With the hegemony of the gods at its zenith at the close of THE RHINEGOLD and the gods ensconced in the castle of Valhalla, trouble is brewing in THE VALKYRIE. The mortals are power-crazed, mistrust and materialism rule and all that the gods can think about is enforcing the old codes rather than questioning their raison d’être. Siblings Siegmund and Sieglinde are condemned to death because there is no place for their special brand of love in society. Brünnhilde, a Valkyrie, is charmed by them and dares to defy her father Wotan’s sentence by taking the pair under her wing. In THE VALKYRIE Wagner makes it plain whose side he is on: in the big love scene between Siegmund and Sieglinde, in which the elemental force of love outpunches all social mores, and in the evolution of Brünnhilde’s character, whose conduct is at first motivated by intuitive sympathy but morphs into deliberate action as a protest against inhumanity and injustice.


As part of their collaboration, which has already been successful on several occasions, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Naxos as producer will audiovisually record the two cyclical performances of the RING DES NIBELUNGEN in November 2021. In addition to Deutsche Oper Berlin and Naxos, other production partners include Norwegian Television NRK, the online platform MarqueeTV and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, which will also broadcast the second cycle live on radio. After post-production of the recording, the RING DES NIBELUNGEN will be available in Germany on the ARD Mediathek and internationally on MarqueeTV in spring 2022, as well as being broadcast on Norwegian television. In autumn 2022, Naxos will release the RING cycle in a DVD or Blu-ray box set.