Das Rheingold

About

National Theatre Orchestra

The monumental tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen ranks among the seminal works in opera history. Richard Wagner based the epic music dramas on medieval Germanic heroic legends and Norse sagas, adventure-packed fantasy tales, or, in contemporary parlance, exciting suspense thrillers. The prologue, Das Rheingold, is the shortest of the four operas forming the cycle (lasting approximately two hours 20 minutes). The story commences at the bottom of the Rhine, where the three Rhinemaidens (water nymphs) guard sacred gold. Alberich, a Nibelung dwarf, snatches the gold and has made of it a magic ring that gives its owner the power to rule the world. It thus comes as no surprise that several mythical figures crave the ring, including Wotan, the King of the Gods. When, aided by Loge, demi-god of fire, Wotan succeeds in getting hold of the ring, Alberich duly curses it. In the following extensive parts of the tetralogy (Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung), the curse affects the fates of three generations of gods, demi-gods and mortals alike. In musical terms, Der Ring des Nibelungen is interconnected by leitmotifs, associated with particular characters and their actions. 

Das Rheingold received its world premiere on 22 September 1869 in Munich. The Czech premiere took place on 19 December 1885 at the Estates Theatre in Prague, conducted by the 25-year-old Gustav Mahler. The whole Ring was first presented in Prague at the Neues deutsches Theater (today’s State Opera), in 1923 and 1924, conducted by the director of its opera company, Alexander Zemlinsky, and staged by the German director Franz Ludwig Hörth, with the scenery designed by the renowned Brno-born architect Emil Pirchan.

Between 2025 and 2028, productions of the complete cycle will be created in Prague by the conductor Robert Jindra, Music Director of the National Theatre Opera, and two Slovak artists who have worked with the company on several projects: the stage director Sláva Daubnerová and the set designer Boris Kudlička.