NOSPR / Karlsen / Damerau - NOSPR

The essence of The Ring of the Nibelung might be considered to be the breaking of the order of things and returning to it: it is the stealing of the Rhine gold from its natural environment that causes an avalanche of consequences. Harmony is only restored once the ring forged from the gold has returned to its proper place. This will happen in the last bars of the Twilight of the Gods, when the Valkyrie Brünnhilde throws it into the waters of the river, but for the price of the heroes’ death and the destruction of the world. Therefore, what the programme of the Wagnerian fragments of the theatrical masterpiece is telling us these days seems all too obvious. Although sacrifices will be necessary, they might still reap their reward – this is what Beethoven’s Leonora overture seems to be saying, while introducing Fidelio, a story of wrongdoing punished. All that will shimmer in the fantastic light of the Laterna Magica by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Contemporary classics.

Jakub Puchalski