Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is one of the greatest artistic creations of Western Civilization. The four works, presented as a Prologue and three operas, are based largely on Norse sagas of Gods and Goddesses, and on an epic German poem written some 800 years ago.
Wagner (1813-1883) built a theatre for his works to be performed, in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth. There, in 1876, the Ring was presented in its entirety for the first time, under Wagner's supervision. Upon his death, Wagner's family took over running the Festival, and in the early 1970's his grandson, Wolfgang Wagner, decided to hire the noted French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez to conduct the centenary production in 1976. Boulez in turn suggested a young French director, Patrice Chereau. The rest is history.
Chereau set the Ring in the time of the Industrial Revolution. He drew heavily on the famous analysis by Bernard Shaw, "The Perfect Wagnerite," setting the Rhine in a hydroelectric power dam, with the Rhinemaidens as prostitutes and men and gods dressed in business suits. Shaw had seen the Ring as essentially a revolutionary drama and the work as a critique of the modern world, and Chereau expanded on the notion.
The Boulez/Chereau Ring was seen for five seasons and went from being very controversial to being acclaimed as one of the most important productions in the work's history. The performances on these DVDs are from 1979 and 1980 and include Gywneth Jones as Brunnhilde and Donald McIntyre as Wotan, two supreme singing actors who were associated with the production from the first season. The DVDs capture brilliantly as different but compelling a conception of this operatic masterpiece as has been captured on film and would be most Wagnerites' first choice for a video Ring.
Written by Michael E. Lane, an ardent Wagnerite who was privileged to have seen the Boulez/Chereau Ring in 1978.
In the early 1980s the Boulez/Chereau Ring was shown on Public televison in the USA to great acclaim and the Wagner Society of NY filled a room at the UN Plaza Hotel with aficionados who watched the entire Ring in one day.
The Ring of the Nibelung( The Ring Cycle) consist of four operas:
- Das Rheingold
- Die Walkure
- Siegfried
- Gotterdammerung