DIE WALKÜRE

In the organizer's words:

Premiere on June 25, 2026

Composer Richard Wagner. Poetry by Richard Wagner.

First day of the stage festival Der Ring des Nibelungen (1870)

recommended for ages 14 and up

In German language. With surtitles in German and English. New production.

Duration approx. 5 hours 05 minutes

Co-production with the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona

Introductions take place in the Capriccio auditorium one hour before the start of each performance(except on the premiere evening). Seating is limited, duration approx. 20 minutes.

The premiere will be broadcast live on BR-Klassik.

Staging

Richard Wagner wrote Die Walküre as the second of the four parts of the massive music theater epic Der Ring des Nibelungen, which is based on the medieval Song of the Nibelungs and ancient Norse gods. Wotan, the supreme god, has fathered twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde, with a human woman. They in turn father a child, through which Wotan sees his rule consolidated. His wife Fricka opposes his plans and - as the protector of marriage in the traditional way of thinking - demands Siegmund's death. Wotan reluctantly complies, even if this leads to a rift with his favorite daughter Brünnhilde.

After opening with Das Rheingold, in which he showed how the gods find their way back to their original power, director Tobias Kratzer and his team now focus on the concept of homelessness, "both in the concrete sense (Siegmund, who is on the run without a home and homeland) and in the metaphorical sense (Wotan, who feels increasingly lonely and lost in the vastness of infinity and cosmic fear)" (Tobias Kratzer). According to Kratzer, the play poses the question of "whether love could be the solution to this dilemma?" And whether "the uneasiness can be 'healed' or at least temporarily forgotten through love" or is perhaps the greatest of all self-deceptions after all.

Cast

• Musical direction: Vladimir Jurowski
• Production: Tobias Kratzer
• Production collaboration: Matthias Piro
• Stage and costumes: Rainer Sellmaier
• Lighting: Michael Bauer
• Video: Manuel BraunJonasDahlJanicBebi
• Dramaturgy: Bettina BartzOlafRoth

• Siegmund: Joachim Bäckström
• Hunding: Ain Anger
• Wotan: Nicholas Brownlee
• Sieglinde: Irene Roberts
• Brünnhilde: Miina-Liisa Värelä
• Fricka: Ekaterina Gubanova
• Helmwige: Dorothea Herbert
• Gerhilde: Julie Adams
• Ortlinde: Elene Gvritishvili
• Waltraute: Claudia Mahnke
• Siegrune: Niina Keitel
• Roßweiße: Christina Bock
• Grimgerde: Natalie Lewis
• Schwertleite: Noa Beinart
• Thunder (mute): Felix Reitberger
• Froh (mute): Levin Rashid Stein
• Freia (mute): Maryna Adamenko

Price information:

Prices V, € 343 /313 /272 /213 /104 /69 /28 /20; Prices U, € 293 /263 /228 /183 /104 /69 /28 / 20; Prices T, € 264 /230 /190 /148 /104 /69 /28 /20