Intro

Die Walküre / Der Ring des Nibelungen

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)

From 04/02/2007 in Ghent

• Musical direction: Ivan Törzs
• Director: Ivo van Hove
• Siegmund: Jeffrey Dowd
• Hunding: Attila Jun
• Wotan: James Johnson
• Sieglinde: Edith Haller / Thérèse Waldner

After entering Walhalla at the end of Das Rheingold, Wotan has been trying to find ways of winning back Alberich’s ring and prevent the cataclysmic end of the world order. A woman in the ‘world of man’ has born him the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde. These ‘Wälsungen’ were tragically separated from each other at a young age. With Erda, Wotan fathered nine ‘Walküren’, women trained for battle, who are to form a corps d’élite to defend Walhalla. One of them, Brünnhilde, the Walküre of the title of this ‘First Day’ of the Ring, is Wotan’s favourite daughter, who fathoms her father’s feelings and thoughts like no other. It is she who encourages him not to give up his visionary world politics. All hope is placed in Siegmund, who, as a free hero, and therefore unbound by divine treaties, is able to do what is absolutely necessary: to save the gods and the world from the impending catastrophe. After technology and the global village in Das Rheingold, Ivo van Hove now focuses on the human world and on the dynamics of the family, in which forces are at play that both strengthen and threaten its order.

Team

• Musical direction
  Ivan Törzs
• Director
  Ivo van Hove
• Set design
  Jan Versweyveld
• Costumes
  An d'Huys
•  
• Siegmund
  Jeffrey Dowd
• Hunding
  Attila Jun
• Wotan
  James Johnson
• Sieglinde
  Edith Haller
• Thérèse Waldner
• Brünnhilde
  Jayne Casselman
• Fricka
  Anne Mason
• Helmwige
  Janny Zomer
• Gerhilde
  Anja Van Engeland
• Ortlinde
  Xenia Konsek
• Watraute
  Lien Haegeman
• Siegrune
  Magali Mayenne
• Rossweise
  Judith Van Wanroij
• Grimgerde
  Corinne Romijn
• Schwertleite
  Julie Bailly
• Symfonisch Orkest van de Vlaamse Opera