In the depths of the Rhine, the three Rhinemaidens guard the Rhinegold, a treasure of immeasurable value. The Nibelung dwarf Alberich is dazzled by the sight of it. The girls explain that whoever wins the gold and forges it into a ring will gain power over the world, but must first renounce love. Frustrated by his unsuccessful attempts to catch one of the girls, Alberich curses love and steals the gold. Wotan, lord of the gods, is reproached by his wife Fricka: he has promised to give Freia, goddess of youth, to the giants Fasolt and Fafner in return for their building a fortress for the gods. When the giants demand their reward, Loge, the god of fire, suggests an alternative payment: the ring Alberich has forged from the Rhinegold, and his other treasures. The giants agree, and Wotan and Loge leave for the Nibelungs’ underground home.

The grand scale and magnificent acoustics of the Roman arena in Verona are ideally suited to the pag...

The production was the Vienna State Opera debut for the young Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan – the ...

Emmanuelle Haïm has established herself as one of the world’s leading performers, conductors and int...

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the...

This set has Edita Gruberova singing in top form, all her scooping cast aside, which one finds in ab...

This May 2010 production of Massenet's 1910 opera "Don Quichotte" marked the opera's centenary and a...
The writer Dario Fo applies his inventive genius to Rossini's comic opera in its premiere DVD releas...

Götterdämmerung, the final instalment of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, is a story of human passions...

A musical drama based on Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto.

The life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singe...

Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in Stepháne Braunschweig's production of Richard W...

Viva Vivaldi! is a concert by the Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli interspersing arias from the...

The first-ever audio-visual recording of this opera – directed by Christof Loy, conducted by Marc Al...

Starring Jonas Kaufmann as Bacchus and featuring Emily Magee with Daniel Harding conducting the Vien...

Handel's 1724 opera Tamerlano followed the success of his previous year's Giulio Cesare with another...

Premiered in 1787, “Don Giovanni” exposes the timeless theme of a man hovering between vitality and ...

John Eliot Gardiner conducts Gluck’s 1776 French version of “Alceste” at the Théâtre du Châtelet in ...

From the first steps of an emerging singer to the final bow of a celebrated soprano, 'PRIMADONNA OR ...
“Let us assume that Switzerland is truly a paradise. The music hereto was written long ago. We have ...