Act I: Die Walküre | The Ring Cycle

Opera North’s acclaimed concert staging of Wagner’s Ring cycle, filmed in Leeds, UK, June 2016.
In Die Walküre, it is human emotion that takes centre stage. The musical highlights are many: ‘Winterstürme’, Siegmund’s hymn of praise to the coming of spring and the awakening of love; the Ride of the Valkyries; the Magic Fire music. Above all, there is the great confrontation between the god Wotan and his favourite daughter, Brünnhilde - the Valkyrie of the title - who love each other deeply, yet whose relationship has been irreparably broken by her disobedience.
CONDUCTOR: Richard Farnes
STAGE DIRECTOR AND LIGHTING & PROJECTION DESIGNER: Peter Mumford
FILM DIRECTOR: Peter Mumford
BRÜNNHILDE: Kelly Cae Hogan
SIEGLINDE: Lee Bisset
SIEGMUND: Michael Weinius
WOTAN: Robert Hayward
FRICKA: Susan Bickley
HUNDING: James Creswell
HELMWIGE: Katherine Broderick
ORTLINDE: Kate Valentine
GERHILDE: Giselle Allen
SIEGRUNE: Sarah Castle
ROSSWEISSE: Madeleine Shaw
WALTRAUTE: Heather Shipp
GRIMGERDE: Fiona Kimm
SCHWERTLEITE: Claudia Huckle
Find out more » www.operanorth...
#ONRing

[@gustavocabrera-mw4vl]

thank you, thank you, thank you for uploading the FULL Ring Cycle ...

[@JabbtheHut4653]

I was lucky enough to be at this sublime performance of Die Walkure - absolutely wonderful performance so full of emotion.

[@charleslaine]

I love how the conductor starts this. He raises the baton, looks around as if to say "Oh boy. Are you ready? Are you really ready? Ok let's do this!"

[@billfarlow66]

Wagner does that to musicians

[@seanmacleod1724]

I have to say that I really am enjoying my very first exploration of Wagner’s works. I arrived by a strange, or maybe not so strange, route......My Christmas Day films “The Lord of The Rings”. Hungry for more I worked my way through the appendices included in the boxed set and when I’d exhausted those I still yearned for more European mythology. “Hang on” (I thought to myself), “Didn’t that Wagner chappie write something about Rings ?” . I was surprised to find his legendary operas were actually about a ring of power, I was hooked. So, I’ve watched Das Rhinegold and have now finished Act 1 above, Act 2 follows tomorrow. How lovely it is to uncover an art form you know absolutely nothing about and to dive in.

[@sethgaston8347]

My favorite commonality of the two? Beautifully emotional soundtracks. Wagner’s use of Leitmotif is yet to be matched!

[@mariod7473]

This is the 3rd time I watched this, its a very classy production.....

[@janetbarriskill9899]

Wish I had been there I just keep watching it brilliant. So many of Wagner's production are spoilt by trying to modernise it just leave with the Gods as it should be. I love the purity of this concert performance.

[@rationalsceptic7634]

Wonderful Concert Performance,a high point in the History of Opera North...not a traditional setting but still highly literate and deeply moving ..thx

[@urmorph]

I heard this single act at Tanglewood under Ozawa, in concert performance, sitting in the fourth row, with Jessye Norman and John Vickers. When she sang, or rather rang out, "Siegmund! So nenn' ich dich!" and those wild triplets exploded in the winds, I began to tremble uncontrollably and continued so until the end, when the twenty minutes plus of applause brought some release. May every music lover have such a memory.

[@felix4645]

Oh it is on my bucket-list to see Act 1 live, I love the emotion and sheer power that emanates from this piece. I am incredibly envious!

[@urmorph]

@@felix4645 Of course, the important is to hear it live. The best equipment cannot completely convey the sonic world of a live performance. And this act is IMHO one of most perfectly conceived in all opera, a gigantic, hour-long accelerando and crescendo. The last two acts continue the grand design of the first. Wagner was not a perfect human being, but he was a musical genius.

[@happygucci5094]

Her voice was MADE to interpret the great Leider- her Strauss Last Four Songs is God speaking through her… It took a Black woman from Georgia to bring Wagner and Strauss to Life- the poetic justice and irony and her supreme gift was an act of God.

[@robinblankenship9234]

Hi ding’s wife sure is a tough one, running around in the dead of winter dressed like that!!

[@cjgoggins]

Adverts in the middle of singing? Can you hear me swearing?

[@januszbogumil]

I love Hunding's all black suit. I would totally dress like that

[@classicalricky]

That was so emotional!!!! 😭 I loved it!!!!

[@dnnvcx]

El preludio del intro es glorioso!🎉

[@andrewstratford5563]

Thanks so much for posting these videos!

[@spoonify8137]

Alternative title: Man with stick has severe cramps whilst people with shaped pieces of wood play

[@noahrademacher4791]

in my opinion, the prelude was way to quiet

[@lenthisgoldstein9553]

and too slow...

[@christacartwright9083]

@@lenthisgoldstein9553 I agree on both counts!

[@christacartwright9083]

But this was my only real quibble with the entire production.

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

@@lenthisgoldstein9553 You are not wrong. Many conductors take it this slow and I never quite understand why. It's a raging storm and someone running through the forrest on foot, being hunted. It needs urgency, which it doesn't have at this speed. Putting the video at 1.25x speed is as it should have been performed in the first place.

[@edwardromana]

For me show is just fine it seems to bring out an articulation clarity in the voice.

[@gillan5]

very nice- very good German pronunciation too!

[@prussianjunker1777]

My timestamp 42:03

[@mhwharp]

Someone famously said after this opera, Sigmund and Sliglinda's offspring, Siegfried, never meets anyone who he is not related to.

[@urmorph]

Anna Russell, in her famous comic take on the Ring, points out that it is no surprise that Siegfried falls for Gutrune, as she is the only woman he ever seen (or heard) who wasn't his aunt. (Available on KZbin. A classic, not to be missed.)

[@meredydddavies957]

I rather liked Nietzsche's comment about the stage direction at the end of Act 1, where the staging says "the curtain falls". Nietzsche adds ... "and just in time" Nietzsche gets a bad press these days, but I like his style.

[@ruthpereira7998]

Lindo😮

[@Jeweliedear]

Starkes, Schönes Musik! ❤

[@1968KWT]

Premiered at Bayreuth #otd in 1876 🌹🌹🌹

[@victorbravo2440]

Bravo👏👏👏

[@abigailsin2503]

24:55 45:04

[@robinblankenship9234]

Hunding

[@abigailsin2503]

30:30

[@asrieldreemurr1988]

did he actually not have a name

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

Of course he had a name. He just chose to not use it any longer. Sieglinde finally recognizes who he really is and calls him by his real name.

[@lj291261]

How in the world can you conduct the opening so slow - Wagner would be beside himself - AMATEUR!!!

[@edwardromana]

Some of us prefer slow. On the lower screen edge we can click on the 'gear' then on 'playback speed' then on 'custom' and select any tempo without changing the pitch.

[@l.j.goldstein8143]

This is the "discount" version of the Ring have it done in concert the singers in formal's the orchestra onstage and no expensive sets, costumes or makeup

[@sammallalieu9677]

doo doo