The Valkyrie,
Act 1

The Ring Cycle is about the epic battle between power and love, set to Wagner’s incredible music. It is made up of 4 operas, with a performance time of more than 15 hours, but it is also full of minor stories, many of which are strong musical dramas in themselves.

We find one of these in the first act of the second opera in the cycle: The Valkyrie. This act has often been performed on its own, in concert form. It gives us our first encounter with the love that eventually concludes the entire work – and changes the world.

An intense plot

Siegmund and Sieglinde – children of Wotan, king of the gods and a mortal woman – are twins, but because they were separated when they were young, they do not know this. The pair are part of a grand plan Wotan has to regain possession of the ring forged from the gold that bestows ultimate power, but requires the bearer to renounce love for eternity.

Sieglinde has been abducted and sold to the warrior Hunding as his wife. Siegmund is on the run, and has sought refuge in his enemy Hunding’s house, but only Hunding’s wife Sieglinde is at home. Unaware that they are brother and sister, they fall in love with each other. Hunding tries to be hospitable, even though he knows who this stranger is, and he sees the tension between him and his wife. On their wedding day, Wotan drove a sword into a tree that is growing in their living room. No one has ever managed to pull it out – no one until Siegmund. Sieglinde realises that he is the one she has been waiting for, he is the one who will make her whole.

See experienced Wagner singers on the stage

The Swedish soprano Elisabet Strid, who has previously been a guest performer in the Oslo Opera House in Tannhaüser, made her international breakthrough as Sieglinde in Riga in 2010. Since then, she has sung the role at opera houses including Teatro Real de Madrid, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Kungliga Operan, Stockholm, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2010. The Danish tenor Magnus Vigilius has previously sung Siegmund at venues including the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples and Theater Kiel. Both he and the Norwegian National Opera’s own Jens-Erik Aasbø, in the role as Hunding, were to have appeared in the cancelled Bayreuth Festival in 2020.

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