“Like it, hate it but you cannot ignore it!” is a statement that\ncan certainly be applied to Wagner’s tetralogy “The Ring of the\nNibelung”. It contains four operas, took him thirty years to write\n(with a gap of about eleven years in the middle) and all\nperformances last at least fourteen hours with the longest act\nlonger than many full operas. Such statistics have been used to\nsupport Wagner as a serious composer who gave us so much and to his\ndetractors as self-aggrandisement or worse!If one believes the\ntruth that all grand art can be interpreted differently and inspire\ncultured debate then “The Ring” undoubtedly qualifies for that\nepithet.

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Richard Wagner started writing the book of prose, entitled\n“Siegfried’s Death” in which the heroine Brunnhilde would take the\nbody of Siegfried back to Walhalla, much of what is now the final\nopera Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods). He then worked\nthe story backwards to show how Siegfried lived his life and then\nto explain how Siegfried came to be he wrote what we now know as\nDie Walküre (The Valkyrie) centred around Brunnhilde and how she\ndisobeyed the head of the Gods and her father, Wotan, and became a\nmortal. Finally he took the story back to the beginning before\nAlberich, the dwarf or Nibelung of the title, steals the gold from\nthe Rhinemaidens and fashions a ring through whose power he plans\nto rule the world.

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Productions have treated it as a great adventure story with the\nperpetual battle of “The love of Power against the power of Love”,\na political allegory based, it seems, at any time in the history of\nthe world it seems with the major players wearing as many personae\nas the directors who have produced the opera. As often is the case\nthe best production is in one’s imagination as there dwarves,\ngiants, humans, dragons, magic helmets and rings can truly come\nalive. Wagner helps us in this respect as he carefully selects and\nblends certain tunes or motives which represent an animate or\ninanimate object, an emotion or feeling. So when these are sounded\nthe listener has this signpost which informs him, for example,\nwhich character is around or being talked about or even what a\ncharacter is thinking even though he may be saying something\nelse

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To do justice to such an enterprise much hard work needs to be\nexpended with the involvement of a huge cast including singers in\nall vocal ranges with prodigious powers of expression, a chorus of\ngreat strength and a superb orchestra all under the guidance of a\nconductor who must be fully experienced in the ways of the theatre\nand music. Backing them up, a first rate technical and musical team\nof producers and engineers to create the ambience that is demanded\nby the score. EMI Classics were fortunate to secure all of these in\nthis recording.

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