes her, tears the ring off her finger and forces her to follow him.

Act two

In the nightly darkness, Hagen’s son Alberich appears to him, trying to convince his son to take hold of the ring, now in Siegfried’s possession. He must destroy Siegfried.

Siegfried returns and reports to Hagen and Gutrune how he carried out his plan. Hagen summons everyone to announce the two upcoming weddings: Gutrune and Siegfried, Brünnhilde and Gunther.

Triumphantly, Gunther escorts in Brünnhilde, who, devastated, sees Siegfried at Gutrune’s side. Everyone takes note of Brünnhilde’s downheartedness. Brünnhilde discovers her ring on Siegfried’s finger and declares that she is Siegfried’s wife. Siegfried denies this – what is this infidelity of which she speaks? Her husband is Gunther. Brünnhilde publicly accuses him of lying. Siegfried calls on all to ignore this idle talk of a woman, and leads Gutrune off.

When the guests depart, Hagen convinces the aggrieved Brünnhilde to take vengeance against Siegfried.

Act three

Scene one

Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Floßhilde flirt with Siegfried and playfully ask him for the ring. Just when he’s about to give it to them, they become serious and warn Siegfried of the curse that threatens the owner of the ring: if Siegfried doesn’t give away the ring, he will die before sundown. But Siegfried sees things differently and refuses to give up the ring.

At Hagen’s request, Siegfried tells stories of his life to him, Gunther and their entourage: of his guardian Mime, the murder of Fafner, how he obtained the ring and helmet and found Brünnhilde. Hagen suddenly knocks him to the floor with a blow to the back. With a declaration of love for Brünnhilde on his lips, Siegfried dies.

Scene two

Gutrune has a sense of doom. Upon seeing the dead Siegfried, she is overcome with dismay. Hagen insolently demands the ring. A bitter fight erupts between Hagen and Gunther, which Brünnhilde brings to an end.

Brünnhilde declares that as Siegfried’s wife she has a right to his legacy, and has a funeral pyre prepared. She removes the ring from Siegfried’s finger and speaks of her love and Valhalla, engulfed in flames.

[Tcherniakov] überwältigt mit einem gigantischen Bühnenbild

Das Ensemble kann sich sehen und hören lassen, darstellerisch strotzt es nur so vor Spielfreude.

(rbb24)

Einhelliger Jubel für die durchweg famosen Sänger, die Staatskapelle und Dirigent Christian Thielemann […]

(B.Z.)

So frisch und genau wie Tcherniakov solche Szenen auf die Bühne bringt, ahnt man, dass er den Ring vor allem als einen Bilderbogen alles Menschlichen begreift.

Die Präzision, mit der Tcherniakov und seine Ausstatterin Elena Zaytseva die feinen Unterschiede innerhalb dieser Gesellschaft zeigen, ist fesselnd.

Beide [Anja Kampe als Bünnhilde und Michael Volle als Wotan] sind das Wunderpaar dieser Premiere

(F.A.Z.)

Was er [Christian Thielemann] aber an diesen vier Ring-Abenden mit der ihm bislang nicht sonderlich vertrauten Berliner Staatskapelle kreiert, ist atemberaubend.

[…] immer wieder berückender Klangzauber, präzise austarierte Dynamik und kluge Tempi.

Frenetischer Jubel nach gut 16 Stunden

Selten war Wagner so bezwingend und ergreifend zu erleben.

Berückender Klangzauber, präzise austarierte Dynamik und kluge Tempi.

Die Feinnervigkeit dieses Ring ist verblüffend.

Getragen wird das Drama von den bis in die Nebenrollen stark besetzten Sängerinnen und Sängern, die Tcherniakov brillant spielen lässt: Wagners endlose Problemgespräche und monologisierende Erklärungen stehen hier unter Dauerspannung.

(DIE ZEIT)

Spektakulär, atemberaubend präzise durchleuchtet Thielemann das Motivgeflecht der Wagner-Partituren und verleiht ihm eine beinahe gestochene Plastizität und Tiefenschärfe: ein ›High Definition‹-Wagner in 3 D.

Im Ganzen ist dieser Ring ein Triumph für die Staatsoper

(NZZ)

The cast is formidable

All of the renovated Staatsoper’s state-of-the-art stage machinery is tested to its limits. The outcome is breathtaking.

His [Dmitri Tcherniakovs] handiwork is unimpeachable; every person on stage is a fully rounded, complex character, and the social dynamics are directed with scrupulous attention to detail.

(Financial Times)

Es besticht und überwältigt, wie schön belcantoverliebt und textverständlich in Berlin gesungen wird.

An der Staatsoper hat sich ein Wunder ereignet

Schließlich kann kein Haus der Welt eine bessere Besetzung für Richard Wagners Weltumbruchsvierteiler Der Ring des Nibelungen aufbieten.

(Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Ein echter Rausch, Musik mit physischem Erleben und tatsächlich psychotischer Wirkung.

Diese beiden Abende [Rheingold und Walküre] waren eine ganz eigene Klasse, Liga, Welt.

Tcherniakovs Inszenierung ist mehr als gelungen, die Bühne hinreißend, die Ideen klug und kühn.

(DIE WELT)

Tcherniakov, as usual, manages details on a level rarely seen in opera.

And Tcherniakov demonstrates, through his own scenic design and lighting by Gleb Filshtinsky, how easily history can be taken for granted or erased, whether Wotan’s legacy or architecture of E.S.C.H.E.

(The New York Times)

Tcherniakov inszeniert klug und selbstbewusst

Über diesen grandiosen Ring des Nibelungen in der Berliner Staatsoper wird man lange, richtig lange sprechen.

(DIE WELT)

Fantastische Bläsersoli entfalten sich, die Streicher betören mit samtiger Dichte – das pure Glück.

(DER TAGESSPIEGEL)

Outstanding singing from the entire cast.

(The Guardian)

Eine starke Idee, getragen zudem von grandiosen Bühnenbildern.

(rbb24)

Vorwort 45 Minuten vor Vorstellungsbeginn im Apollosaal

In German language with German and English surtitles