How long is the entire Ring cycle?
Yes, the “Ring” cycle lasts 17 hours. But that's over several days, with days off between each of the four operas and long breaks after every act.
How long is Rhinegold?
2 ½ hoursDas Rheingold is an opera in one act, divided into four scenes. It is a very long act, lasting 2 ½ hours, but it is normally played without an interval as the music is continuous, even between the scenes. The characters in the opera are Gods, Giants, Nibelungs and the Rhinedaughters. The Nibelungs are a race of dwarfs.
Why are Wagner operas so long?
Cutting Wagner, as was once commonly done, is a risky proposition. His operatic structures are so deliberately conceived that cutting out bits here and there disrupts the flow and can actually make the operas seem longer.
How long is the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen?
about 15 hoursPerhaps the most outstanding facet of the monumental work is its sheer length: a full performance of the cycle takes place over four nights at the opera, with a total playing time of about 15 hours, depending on the conductor's pacing.
How long is Siegfried?
Running time The performance lasts about 6 hours, including two intervals.
Is there a chorus in Das Rheingold?
Das Rheingold was Wagner's first attempt to write dramatic music in accordance with the principles he had enunciated in Opera and Drama, hence the general absence in the score of conventional operatic "numbers" in the form of arias, ensembles and choruses.
What is the longest opera ever written?
The Heretics by Gabriel von Wayditch (1888–1969) is orchestrated for 11 pieces and lasts 8½ hours.
Why is opera so annoying?
Reasons include its “mediochre music”, “melodramatic plots”, “mateurishly hammy acting”, “forced and unpleasant singing style”, and opera's tendency to be “ridiculously over-supported by public funds”.
How long is La Boheme?
Approximately 2 hour and 35 minutesPerformance Time: Approximately 2 hour and 35 minutes.
How long is Wagner's The Valkyrie?
It's actually a pretty simple story for five and a half hours.”
How long is Valkyrie opera?
about 5 hours 50 minutesThe performance lasts about 5 hours 50 minutes, including two intervals.
Which is the best opera in the Ring cycle?
Best Individual Opera in The Ring Cycle?Das Rheingold. Votes: 2 3.1%Die Walkure. Votes: 28 43.1%Siegfried. Votes: 5 7.7%Gotterdammerung. Votes: 23 35.4%They are all equally great, and you can't force me to choose! Votes: 5 7.7%I haven't heard them all yet. Votes: 2 3.1%
Overview
Performances
Long before Das Rheingold was ready for performance, Wagner conducted excerpts of the music from Scenes 1, 2 and 4, at a concert in Vienna on 26 December 1862. The work remained unstaged, but by 1869 Wagner's principal financial sponsor, King Ludwig of Bavaria, was pressing for an early performance in Munich. Wagner wanted to wait until the cycle was completed, when he wou…
Background and context
Having completed his opera Lohengrin in April 1848, Richard Wagner chose as his next subject Siegfried, the legendary hero of Germanic myth. In October of that year he prepared a prose outline for Siegfried's Death, which during the following months he developed into a full libretto. After his flight from Dresden and relocation in Switzerland, he continued to develop and expand his Siegfried project, having decided meantime that a single work would not suffice for his purposes…
Synopsis
Prelude
At the bottom of the Rhine, the three Rhinemaidens, Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Floßhilde, play together. Alberich, a Nibelung dwarf, appears from a deep chasm and tries to woo them. The maidens mock his advances and he grows angry – he chases them, but they elude, tease and humiliate him. A sudden ray of suns…
Writing history
Because Wagner developed his Ring scheme in reverse chronological order, the "poem" (libretto) for Das Rheingold was the last of the four to be written. He finished his prose plan for the work in March 1852, and on 15 September began writing the full libretto, which he completed on 3 November. In February 1853, at the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zürich, Wagner read the whole Ring text to an invited …
Music
Das Rheingold was Wagner's first attempt to write dramatic music in accordance with the principles he had enunciated in Opera and Drama, hence the general absence in the score of conventional operatic "numbers" in the form of arias, ensembles and choruses. Rather than acting as the accompanist to the voices, the orchestra combines with them on equal terms to propel the drama …
Critical assessment
Although it is sometimes performed independently, Das Rheingold is not generally considered outside the structure of the Ring cycle. However, as Millington points out, it is a substantial work in its own right, and has several characteristics not shared by the other works in the tetralogy. It is comparatively short, with continuous music; no interludes or breaks. The action moves forward relatively swiftly, unencumbered, as Arnold Whittall observes, by the "retarding explanations" – pa…
Recording
Live performances of Das Rheingold from Bayreuth and elsewhere were recorded from 1937 onwards, but were not issued for many years. The first studio recording, and the first to be issued commercially, was Georg Solti's 1958 Decca version, part of his complete Ring cycle, 1958–1966, which marked the beginning of a new era in recorded opera. Since then Das Rheingold has been recorded, as part of the cycle, on many occasions, with regular new issues.