Götterdämmerung at Bartók Béla National Concert Hall

The Norns, daughters of Erda, can no longer see into the future. The world tree Yggdrasil, its branches broken to pieces, awaits the coming cataclysm. The threads of fate are inextricably entangled, as both Brünnhilde and Siegfried are tricked into falling for someone else. Siegfried is given a drugged potion which causes him to forget. The betrayed and vengeful Brünnhilde only understands what has happened after Siegfried, slowly recovering his memory, is mortally wounded with Hagen’s spear. Brünnhilde casts the youth’s body into the first flames of the climactic conflagration, before throwing herself into the fire as well. The realm of the Gods and men is destroyed. The Rhine bursts its banks and the accursed ring is returned to its original place.
This production offers the audience a genuine cast of Wagnerian stars. Siegfried is sung by Christian Franz, the king of tenors in Europe’s opera houses and at Bayreuth, while the role of Alberich goes to a successful newcomer of recent years in the shape of Martin Winkler. A former student of Birgit Nilsson and among the singers most sought after today in the role of Brünnhilde, Iréne Theorin plays the heroine of the Ring Cycle, while Gutrune is sung by Erika Markovics, known for her success in the works of Mozart and Wagner alike.