Wagner, R.: Rheingold (Das) (Ring Cycle 1)

Featuring

Lothar Zagrosek
Wolfgang Probst
Bernhard Schneider
Motti Kastón
Robert Künzli
Michaela Schuster

Helga Rós Indriðadóttir
Mette Ejsing
Esa Ruuttunen
Eberhard Francesco Lorenz
Roland Bracht
Phillip Ens
Catriona Smith
Maria Theresa Ullrich
Margarete Joswig
Württembergisches Staatsorchester Stuttgart
Richard Wagner

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Recording & Production

This recording of Das Rheingold was made live during the Stuttgart Opera's 2002/2003 season.

Compositional Technique

Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold uses a large orchestra, including quadruple upper woodwind, eight horns, four tubas, and an array of anvils for the Nibelungs.

Composition History

Richard Wagner's tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen, took 25 years to complete and was first performed as a whole in August 1876 at the new Festspielhaus in Bayreuth.

Critical Reception

The Stuttgart State Opera, whose orchestra performs on this album, has been voted Opera Theatre of the Year four times by critics in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.

Historical Context

Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen draws its drama from Icelandic sagas, the Middle High German Das Nibelungenlied, and the Old Norse Thidreks Saga af Bern.

Recording & Production

For the first time in the history of the Ring cycle, each of the four operas in the Stuttgart Opera's 2002/2003 production was staged with separate producers and casts.