(c) Daniel Escalé Gran Teatre del Liceu: The Rhine Gold
Barcelona, Gran Teatre del Liceu — Sala Principal
About the Event
Immerse yourself in the mesmerizing world of opera with Richard Wagner's The Rhine Gold (Das Rheingold), poised to captivate audiences at the prestigious Gran Teatre del Liceu.
With Das Rheingold, prelude to Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner opens a mythical universe that speaks directly to our present: the birth of power, its corruption and the fracture of an order that seemed eternal. In this new production, stage director Tobias Kratzer intertwines myth and modernity in a proposal full of poetic and unsettling images and turns the legend into a vibrant and absolutely contemporary theatrical experience.
The primordial gold, pure treasure of the Rhine, is profaned by the desire for dominion. With this gesture, Alberich —performed by Bo Skovhus— sets in motion a chain of deceptions that will shake gods and humans. At the center of the conflict, Wotan (Nicholas Brownlee), Fricka (Tanja Ariane Baumgartner) and the powerful Erda (Okka von der Damerau) reveal the tensions of a divine world that is breaking apart. The enigmatic presence of Loge (Nicky Spence), the unease of Mime (Mikeldi Atxalandabaso) and the strength of Fasolt (Ante Jerjunica) and Fafner (Wilhelm Schwinghammer) complete a Wagnerian cast of high dramatic intensity.
From the pit, Jonathan Nott unfolds all the symbolic power of the orchestra: the leitmotifs emerge as sonic archetypes that evoke water, greed, law, lost love. His conducting —precise, organic, deeply narrative— turns the score into a living organism that breathes with the drama.
Das Rheingold is not just the story of a ring: it is the beginning of a spiritual crisis. Love, nature and commitment are turned into currency, but in this darkness there also pulses a promise: the possibility of breaking the cycle of power and recovering what cannot be bought.
Thus, Wagner places us before a radical idea and a breathtaking beauty: that what is truly sacred is only reborn when reverence defeats domination and that, perhaps, we are still in time to return to the origin.
Epic opera in one act. Prologue to the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)
Libretto and music by Richard Wagner
World premiere: 22 September 1869 at the Königliches Hof‐ und Nationaltheater in Munich
Premiere in Barcelona: 30 March 1910 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (in Italian)
Last performance at the Liceu: 2 May 2013
Total performances at the Liceu: 46
Program
- Richard Wagner – Das Rheingold
Cast / Production
Wotan
Nicholas Brownlee
Donner
Daniel Scofield
Froh
Roger Padullés
Loge
Nicky Spence
Alberich
Martin Winkler
Mime
Mikeldi Atxalandabaso
Faslot
Ante Jerkunica
Fafner
Wilhelm Schwinghammer
Fricka
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner
Freia
Anett Fritsch
Erda
Okka von der Damerau
Woglinde
Ximena Agurto
Wellgunde
Jennifer Feinstein
Flosshilde
Helena Ressurreição
Address
Gran Teatre del Liceu, La Rambla, 51‐59, Barcelona, Spain — Google Maps
