Ring cycle

The complete cycle crowns a remarkable artistic journey for The Royal Opera. Since the premiere of Das Rheingold in 2023, each instalment of Barrie Kosky’s visionary new Ring has been met with critical acclaim, establishing the productions as one of the defining interpretations of the age. The cycle now comes together for the first time, allowing audiences to experience the full sweep of Wagner’s epic narrative as it was intended to be seen: 15 hours of incredible music over the course of a week.

Wagner is known for his pioneering use of ’leitmotifs’ – recurring musical fragments associated with characters, objects and ideas – that evolve and interweave across the Ring cycle’s 15 hours of music. Among the composer’s most celebrated leitmotifs is the thunderous Valkyrie motif from the famous ’Ride of the Valkyries’, which opens Act III of Die Walküre, conjuring the Valkyries’ airborne flight with driving strings, trilling woodwinds and a leaping fanfare. The orchestra demands nearly 100 players, including Wagner tubas invented specifically for this work, six harpists, and 18 on-stage anvils for Das Rheingold. Other popular leitmotifs to listen out for in the cycle include the Sword/Nothung motif (appearing in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre) and the Fafner motif (representing Siegfried’s formidable dragon). 

Wagner began work on the Ring cycle in 1848, inspired by the medieval Nibelungenlied (a heroic epic poem), Norse sagas and Greek tragedy. He completed all four libretti by December 1852, in reverse order, before composing the music chronologically – pausing for twelve years between Acts II and III of Siegfried to write Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Supported by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Wagner completed the cycle and premiered it at his purpose-built Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 13-17 August 1876, an event that generated worldwide excitement and established the Ring as the ultimate test for any opera company.