Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the Nibelungenlied. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel", structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring cycle, Wagner's Ring, or simply The Ring.
Die Walküre, WWV 86B, is the second of the four epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 26 June 1870, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 14 August 1876.
George London was an American concert and operatic bass-baritone.
Speight Jenkins Jr. is a classical music critic and music administrator. He was the general director of Seattle Opera from 1983 to 2014.
Washington National Opera (WNO) is an American opera company in Washington, D.C. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performances are now given in the Opera House of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Dame Gwyneth Jones is a Welsh dramatic soprano, widely regarded as one of the greatest Wagnerian sopranos in the second half of the 20th century.
Lisa Kinkead Gasteen AO, is an Australian operatic soprano, known for her performances of the works of Wagner. She won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1991. She did not perform between 2008 and 2011, due to neuro-muscular spasms in her neck.
Thomas Stewart was an American bass-baritone who sang an unusually wide range of roles, earning global acclaim particularly for his performances in Wagner's operas.
Melbourne Opera was founded in 2002 as a charitable not-for-profit company dedicated to producing opera and associated art forms in Melbourne, Australia. With philanthropic assistance it has also toured to outer-suburban and regional Victorian theatres, as well as to Canberra and Hobart interstate. Despite receiving no government funding since its foundation, the company mounts between three and five main stage productions each year. Its principal rehearsal and performance home is the Athenaeum Theatre.
Longborough Festival Opera is an opera festival which presents a season of high quality opera each June and July in the English Cotswolds village of Longborough in north Gloucestershire. It began in 1991 as Banks Fee Opera by presenting concerts, and moved forward with operas presented by a travelling company. This was followed by converting a barn into an opera house. Audiences grew rapidly in the 1990s and, during the last decade, a focus on Wagner's operas led to three complete Ring Cycles being performed in 2013. The present chairman of the festival is Andrew Mosely, the music director Anthony Negus and the artistic director is Polly Graham.
Heinrich Vogl was a German operatic heldentenor.
Stephen Milling is a Danish operatic bass who has had an active international career since the mid-1990s. Although his repertoire encompasses a wide range, he is particularly known for his roles in the operas of Richard Wagner.
Asher Fisch is an Israeli conductor and pianist.
The Jahrhundertring was the production of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976, celebrating the centenary of both the festival and the first performance of the complete cycle. The festival was directed by Wolfgang Wagner and the production was created by the French team of conductor Pierre Boulez, stage director Patrice Chéreau, stage designer Richard Peduzzi, costume designer Jacques Schmidt and lighting designer André Diot. The cycle was shown first in 1976, then in the following years until 1980. It was filmed for television in 1979 and 1980. While the first performance caused "a near-riot" for its brash modernity, the staging established a standard, termed Regietheater, for later productions.
Diane Curry is an American operatic mezzo-soprano who is particularly known for her performances of the works of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, and Giuseppe Verdi. She was notably the mezzo-soprano soloist on the 1987 recording of Verdi's Requiem by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and conductor Robert Shaw which won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
Geraldine Decker was an American mezzo-soprano and voice teacher who had active singing career in operas and concerts from 1971 through 2010. She was particularly active with the Metropolitan Opera and the Seattle Opera, and is best remembered for her annual performances in Seattle of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle from 1974 to 1987. She taught on the voice faculty of Pepperdine University.
Der Ring in Minden was a project to stage Richard Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Stadttheater Minden, beginning in 2015 with Das Rheingold, followed by the other parts in the succeeding years, and culminating with the complete cycle performed twice in 2019. The stage director was Gerd Heinz, and Frank Beermann conducted the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, playing on the stage of the small theatre. The singers acted in front of the orchestra, making an intimate approach to the dramatic situations possible. The project received international recognition and was compared favourably to the Bayreuth Festival.
Tijl Faveyts is a Belgian operatic bass. A current member of the Komische Oper Berlin, he has performed leading roles such as Mozart's Sarastro and Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre and Gurnemanz Parsifal at major opera houses, concert halls and festivals, and made recordings.
Between 1958 and 1965 the Decca record company made the first complete recording to be released of Richard Wagner's operatic tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen, comprising Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Of the four component operas, there had been two previous studio recordings of Die Walküre, and a radio recording of Götterdämmerung that was released on record in 1956, but Decca's was the first Ring cycle planned and recorded for the gramophone.
Deborah Humble is a Welsh born Australian dramatic mezzo-soprano noted for her operatic roles and performances on the world’s concert stages. A principal artist with Opera Australia and the Staatsoper Hamburg, Humble was a recipient of the Dame Joan Sutherland Award in 2004 and a finalist in the International Wagner Competition in 2008. The recipient of two Green Room Award nominations, she has been included in the Who's Who of Australian Women since 2009.
