The Ring of the Nibelung: The Valkyrie

Capriccio is the final opera by Richard Strauss, completed in 1942, and is subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music." The opera explores the debate between the importance of words and music through the story of Countess Madeleine, who is courted by a poet and a composer, ultimately leaving the question of which art form is superior unresolved.

Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, 6 August 2012.

The former corsair Simon Boccanegra has risen to power in Genoa but carries the burden of personal loss and old rivalries. He is unexpectedly reunited with his long-lost daughter, and their renewed bond becomes entangled with conflicts involving noble families, love and revenge. Simon struggles to preserve peace in the city while protecting those closest to him. Can he overcome betrayal and reconcile the forces tearing his world apart before it is too late?

Requiring 38 soloists, chorus, and large orchestra, Hans Pfitzner's "Palestrina" is a challenging opera to stage. In Munich, the city in which it was premiered in 1917, director Christian Stückle, conductor Simone Young, and the Bavarian State Opera met those challenges with stunning success.

Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert’s stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this heroic-romantic opera has now been staged for the first time ever at the Salzburg Festival by famous director Peter Stein. Based on an old French 12th-century epic, the plot depicts the military conflict between Christians and Moors at the time of Charlemagne – as a backdrop to stories of love and friendship that prove to be stronger than war and hatred of otherness. The strong cast includes the “marvellously expressive miracle Dorothea Röschmann” (Die Zeit) and “Michael Schade, who exudes his exceptional tenor in Fierrabras’s heroic arias” (Der neue Merker). Under the energetic baton of lngo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic unfold “the melos, the poetry, the sweetness and the dramatic force of Schubert’s highly refined and atmospheric sound worlds” (Kleine Zeitung) in highly romantic fashion.

This is the Ring cycle of the Dutch National Opera, directed by Pierre Audi. Alberich's brother Mime raises the orphan Siegfried, hoping that Siegfried will kill Fafner and enable Mime to gain the ring. Mime attempts unsuccessfully to reforge the Nothung. Fulfilling prophecy, Siegfried reforges the sword himself and kills Fafner, who has the form of a dragon. When he accidentally tastes the dragon's blood spilt on his hands, Siegfried understands the song of a woodbird, who instructs him to take the Ring from Fafner. Reading Mime's thoughts of betrayal, Siegfried kills the dwarf as well. The woodbird also informs Siegfried of a mysterious woman asleep in the midst of fire, and Siegfried sets off to find her. After defeating a disguised Wotan and breaking his spear, Siegfried successfully awakes Brünnhilde, and the two fall in love.

Frank Castorf's Ring makes a feature of unexpected settings and striking images, and here in Siegfried he shows the discussions between the young hero and his foster father Mime in Act I against a background featuring giant heads of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao on a replica of Mount Rushmore. The typical mythical nature and forest world of the second act is replaced in this production by Berlin's Alexanderplatz. The Nothung sword is also replaced, in this production becoming a machine gun. While the direction elicited both approval and disapproval, the vocal performances received wide acclaim.

"Oil is the equivalent of what used to be gold. A luxury that we cannot eat," explained director Frank Castorf in an interview, outlining one of the key ideas behind his production of the Ring at Bayreuth. In the final part of the tetralogy, the wild journey ventures to the Buna chemical plants in Schkopau and to New York's Wall Street, among other places. Inspired by the aesthetic of Hollywood B movies, the production was first met with disapproval but grew to gain many supporters over the years.

German composer Richard Wagner wrote Parsifal, which is a three-act opera that tells the story of the title character's quest to save the Knights of the Holy Grail by returning the Holy Spear, healing King Amfortas, and carrying out the sacred ceremony of uncovering the Holy Grail.

Berg’s 20th-century shocker stars baritone Peter Mattei in the title role, with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium and soprano Elza van den Heever as the long-suffering Marie. Groundbreaking visual artist and director William Kentridge unveils a bold new staging set in an apocalyptic wasteland.

Ring Cycle, pt 4. Siegfried is drugged and tricked into kidnapping his wife, since she has the Ring now. More double-crossings, Siegfried ends up dead. Brunnhilde has had enough of this, tosses the Ring into the river and torches the place.

This is the Ring cycle of the Dutch National Opera, directed by Pierre Audi. Fleeing for his life, Siegmund seeks shelter at Sieglinde's house. Her husband Hunding happens to be one of Siegmund's pursuers, and the two of them must cross swords the next day. As Siegmund laments his lack of a weapon, Sieglinde directs him to the sword Nothung stuck in an ash tree. Despite discovering they are twin siblings, the two fall in love. The King of Gods Wotan, their father, sends his Valkyrie daughter Brünnhilde to aid Siegmund. Fricka protests, and Wotan uses his spear to break Siegmund's sword during the battle. Siegmund is slain, but Brünnhilde rescues both the sword fragments and Sieglinde who is pregnant with Siegmund's child Siegfried. Wotan is angry that she intervened, but since Brünnhilde is his favorite child, he merely strips her of immortality and sends her into an enchanted sleep, surrounded by fire.

Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Beethoven Symphonies 1-9

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, (English: The Ring of the Nibelung). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 26 June 1870, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 14 August 1876.

Iván Fischer makes his DNO debut. He conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Pierre Audi, artistic director of DNO and the Holland Festival, directs his first new DNO production since Saint François d'Assise (2008). For Parsifal Audi once again joins forces with the British sculptor Anish Kapoor (décor). Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester previously sang the role of Amfortas at the Opéra National de Paris and the Bayreuther Festspiele. Kurt Rydl (Titurel/Klingsor) made previous DNO appearances as Hagen/Hunding in Der Ring des Nibelungen and as Heinrich in Lohengrin. Kurt Rydl has been an honorary member of the Wiener Staatsoper since 1999. Falk Struckmann has frequently sung the role of Amfortas, but now makes his first DNO appearance in his role debut as Gurnemanz. The title role is sung by Christopher Ventris, who previously appeared at DNO as Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer. Petra Lang (Kundry) previously sang Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde and Venus in Tannhäuser at DNO.

“An exhilarating success, a brilliant presentation of Ligeti's commanding score and a disarming production.” This was the verdict of the New York Times after three sold-out performances of György Ligeti's opera “Le Grand Macabre”, with which Alan Gilbert, in collaboration with director Doug Fitch, brought this milestone of modern music theater to New York for the first time in May 2010. For the Hamburg International Music Festival - which focuses on Ligeti's music - the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra is now bringing the highly acclaimed production to Hamburg in a version adapted for the Elbphilharmonie. “Le Grand Macabre” is a grotesque parable on the downfall of humanity, ‘an opera about the existential crisis in the modern world, about the search for the meaning of life - with all its nonsense and craziness’, states Alan Gilbert. It is no coincidence that this pitch-black musical theater spectacle is the most frequently performed contemporary opera in the world.

This is a performance of Wagner's three-act opera Der fliegende Holländer ("The flying Dutchman"), performed by Bayreuther Festpiele, directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov. The staging was notable for two other milestones, as Oksana Lyniv became the first woman to conduct at Richard Wagner’s legendary Festspielhaus since its opening in 1876, and the sensational Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian made her house debut with a standout performance as the opera’s heroine, Senta. The exceptional cast also included John Lundgren (The Dutchman), Georg Zeppenfeld (Daland), Eric Cutler (Erik) and Marina Prudenskaya (Mary).

The Ring in Weimar enters the second round as a family saga, political thriller and search for myths. From children who plunged in the Rhine gold into a gruesomely beautiful world of norns, mermaids, dwarves, giants and gods, in "The Valkyrie" young men and women are caught up in the horrors of reality and the horror of war, whether in the family or on the battlefields, while trying to live their ideals. In "Das Rheingold" everything seemed to be palpable, the dream like the curse. In "Die Walküre" everyone and everything is under constant observation, a fascinating eye-play between great psychodrama and ancient tragedy. Siegmund and Sieglinde stir at the taboo, love is to be regulated by law and morality.

Cardillac is a master jeweler who cannot live without his creations, killing his clients to recuperate them and assert his authorship, and conferring the status of art upon the act of murder.

The Ring in Weimar enters its final round as a drama of hate, jealousy and betrayal. A dark e minor chord opens Richard Wagner's "Götterdämmerung" and creates a threatening atmosphere from the very first moment. The various leitmotifs and themes of the entire tetralogy are brought together in the "Götterdämmerung" to form a musical whole from which there is no escape

A documentary about Nikolaus Lehnhoff's 2004 production of Wagner's last opera, Parsifal, at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and clips of the live performances provide a documentary analysis of the opera on the quest for the holy grail.

The Ring in Weimar enters its third round as a fairy tale of enlightenment and educational drama of a hero and antihero who seeks his origins and discovers his sexuality. What was meant to be a cheerful satyr play becomes a dream and trauma of re-encounters and voyages of discovery in breathtaking time lapse Wotan and Alberich can't let each other hate each other.

Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, a lurid tale of sex, murder, and corruption, premiered in 1934 and was a success until Stalin saw it two years later, resulting in a Pravda review that viciously condemned it. It was later replaced by an expurgated version, now called Katerina Ismailova after the work's principal character. The original version has now reclaimed its place on international stages. The heroine is the daughter-in-law of Boris, a greedy, lecherous merchant, and the frustrated wife of his impotent son. Katerina poisons Boris and when her husband returns she and her lover, Sergei, kill him too, burying him in the cellar. The body is discovered during their wedding party. Haunted by guilt, Katerina confesses and the newlyweds are consigned to Siberia. When Sergei takes up with another woman, Katerina pushes her into the river and then jumps in herself.