Wagner's opera Siegfried is the third part of his tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), which took 25 years to complete.
Recording & Production
This recording of Siegfried is part of a unique production where each of the four operas in Wagner's Ring cycle was staged with separate producers and casts.
Performer Biography
Lothar Zagrosek, the conductor for this recording, was named Conductor of the Year by Opernwelt in both 1997 and 1999.
Performer Biography
The Stuttgart Staatsorchester, which performs on this recording, has a history of over four hundred years, established in 1589 as the Court Orchestra of Württemberg.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The sources for Wagner's Ring drama include Icelandic sagas, the Middle High German Das Nibelungenlied, and the Old Norse Thidreks Saga af Bern, with the structure and theme of the curse owing a debt to Aeschylus and Greek tragedy.
Historical Context
Siegfried embodies some of Wagner's political speculation, with the young King Ludwig of Bavaria, a patron of Wagner, initially seen as a new Siegfried to liberate Germany.
Composition History
The music for Siegfried was composed from 1856 onwards, with a break after Act II in 1857, and the full scoring was completed in 1871.
