The Rheingold at Nationaltheater Mannheim

The dwarf Alberich steals the Rhine maidens the Rheingold and can forge a tarnhelm and a ring that gives him immense power therefrom. The giants Fafner and Fasolt have the gods Valhalla built and for the goddess Freia as negotiated wage. Father of the gods Wotan, however, refuses to release Freia, the gods will receive eternal youth. Instead offers Loge, the wily god of fire, the giants Alberich's gold. With fraud come Wotan and Loge to the gold and the ring. Alberich but attached a curse on the ring to destroy anyone who takes possession of his. And indeed, Fafner kills in the dispute over the gold his brother Fasolt. Wotan is the goddess Erda prophesies the end of the gods. Worried about the prophecy he stride and the gods over a rainbow bridge to the castle.

With an escalating over 136 bars in E flat major chord begins an almost 16 hours lasting event which stretches over four evenings: Der Ring des Nibelungen. More than a quarter of a century, 1848-1874, Richard Wagner has been working on this piece of art. The unit, which despite the fractures and cracks respecting the work with its dramatic, epic and symphonic moments, is amazing. In the ring moves between the conflicting poles law, power, politics, and love the whole spectrum of social confrontation of modernity in our field of vision.