Prologue & Act I: Götterdämmerung | The Ring Cycle

Opera North’s acclaimed concert staging of Wagner’s Ring cycle, filmed in Leeds, UK, June 2016.
In the overwhelming conclusion of the cycle, the all-consuming love of Siegfried and Brünnhilde is broken in bitter betrayal; the machinations of Hagen, son of Alberich, seal Siegfried’s doom; and Brünnhilde’s self-sacrifice precipitates the end of the old world order and the beginning of a new era. The musical and dramatic power of Götterdämmerung is awe-inspiring - sweeping us from Siegfried’s Rhine Journey to his Funeral March, and, finally, to Brünnhilde’s immolation and the work’s titanic orchestral climax.
CONDUCTOR: Richard Farnes
STAGE DIRECTOR AND LIGHTING & PROJECTION DESIGNER: Peter Mumford
FILM DIRECTOR: Peter Mumford
BRÜNNHILDE: Kelly Cae Hogan
SIEGFRIED: Mati Turi
HAGEN: Mats Almgren
GUTRUNE: Giselle Allen
GUNTHER: Andrew Foster-Williams
WALTRAUTE: Susan Bickley
ALBERICH: Jo Pohlheim
FIRST NORN: Fiona Kimm
SECOND NORN: Heather Shipp
THIRD NORN: Lee Bisset
WOGLINDE: Jeni Bern
WELLGUNDE: Madeleine Shaw
FLOSSHILDE: Sarah Castle
Chorus of Opera North
Find out more » www.operanorth.co.uk/the-ring...
#ONRing

[@heatherhadlock9921]

I love how this concert staging both focuses my attention on the fascinating music and helps me follow the story. Very creative!

[@willjames1712]

Excellent Hagen. I really appreciated the inclusion of the laugh during his monologue ( 1:15:16 ): utterly terrifying, but also suggested something helpless, sad and empty about his corrupted existence. He is not free from the lust of power and shows it in that moment. Power both motivates him and drains his soul. He is tortured even in his own delight.

[@urmorph]

He seems to have inherited the family vibrato. Though it may be infectious as well.

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

I would not exactly call him excellent. His intonation is totally unfocussed. You can't really hear what notes he is singing in many instances. Like for example the excerpt you linked to. And his vowels are all over the place. For example he has a tendency to mix an "e" into his "a's". And he does not linger long enough on the notes. Take the "Hier sitz ich zur Wacht." The "a" in "Wacht" should be held longer, more singing. Then the next line shows another example of his "a" deficiency. "Wehre die Halle dem Feind" sounds more like "Wehre die Hölle dem Feind" when he sings it. I really don't understand this. For a singer the "a" should be the easiest and clearest producable sound of all. He is using too much vibrato most of the time. Hagen doesn't demand much vibrato.

[@susannevollmer2347]

@@Quotenwagnerianer Must agree: he is acting like an old man of the church or weak old one. Impossible, he must be the most poweful and great intriguer.

[@AtiqZabinski]

@@susannevollmer2347 In his dream conversation with Alberich, Hagen describes himself as "wizened, wan and pale" (Wagner's English translation)

[@sittich711]

I have watched this concert production of the ring cycle three times during the last two years. It is so excellent: orchestra, conductor, and singers. Especially Kelly Cae Hogan as Brünnhilde, and a very sensitively singing Susan Bickley as Waltraute.

[@carlosc.e.908]

Very good singing without the distractions of some productions that simply ignore the text. The love for Siegfried that this Brünnhilde shows Waltraute makes it very difficult to have any sympathy for him later on. Very emotional performance.

[@jasonhurd4379]

In re: sympathy for Siegfried, remember that his infatuation with Gutrune was brought about solely through the agency of Hagen's potion, which simultaneously made Siegfried forget Brünnhilde and fall in love with Gutrune. When Hagen gives him the antidote just before his death scene, we see clearly that Siegfried has been in love with Brünnhilde all along. This makes his death doubly tragic.

[@SimonBostic]

Highly enjoyable. Kelly Cae Hogan .... wow,

[@TwinsunianT]

I love this interpretation of the Ring!

[@JacobMinger]

This is the first time I’m seeing a “concert production” and I must admit that while I love seeing the sets, costumes and props (sometimes) it is also nice to just see singers performing he music without the frills, focus on the music, and let my imagination do the work.

[@sbingham1979]

Excellent performance!

[@camilorockfestbcn19]

Emocionante en general...y el final del acto realmente impresionante...gracias

[@christophergonzalez3186]

Dawn & Siegfried’s Rhine Journey - 18:11

[@asrieldreemurr1988]

there is zero comments im surprised

[@cachdeques]

very good siegfried I must say!

[@server1ok]

This lacks the Windfury part

[@1968KWT]

Premiered at Bayreuth #otd in 1876 🌷🌷🌷

[@leeing4075]

30:00

[@abigailsin2503]

19:55

[@joaodecarvalho7012]

Brünnhilde had a fuck, with a hero full of energy. This is something the Valkyries cannot understand.

[@mariod7473]

I miss the curtain calls....I had huge expectations.....I give this 1st act an E for effort...the same as in 2017 when I first saw it...:)

[@asrieldreemurr1988]

Woten is still a jerk

[@wei-pingzeng36]

Siegfried is a wife's nightmare 😳. He basically sold his first love and wife to a king in order to marry the king's sister.

[@jasonhurd4379]

But he did it unwittingly, under the spell of the potion he was given. That's the tragedy: he was innocent of wrongdoing, yet Brünnhilde, all unknowing, suborned Hagen to murder him to avenge her wrong.

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

@@jasonhurd4379 Indeed. I have seen stage directors twist that part of the story and leave the potion away, totally missing the point that Siegfried remains innocent and is simply too pure for the human world, not being able to understand duplicity.

[@susannevollmer2347]

He is bewitched by Kriemhilds drunk. Amnesie. He could remember history with Brünnhilde by hearing the bird. He is not the man who can live at this court.

[@AtiqZabinski]

@@susannevollmer2347 Nonsense! The potion only is supposed to take away his memory and make him fall in love with the first woman he sees. There is nothing in the libretto to suggest that the potion corrupts a man's soul or values. Bottom line is, Siegfried shows himself perfectly willing to abduct a woman and force her into marriage if it suits his purposes -- the very crime committed against his own mother, and which his father risked his life to fight. He is NOT a moral hero by any means. He doesn't do a thing in the course of the cycle that isn't motivated by his own interests. The characters in the cycle who act out of concern for others are fewer than hen's teeth. Siegmund, Brunnhilde, Loge, the bird in the forest... can you name any others?

[@markcartwright5514]

A very workaday approach from the conductor. Seems not to be very much interested in anything except beating time efficiently. Similarly the singers. Musical as far as it goes but look elsewhere for anything remotely inspiring and moving...

[@peterhoare3754]

Hey Mark. How the hell are you?

[@susannevollmer2347]

@@peterhoare3754 Running around looking and searching - where is the perfect Ring?🥺😱🥴😉

[@ValzainLumivix]

1:10:55