Das Rheingold

Composer: Wagner, Richard

Librettist/Text Author: Wagner, Richard

Conductor: Barenboim, Daniel

Orchestra: Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Chorus: Bayreuth Festival Chorus

Alberich: Kannen, Gunter von

Donner: Brinkmann, Bodo

Erda: Svenden, Brigitta

Fafner: Kang, Philip

Fasolt: Holle, Matthias

Flosshilde: Turner, Jane

Freia: Johansson, Eva

Fricka: Finnie, Linda

Froh: Schreibmayer, Kurt

Loge: Clark, Graham

Mime: Pampuch, Helmut

Wellgunde: Kuttenbaum, Annette

Woglinde: Leidland, Hilde

Wotan: Tomlinson, John

Set Designer: Schavernoch, Hans

Costume Designer: Heinrich, Reinhard

Stage Director: Kupfer, Harry

Television Director: Hohlfeld, Horant

---

Venue: Bayreuth Festspielhaus

Playing Time: 02:34:24

Catalogue Number: A05008443

Synopsis

Das Rheingold

---

In 1988, conductor Daniel Barenboim, stage director Harry Kupfer, set
designer Hans Schavernoch and costume designer Reinhard Heinrich came to Bayreuth to realize their vision of Wagner's Das Rheingold. They firmly turned away from the work's time of origin and set their sights on a "critique of the history of mankind and of the entire evolution of culture, the destruction of which we are actively furthering" (Kupfer). While Wagner's "critique of mankind's destructive frenzy, its coldness and alienation" (Kupfer) was rooted in Germanic mythology, Kupfer's team locates its Ring in a present that also embraces the past and the future. The place where present, past and future converge is the "road of history", which sets the scene for struggles of power and love, and takes us straight into the depths of the human psyche.