Götterdämmerung
by Richard Wagner


NOTE THE EARLY START TIME OF 9:00AM this week!


The Met Opera broadcast of Wagner's "Ring" cycle concludes with Götterdämmerung.

A culmination of the dramatic and musical ideas set forth in the previous three works of the Ring, the final opera of Wagner’s cycle is also a complete and monumental theatrical journey of its own. The central conflict of the Ring remains the same over the course of four operas, but the protagonists change. In Götterdämmerung, the ring that the Nibelung dwarf Alberich made out of the stolen Rhinegold continues to rule the destinies of humans, including Alberich’s own son Hagen.  Only Brünnhilde, once a warrior goddess and now Siegfried’s mortal wife, has the perspective and wisdom to grasp the full significance of the situation — her journey toward the ultimate sacrifice that will absolve heaven and earth from its primal corruption is the great drama of this opera.

The Ring is set in a mythological world, beginning, in Das Rheingold, beneath the earth and above it. Throughout the action, the setting moves inexorably toward the human dimension. By the time we reach Götterdämmerung, the focus has clearly shifted: The gods do not appear as characters, and they no longer interact directly with humans but are referred to in reminiscences and represented by altars and symbols.

Conductor: Philippe Jordan



Cast:

BRÜNNHILDE: Christine Goerke

GUTRUNE: Edith Haller

WALTRAUTE: Michaela Schuster

SIEGFRIED: Andreas Schager

GUNTHER: Evgeny Nikitin

ALBERICH: Tomasz Konieczny

HAGEN: Eric Owens



Start time: 9:00am on Capital Public Radio.
Approximate running time 5 hrs 32 min


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