Das Rheingold at Ramon Gener's webcam ENG (2012-13)
Channel: LiceuOperaBarcelona
Date: 2012-07-23

The beginning of the epic Ring Cycle

«Now we're suffering from the destruction of nature by the avariciousness of power. [...] Wagner foresaw that the laws of nature are not in tune with those of men». In these words Robert Carsen explains his highly-charged production which, however, deliberately shuns grandiloquence.

Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold; Munich, 1869) is the prologue of the Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). In a world where harmony still reigns, the water nymphs watch over their treasure in the depths of the Rhine. But then it is stolen by Alberich the Nibelung, an ugly, lascivious dwarf who knows its secret: whoever can seize the gold and make himself a ring out of it will become master of the world, providing he foregoes love.  Wotan, the king of the gods, counselled by the astute demigod Loge, takes the gold and the ring from Alberich to pay for the palace of Walhalla, which the giants Fasolt and Fafne have built for him. But Alberich utters a terrible curse: the ring will bring misfortune and death to its owners.  The curse immediately takes effect as one giant kills the other to gain sole possession of it. And the gods enter Walhalla.

Prologue of the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). Libretto and music by Richard Wagner. First performed at the Royal Theatre in Munich on 22 September 1869. First performance at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 30 March 1910.