Die Walküre

 

DIE WALKURE 

Wednesday 14 May 2025, 5.15pm 

 
Gods and mortals battle in this new production that reunites Conductor Antonio Pappano and director Barrie Kosky to continue the mythical adventure that began with Das Rheingold in 2023.

On a stormy night, fate brings two strangers together, unleashing a love with the power to end worlds. Meanwhile, in the realm of the gods, an epic battle ensues between their ruler Wotan and his rebellious daughter, Brünnhilde

Love and death, gods and mortals, heroes and villains: it’s all here, in the thunderous second chapter of the Ring cycle. Following the glittering triumph of Das Rheingold in 2023, Barrie Kosky and Antonio Pappano plunge back into Wagner’s mythic universe. Christopher Maltman’s Wotan returns alongside an international cast including Elisabet Strid as Brünnhilde, Lise Davidsen as Sieglinde and Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Siegmund.

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second work of Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen; it follows Das Rheingold and preceeds Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). It has become the most performed opera of the cycle, loved and admired for its nuanced and intelligent exploration of complex family entanglements, expressed through music of astonishing power – perhaps nowhere more so than in the glorious music for the incestuous lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde.

The 'Ride of the Valkyries' is the best-known piece of music from the opera. The music, which opens Act III, is an astonishing evocation of flight, depicting the fantastical valkyries, harvesting fallen heroes from the field of battle. Over the sound of quivering woodwinds, a galloping melody vaults upwards, the trombones unleash their famous, dazzling tune and we are swept up with the mythical daughters of Valhalla, as they sing their glorious arrival: ‘Hojotoho!’. Despite the fame of this introduction as a stand-alone piece, in its full dramatic context within Wagner’s Ring cycle, it is merely the prelude to what many describe as the pivotal scene of the entire saga: the heartbreaking scene between Wotan and his daughter, Brünnhilde. 

Interesting fact: Wagner composed the Ring Cycle backwards.  

 

Sung in German with English subtitles 

 

The Royal Opera 

Music: Richard Wagner 

Director: Barrie Kosky 

Conductor: Antonio Pappano 

 

Cast: Christopher Maltman, Elisabet Strid, Lise Davidsen, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Soloman Howard 

Running time: 365 minutes 

 

Doors open: 4.30pm.  Transmission begins: 5.15pm 

17:15-22:20 14 May 25

Adult: £15.00

Child: £10.00