06/01/19 – Die Walküre (Royal Opera) – 1pm
The Royal Opera House’s Die Walküre
Title: Die Walküre
Hosts: Tom Service, Lisa Flynn
Broadcast Producer: BBC
WFMT Series Producer: Daniel Goldberg
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Cast (in order of vocal appearance):
Siegmund – Stuart Skelton
Sieglinde – Emily Magee
Hunding–Ain Anger
Wotan – John Lundgren
Brunnhilde – Nina Stemme
Fricka – Sarah Connolly
Gerhilde – Alwyn Mellor
Ortlinde– Lise Davidsen
Waltraute – Kai Rüütel
Schwertleite – Claudia Huckle
Helmwige – Maida Hundeling
Siegrune – Cathy Carby
Grimgerde – Monika-Evelin Liiv
Rossweisse – Emma Carrington
Die Walküre is the second work and ‘first evening’ of Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, following Das Rheingold. It has become the most performed opera of the cycle, loved and admired for its nuanced and intelligent exploration of complex family entanglements, expressed through music of astonishing power – perhaps nowhere more so than in the glorious music for the incestuous lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde.
Wotan’s voyage of self-discovery and ultimate resignation are at the heart of Keith Warner’s production, created for The Royal Opera in 2005. Wotan’s great Act II monologue is set in the abandoned former home of the gods, seen in Das Rheingold, whose evident disorder and damage present a striking representation of Wotan’s own inner decline and the gods’ incipient twilight. Recurring objects and visual motifs reflect the use of musical themes within Wagner’s score, which shows the composer at his most radical and most lyrical.
