Der Ring des Nibelungen

Der Ring des Nibelungen, or The Ring of the Nibelung, is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung. Wagner wrote the libretti himself, drawing on Norse and Germanic legends, and he spent about a quarter of a century composing the music. The story centres on a ring of power forged from stolen gold and on the struggles of gods, giants and mortals over it, ending in the fall of the gods. The score uses leitmotifs, short musical themes linked to characters and ideas, which are developed throughout the cycle. The complete work was first performed at the Bayreuth Festival, in a theatre that Wagner had built specially for it.

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