Vladimir Jurowski conducts Rhinegold at the Bavarian State Opera

Richard Wagner – Wagner,

The Rhinegold (L'Or du Rhin)
Prologue to the stage festival The Ring of the Nibelung (L'Anneau du Nibelung)

Opera offered as part of the Euroradio exchanges with the European Radio and Television Union (EBU), recorded on October 27, 2024 at the National Theater in Munich. New production of Bavarian State Opera.

Distribution of The Rhinegold at the Bavarian State Opera:

Vladimir Jurowski  : Direction musicale

Tobias Kratzer: Direction

Nicholas Brownlee: Wotan, master of the gods, married to Fricka, bass-baritone
Milan Siljanov: Donner, god of thunder, brother of Freia, Fricka and Froh, bass-baritone
Anthony León: Froh, god of joy and spring, Tenor
Sean Panikkar: Loge, demigod of fire, Tenor
Markus Brück: Alberich, roi des Nibelungen, frère de Mime, baryton
Matthias Klink : Mime, Nibelung, Tenor
Matthew Rose: Fasolt, Giant, brother of Fafner, Bass
Timo Riihonen: Fafner, Géant, Basse
Ekaterina Gubanova: Fricka, protective goddess of marriage, Mezzo-soprano
Mirjam Mesak: Freia, goddess of love and beauty, guardian of the golden apples, Soprano
Wiebke Lehmkuhl: Erda, mother goddess of the earth, Contralto
Sarah Brady: Woglinde, Rhinemaiden, Soprano
Nardus Williams: Wellgunde, Daughter of the Rhine, Soprano
Yajie Zhang: Flosshilde, Fille du Rhin, Mezzo-soprano

Bavarian State Orchestra

Matthias Piro: Assistant director
Rainer Sellmaier: Scenography and costumes
Michel Bauer: Light
Janic Bebi, Manuel Braun, Jonas Dahl : Video
Bettina Bartz and Olaf Roth: dramaturgy

Musical programming by Judith Chaine:

Richard Wagner / transcription Louis Brassin and Nikolai Lugansky,

Rhine Gold :
Entry of the gods into Valhalla (Scene 4)

Nikolai Lugansky: Piano
Harmonia Mundi HMM 902393

Robert Schumann – Spanish poems / translation Emanuel Geibel,

Spanish song play, op 74
(Spanish songs, lieder from 1 to 4 voices and piano):
1. Erste Begegnung (First meeting) – poem by Gil Vicente
8. Botschaft (Message) – poem by Emanuel Geibel, “Don Manuel del Río”
9. Ich bin geliebt °* (I am loved) – anonymous poem

Sibylla Rubens: Soprano
Wiebke Lehmkuhl: mezzo-soprano
°Martin Mitterrutzner: Tenor
*Christian Gerhaher  : Baryton
Gerold Huber: piano
Sony Classical 19439780112

Robert Schumann – Spanish poems / translation Emanuel Geibel,

Spanish love songs, op 138
(Spanish love songs, lieder from 1 to 4 voices and piano for 4 hands):
10. Dunkler Lichtglanz, blinder Blick (Lueur obscure, regard aveugle) – poem by Rodrigo Cota

Sibylla Rubens: Soprano
Wiebke Lehmkuhl: mezzo-soprano
Martin Mitterrutzner: Tenor
Christian Gerhaher  : Baryton
Gerold Huber: piano
James Cheung  : Piano II
Sony Classical 19439780112

Reference work on Rhinegold by Richard Wagner:

Avant-Scène Opera: Rhinegold by Wagner
n°227

Argument from Richard Wagner's Rhinegold:

By Chantal Cazaux.

Scene 1. The scene opens in the heart of the river, where the Rhinemaidens play. Flosshilde calls her sisters to order: they must not lose sight of their mission, to guard the Rhinegold. Alberich, a repulsive and lecherous dwarf, is attracted to the three Girls. Flosshilde joins in Wellgunde and Woglinde's taunts when he pretends to seduce them. All three excite his desire, letting him approach in turn before slipping away. It's even Flosshilde who goes the furthest, playing rapture before crushing him with humiliating insults.

Alberich's attention is diverted by a ray of light that strikes the central reef and the Gold it houses. The Daughters of the Rhine reveal to him the secret of this magical Gold, which it would be enough to forge into a Ring to govern the world. Their chatter also teaches the Nibelung that only he who would deny Love could forge this Ring. Who would renounce Love… Nobody, except Alberich, convinced precisely of its absolute ugliness and the impossibility of being loved. He renounces Love, steals the Gold, and flees.

Scene 2. On the roof of the world, Wotan contemplates the fortress he had built, finally completed. His wife Fricka is worried: they will have to pay their salaries to the Builder Giants, and the agreement concerned his own sister, Freia… To avoid paying this price, Wotan hopes for a miracle solution that would come from Loge, the god of fire . But Loge is slow to join him.

Freia has arrived, with the Giants Fasolt and Fafner on her heels, first ready to take her away then furious to see that Wotan refuses to pay the agreed salary. Because if Fasolt seems to care about Freia, Fafner knows that she cultivates the Golden Apples for the gods, the source of their eternal youth. The two Giants are preparing to take the goddess away by force when Loge finally appears.

He explains his failure to Wotan: no treasure is worth the woman; no treasure will therefore be able to replace Freia. But he learned of the theft of the Rhinegold, and asks Wotan to recover it to bring justice to the Rhinemaidens. The description of this Gold and its power interests the Giants as much as Wotan. When Loge adds that Alberich has already forged the Decisive Ring and that it is enough to steal it from him, the Giants demand this Gold as salary and take Freia hostage. Immediately the faces of the gods fade. To recover Freia, Wotan goes in search of Gold. He descends with Loge through a crevasse to the underground domain of Alberich – the Nibelheim.

Scene 3. On Alberich's order, his brother Mime forged with Gold a Ring and a magical Helm, which transforms the appearance of the wearer at will. Alberich plays it cruelly, disappearing in smoke to better hit his brother. Dejected and whining, Mime welcomes Loge and Wotan. He tells them how the Nibelungen were enslaved by Alberich and describes the powers of the Ring and the Helm.

When Alberich returns, he recognizes the gods but mocks them without embarrassment in the name of his new power. He even praises the magic of his Helm and, to demonstrate its extent, transforms himself into a dragon, then – at the clever request of Loge – into a toad. So Wotan and Loge have no trouble capturing him. They take off his Helm and take him with them on the way home.

Scene 4. Returns to the surface, Loge and Wotan ransom Alberich: his treasure in exchange for his freedom. Summoned by their master, the Nibelungen deliver all his Gold to the gods. Wotan also demands the Helm, then the Ring. It's too much for Alberich. When the Ring is taken from him, he takes revenge with a curse: whoever possesses it from now on will be doomed to misfortune and death. Finally free, he fled.

The Giants return with Freia. His body must serve as a measure of the sum of Gold necessary to pay them. While all the treasure is accumulated, Fafner approaches and sees Freia's hair again: He demands the Helm to hide the opening. Fasolt also sees the eyes of the goddess shine, but Wotan refuses to add the Ring. The Giants threaten to kidnap Freia, but he persists. Only the appearance of the goddess-prophetess Erda, who reminds him of the curse attached to the Ring and announces to him the twilight of his divine race, makes him give in and deliver the Ring to the Giants.

They rush to the treasure and eagerly compete for the Ring. First effect of Alberich's curse: Fafner kills Fasolt, pockets everything and leaves. The gods then head towards their fortress, which Wotan calls Walhalla. Only Lodge stands at a distance, ironic, while in the distance the Rhinemaidens lament over their stolen Gold and the hypocrisy of the world above.

© L’Avant-Scène Opéra