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56-779: The theatre opened in 1903 and was modernised between 2015–2016, including significant structural changes. The theatre was renamed Konzert Theatre Bern from the 2011/2012 season through the 2020/2021 season. In 2021, the theatre became known as Bühnen Bern. That year, Nicholas Carter became its chief conductor. Famous performers include Robin Adams , Agnes Baltsa , Inge Borkh , Renato Bruson , Grace Bumbry , José Carreras , Plácido Domingo , Salvatore Fisichella , Käthe Gold , Norma Sharp , Alexander Moissi , Jessye Norman , Liselotte Pulver , Will Quadflieg , Nello Santi , Christine Schäfer , Maria Schell , and Rolf Schimpf . Every season,

112-402: A prelude . Wagner called Das Rheingold a Vorabend or "Preliminary Evening", and Die Walküre , Siegfried and Götterdämmerung were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, of the trilogy proper. The scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods , heroes , and several mythical creatures over the eponymous magic ring that grants domination over

168-497: A tenor drum , as well as five onstage horns and four onstage steerhorns, one of them to be blown by Hagen. Much of the Ring , especially from Siegfried act 3 onwards, cannot be said to be in traditional, clearly defined keys for long stretches, but rather in 'key regions', each of which flows smoothly into the following. This fluidity avoided the musical equivalent of clearly defined musical paragraphs and assisted Wagner in building

224-572: A broad repertoire that including all ten Wagner operas. From 2014, Carter was appointed Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin , working closely with Sir Donald Runnicles. His repertoire expanded, conducting productions of The Love for Three Oranges , La bohème , Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet , L'elisir d'amore and Die Entführung aus dem Serail . The relationship with the Deutsche Oper continued to develop over

280-520: A chorus only relatively briefly, in acts 2 and 3 of Götterdämmerung , and then mostly of men with just a few women. He eventually had a purpose-built theatre constructed, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus , in which to perform this work. The theatre has a special stage that blends the huge orchestra with the singers' voices, allowing them to sing at a natural volume. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during

336-676: A commercial recording on compact disc and on iTunes. In 2003 the first production of the cycle in Russia in modern times was conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Mariinsky Opera , Saint Petersburg, designed by George Tsypin . The production drew parallels with Ossetian mythology. The Royal Danish Opera performed a complete Ring cycle in May 2006 in its new waterfront home, the Copenhagen Opera House . This version of

392-504: A concerted cadenza ; plunge on from that to a magnificent love duet...The work which follows, entitled Night Falls on the Gods [Shaw's translation of Götterdämmerung ], is a thorough grand opera. As a significant element in the Ring and his subsequent works, Wagner adopted the use of leitmotifs , which are recurring themes or harmonic progressions. They musically denote an action, object, emotion, character, or other subject mentioned in

448-712: A double slide. He also developed the "Wagner bell", enabling the bassoon to reach the low A-natural, whereas normally B-flat is the instrument's lowest note. If such a bell is not to be used, then a contrabassoon should be employed. All four parts have a very similar instrumentation. The core ensemble of instruments are one piccolo , three flutes (third doubling second piccolo ), three oboes , cor anglais (doubling fourth oboe), three soprano clarinets , one bass clarinet , three bassoons ; eight horns (fifth through eighth doubling Wagner tubas ), three trumpets , one bass trumpet, three tenor trombones , one contrabass trombone (doubling bass trombone ), one contrabass tuba ;

504-404: A lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel). ... At a specially-appointed Festival, I propose, some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of three days and a fore-evening . The object of this production I shall consider thoroughly attained, if I and my artistic comrades, the actual performers, shall within these four evenings succeed in artistically conveying my purpose to

560-552: A location in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth . In 1872, he moved to Bayreuth and the foundation stone was laid. Wagner would spend the next two years attempting to raise capital for the construction, with scant success; King Ludwig finally rescued the project in 1874 by donating the needed funds. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus opened in 1876 with the first complete performance of the Ring , which took place from 13 to 17 August. In 1882, London impresario Alfred Schulz-Curtius organized

616-598: A means of artistic expression. He expressed this clearly in his essay " A Communication to My Friends " (1851), in which he condemned the majority of modern artists, in painting and in music, as "feminine ... the world of art close fenced from Life, in which Art plays with herself.' Where however the impressions of Life produce an overwhelming 'poetic force', we find the 'masculine, the generative path of Art'. Wagner unfortunately found that his audiences were not willing to follow where he led them: The public, by their enthusiastic reception of Rienzi and their cooler welcome of

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672-504: A percussion section with 4 timpani (requiring two players), triangle , cymbals , tam-tam ; six harps and a string section consisting of 16 first and 16 second violins , 12 violas , 12 cellos and 8 double basses . Das Rheingold , one offstage harp and 18 offstage anvils . Die Walküre requires one snare drum , one D clarinet (played by the third clarinettist) and an on-stage steerhorn . Siegfried requires one onstage cor anglais and one onstage horn. Götterdämmerung requires

728-675: A series of articles in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , inviting composers to write a 'national opera' based on the Nibelungenlied , a 12th-century High German poem which, since its rediscovery in 1755, had been hailed by the German Romantics as the "German national epic ". Siegfrieds Tod dealt with the death of Siegfried, the central heroic figure of the Nibelungenlied. The idea had occurred to others –

784-470: Is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend , namely Norse legendary sagas and the Nibelungenlied . The composer termed the cycle a " Bühnenfestspiel " (stage festival play), structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend ("preliminary evening"). It is often referred to as

840-402: Is a major undertaking for any opera company: staging four interlinked operas requires a huge commitment both artistically and financially; hence, in most opera houses, production of a new Ring cycle will happen over a number of years, with one or two operas in the cycle being added each year. The Bayreuth Festival , where the complete cycle is performed most years, is unusual in that a new cycle

896-532: Is almost always created within a single year. Early productions of the Ring cycle stayed close to Wagner's original Bayreuth staging. Trends set at Bayreuth have continued to be influential. Following the closure of the Festspielhaus during the Second World War , the 1950s saw productions by Wagner's grandsons Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner (known as the 'New Bayreuth' style), which emphasised

952-665: Is an Australian conductor. He is currently Chief Conductor and Co-Opera Director of Oper Bern , Switzerland . Carter was born in Melbourne, Australia and began learning the violin and piano at school. Aged nine, he became member of the National Boys Choir of Australia, where he had his first exposure to orchestral music and opera, through involvement in concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia . Carter came under

1008-547: Is eventually betrayed and slain as a result of the intrigues of Alberich's son Hagen, who wants the ring for himself. Finally, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde – Siegfried's lover and Wotan's daughter who lost her immortality for defying her father in an attempt to save Siegfried's father Sigmund – returns the ring to the Rhine maidens as she commits suicide on Siegfried's funeral pyre. Hagen is drowned as he attempts to recover

1064-433: Is forced to hand it over to the giants Fafner and Fasolt in payment for building the home of the gods, Valhalla , or they will take Freia, who provides the gods with the golden apples that keep them young. Wotan's schemes to regain the ring, spanning generations, drive much of the action in the story. His grandson, the mortal Siegfried, wins the ring by slaying Fafner (who slew Fasolt for the ring) – as Wotan intended – but

1120-585: Is most literally rendered in English as The Ring of the Nibelung . The Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhinegold. The title therefore denotes "Alberich's Ring". The cycle is a work of extraordinary scale. 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

1176-695: The Flying Dutchman , had plainly shown me what I must set before them if I sought to please. I completely undeceived their expectations; they left the theatre, after the first performance of Tannhäuser , [1845] in a confused and discontented mood. – The feeling of utter loneliness in which I now found myself, quite unmanned me... My Tannhäuser had appealed to a handful of intimate friends alone. Finally Wagner announces: I shall never write an Opera more. As I have no wish to invent an arbitrary title for my works, I will call them Dramas ... I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by

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1232-495: The Ring cycle , Wagner's Ring , or simply The Ring . Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the Ring cycle are, in sequence: Individual works of the sequence are often performed separately, and indeed the operas contain dialogues that mention events in the previous operas, so that a viewer could watch any of them without having watched

1288-549: The National Theatre in Munich , before the rest of the Ring . Thus, Das Rheingold premiered on 22 September 1869 and Die Walküre on 26 June 1870. Wagner subsequently delayed announcing his completion of Siegfried to prevent this work also being premiered against his wishes. Wagner had long desired to have a special festival opera house, designed by himself, for the performance of the Ring . In 1871, he decided on

1344-463: The Ring tells the story from the viewpoint of Brünnhilde and has a distinct feminist angle. For example, in a key scene in Die Walküre , it is Sieglinde and not Siegmund who manages to pull the sword Nothung out of a tree. At the end of the cycle, Brünnhilde does not die, but instead gives birth to Siegfried's child. San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera began a co-production of

1400-405: The Ring were originally conceived by Wagner to be free of the traditional operatic concepts of aria and operatic chorus . The Wagner scholar Curt von Westernhagen identified three important problems discussed in "Opera and Drama" which were particularly relevant to the Ring cycle: the problem of unifying verse stress with melody; the disjunctions caused by formal arias in dramatic structure and

1456-495: The Rundfunk Symphonieorchester Berlin , City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra , Dallas Symphony Orchestra , Seoul Philharmonic , BBC Symphony , as well as BBC Scottish and Welsh Symphony Orchestras, Hong Kong Philharmonic , and appears regularly with leading Australian orchestras. Der Ring des Nibelungen Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung ), WWV 86,

1512-594: The Sydney Symphony Orchestra . Holding this position for three seasons, Carter was introduced during this time to many conductors to whom he would later refer as significant mentors and supporters of his career, among them Sir Donald Runnicles and Simone Young . Young appointed Carter as Kapellmeister and Musical assistant at Hamburg State Opera from 2011, which saw him conduct The Magic Flute , Hänsel und Gretel , Lucia di Lammermoor , The Barber of Seville as well as assisting Young on

1568-627: The Bern Theatre offers more than 400 performances and concerts. Each season lasts from the end of August to the following July. The shows span classics, musicals, new choreographies of Bern’s ballet, world premieres, and debut performances. Well-known performances include Richard Wagner 's Ring cycle and The Black Spider . The theatre hosts rehearsal visits, introductions to plays, and various programs for children and young adults, such as drama clubs, dance projects, and premiere classes. Nicholas Carter (conductor) Nicholas Carter

1624-861: The Eddur, the Völsunga saga and Thidrekssaga . The final Götterdämmerung draws from the 12th-century German poem, the Nibelungenlied , which appears to have been the original inspiration for the Ring . The Ring has been the subject of myriad interpretations. For example, George Bernard Shaw , in The Perfect Wagnerite , argues for a view of The Ring as an essentially socialist critique of industrial society and its abuses. Robert Donington in Wagner's Ring And Its Symbols interprets it in terms of Jungian psychology , as an account of

1680-617: The Kärntner Symphonieorchester in Austria . His tenure saw him conduct highly-praised productions of Pelléas et Mélisande , Elektra , Tannhäuser , La clemenza di Tito , Rusalka and Cendrillon . Carter moved to Bern , Switzerland in 2021, to assume the role of Chief Conductor of Oper Bern. Amongst his achievements in Bern to date has been the ongoing production of a critically-acclaimed Ring Cycle,

1736-891: The action in a world of nineteenth-century theatricality; it was initially controversial in 1985, it sold out its final performances in 1995. Conductors included Armin Jordan ( Die Walküre in 1985), Manuel Rosenthal (1986) and Hermann Michael (1987, 1991 and 1995). Ring 3 , 2000–2013: the production, which became known as the "Green" Ring , was in part inspired by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest . Directed by Stephen Wadsworth, set designer Thomas Lynch, costume designer Martin Pakledinaz , lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski ; Armin Jordan conducted in 2000, Franz Vote in 2001 and Robert Spano in 2005 and 2009. The 2013 performances, conducted by Asher Fisch , were released as

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1792-421: The basis of an organising principle in music. In summer 1848 Wagner wrote The Nibelung Myth as Sketch for a Drama , combining the medieval sources previously mentioned into a single narrative, very similar to the plot of the eventual Ring cycle, but nevertheless with substantial differences. Later that year he began writing a libretto entitled Siegfrieds Tod ("Siegfried's Death"). He was possibly stimulated by

1848-433: The composition draft of Das Rheingold . Unlike the verses, which were written as it were in reverse order, the music would be composed in the same order as the narrative. Composition proceeded until 1857, when the final score up to the end of act 2 of Siegfried was completed. Wagner then laid the work aside for twelve years, during which he wrote Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg . By 1869, Wagner

1904-471: The conductor's pacing. The first and shortest work, Das Rheingold , has no interval and is one continuous piece of music typically lasting around two and a half hours, while the final and longest, Götterdämmerung , takes up to five hours, excluding intervals. The cycle is modelled after ancient Greek dramas that were presented as three tragedies and one satyr play . The Ring proper begins with Die Walküre and ends with Götterdämmerung , with Rheingold as

1960-450: The correspondence of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn in 1840/41 reveals that they were both outlining scenarios on the subject: Fanny wrote 'The hunt with Siegfried's death provides a splendid finale to the second act'. By 1850, Wagner had completed a musical sketch (which he abandoned) for Siegfrieds Tod . He now felt that he needed a preliminary opera, Der junge Siegfried ("The Young Siegfried", later renamed to "Siegfried"), to explain

2016-515: The development of unconscious archetypes in the mind, leading towards individuation . In his earlier operas (up to and including Lohengrin ) Wagner's style had been based, rather than on the Italian style of opera, on the German style as developed by Carl Maria von Weber , with elements of the grand opera style of Giacomo Meyerbeer . However he came to be dissatisfied with such a format as

2072-626: The ensuing years, and in 2024 he will lead the company in performances of Wagner's Ring Cycle . In 2016, parallel to his position as Kapellmeister in Berlin, Carter was appointed Principal Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra , becoming the first Australian conductor in 30 years to lead an Australian orchestra. September 2018 saw Carter become Chief Conductor of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and

2128-463: The entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung . The music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba , bass trumpet and contrabass trombone . Remarkably, he uses

2184-587: The events in Siegfrieds Tod and his verse draft of this was completed in May 1851. By October, he had made the momentous decision to embark on a cycle of four operas, to be played over four nights: Das Rheingold , Die Walküre , Der Junge Siegfried and Siegfrieds Tod ; the text for all four parts was completed in December 1852 and privately published in February 1853. In November 1853, Wagner began

2240-466: The famous illustrations by Arthur Rackham . It was performed twice each summer, once in German, once in Andrew Porter's English adaptation. Henry Holt conducted all performances. Ring 2 , 1985–1995: Directed by Francois Rochaix, with sets and costumes designed by Robert Israel, lighting by Joan Sullivan and supertitles (the first ever created for the Ring ) by Sonya Friedman . The production set

2296-480: The first in the theater's history. Further to his titled positions, Carter has also appeared as guest conductor with many leading opera companies and orchestras, including, the Metropolitan Opera , New York, Vienna Staatsoper , Glyndebourne Festival Opera , Zürich Opera , Deutsche Oper Berlin , Staatsoper Stuttgart and Santa Fe Opera . On the symphonic stage, Carter has conducted among others,

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2352-750: The first staging in the United Kingdom of the Ring cycle, conducted by Anton Seidl and directed by Angelo Neumann . The first production of the Ring in Italy was in Venice (the place where Wagner died), just two months after his 1883 death, at La Fenice . The first Australian Ring (and The Mastersingers of Nuremberg ) was presented in an English-language production by the British travelling Quinlan Opera Company, in conjunction with J. C. Williamson's , in Melbourne and Sydney in 1913. The Ring

2408-582: The human aspects of the drama in a more abstract setting. Perhaps the most famous modern production was the centennial production of 1976, the Jahrhundertring , directed by Patrice Chéreau and conducted by Pierre Boulez . Set in the Industrial Revolution , it replaced the depths of the Rhine with a hydroelectric power dam and featured grimy sets populated by men and gods in 19th and 20th century business suits. This drew heavily on

2464-510: The long performances. Wälsungs Neidings Gibichungs Rhinemaidens Giants Nibelungs The plot revolves around a magic ring that grants the power to rule the world, forged by the Nibelung dwarf Alberich from gold he stole from the Rhine maidens in the river Rhine . With the assistance of the god Loge, Wotan – the chief of the gods – steals the ring from Alberich, but

2520-517: The mentorship of Richard Gill , one of Australia's leading music educators and conductors, and conducted his first opera production, Hans Krása 's Brundibar for OzOpera in 2004. Following this and concurrent to his studies at the University of Melbourne, where he studied Piano and Voice, he continued to work with Gill in the newly formed Victorian Opera from 2006. In 2009, Carter was chosen by Vladimir Ashkenazy as his assistant conductor with

2576-451: The more optimistic originally planned ending. Wagner also decided to show onstage the events of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre , which had hitherto only been presented as back-narration in the other two parts. These changes resulted in some discrepancies in the cycle, but these do not diminish the value of the work. On King Ludwig's insistence, and over Wagner's objections, "special previews" of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre were given at

2632-476: The previous parts and still understand the plot. However, Wagner intended them to be performed in series. The first performance as a cycle opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, beginning with Das Rheingold on 13 August and ending with Götterdämmerung on 17 August. Opera stage director Anthony Freud stated that Der Ring des Nibelungen "marks the high-water mark of our art form, the most massive challenge any opera company can undertake." Wagner's title

2688-513: The reading of the Ring as a revolutionary drama and critique of the modern world, famously expounded by George Bernard Shaw in The Perfect Wagnerite . Early performances were booed but the audience of 1980 gave it a 45-minute ovation in its final year. Seattle Opera has created three different productions of the tetralogy: Ring 1 , 1975 to 1984: Originally directed by George London , with designs by John Naccarato following

2744-485: The ring. In the process, the gods and Valhalla are destroyed. Details of the storylines can be found in the articles on each music drama. Wagner created the story of the Ring by fusing elements from many German and Scandinavian myths and folk-tales. The Old Norse Edda supplied much of the material for Das Rheingold , while Die Walküre was largely based on the Völsunga saga . Siegfried contains elements from

2800-402: The text or presented onstage. Wagner referred to them in "Opera and Drama" as "guides-to-feeling", describing how they could be used to inform the listener of a musical or dramatic subtext to the action onstage in the same way as a Greek chorus did for the theatre of ancient Greece . Wagner made significant innovations in orchestration in this work. He wrote for a very large orchestra, using

2856-535: The true Emotional (not the Critical) Understanding of spectators who shall have gathered together expressly to learn it. This is his first public announcement of the form of what would become the Ring cycle. In accordance with the ideas expressed in his essays of the period 1849–51 (including the "Communication" but also " Opera and Drama " and " The Artwork of the Future "), the four parts of

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2912-412: The way in which opera music could be organised on a different basis of organic growth and modulation ; and the function of musical motifs in linking elements of the plot whose connections might otherwise be inexplicit. This became known as the leitmotif technique (see below), although Wagner himself did not use this word. However, Wagner relaxed some aspects of his self-imposed restrictions somewhat as

2968-412: The whole range of instruments used singly or in combination to express the great range of emotion and events of the drama. Wagner even commissioned the production of new instruments, including the Wagner tuba , invented to fill a gap he found between the tone qualities of the horn and the trombone , as well as variations of existing instruments, such as the bass trumpet and a contrabass trombone with

3024-401: The work progressed. As George Bernard Shaw sardonically (and slightly unfairly) noted of the last opera Götterdämmerung : And now, O Nibelungen Spectator, pluck up; for all allegories come to an end somewhere... The rest of what you are going to see is opera and nothing but opera. Before many bars have been played, Siegfried and the wakened Brynhild, newly become tenor and soprano, will sing

3080-489: The work's huge structures. Tonal indeterminacy was heightened by the increased freedom with which he used dissonance and chromaticism . Chromatically altered chords are used very liberally in the Ring and this feature, which is also prominent in Tristan und Isolde , is often cited as a milestone on the way to Arnold Schoenberg 's revolutionary break with the traditional concept of key and his dissolution of consonance as

3136-413: Was living at Tribschen on Lake Lucerne , sponsored by King Ludwig II of Bavaria . He returned to Siegfried and, remarkably, was able to pick up where he left off. In October, he completed the final work in the cycle. He chose the title Götterdämmerung instead of Siegfrieds Tod . In the completed work the gods are destroyed in accordance with the new pessimistic thrust of the cycle, not redeemed as in

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