RG11 · Show · Das Rheingold
Loge
Loge, the god of fire, darts in and tells what he found when he searched the world: nobody will give up love, except Alberich, who stole the Rhinegold and made a ring of it. The giants listen, and decide they would rather have the gold. Until they get it, they take Freia.
1:29 · with a spoken intro
Drag to orbit · scroll or pinch to zoom · ↑ ↓ to change sequence
Loading…
Das Rheingold
RG01PreludeIntro1:23The Rhine before the story begins: one long E flat chord rises out of the dark, eight horns bloom across the house one after another, and the river starts to flow, faster and brighter, until the curtain rises.RG02Weia! Waga!Intro1:26Three Rhinemaidens, silver, green and violet, sing and chase each other through the sunlit river over the gold they guard, until something ugly climbs up out of the dark at the corner of the house.RG03The Suitor from BelowIntro1:24Alberich the dwarf slips and slides, sneezes, and tries his luck with each Rhinemaiden in turn. They lead him on, laugh in his face, and leave him raging, just as something starts to glow on the rock behind him.RG04Rheingold!Intro1:23Sunlight wakes the gold on its rock and the whole house blazes as the Rhinemaidens cry out its name. Then they let slip its secret: forge a ring from it and the world is yours, if you give up love. Alberich is listening.RG05The TheftIntro1:26Alberich swears off love for ever, tears the gold from its rock and runs with it down into the dark. The Rhinemaidens cry out after him, too late, as the river goes black and fills with mist.RG06ValhallaIntro1:26Out of the mist the shape of the Ring becomes a castle, gleaming across the porch at dawn. Wotan, king of the gods, sleeps in the meadow below it until Fricka wakes him, and he greets his new fortress with the brass at full strength.RG07FrickaIntro1:24Fricka reminds Wotan what the castle cost: her sister Freia, promised to the giants as their wages. Watch their colours fight for the house, his blue against her rose, until he lays down the law with his spear.RG08Freia's FlightIntro1:27Freia, goddess of youth with her golden apples, runs the whole length of the house to hide behind her sister. Then the ground starts to shake, and the two giants who built the castle come stamping in to collect their wages.RG09The GiantsIntro1:28The giants Fasolt and Fafner stamp in to collect their wage for building Valhalla: the goddess Freia. Wotan points to his treaties and his spear, but Fafner knows what the gods would lose with her, the golden apples that keep them young.RG10Donner and FrohIntro1:28Freia's brothers rush to her side: Froh in a rainbow and Donner the thunder god, throwing lightning across the house. Donner raises his hammer at the giants, and Wotan's spear comes down between them. Then, at the far end of the house, a flicker of fire.RG11LogeIntro1:29Loge, the god of fire, darts in and tells what he found when he searched the world: nobody will give up love, except Alberich, who stole the Rhinegold and made a ring of it. The giants listen, and decide they would rather have the gold. Until they get it, they take Freia.RG12The Gods Grow OldIntro1:29The giants carry Freia away, and without her golden apples the gods begin to grow old: a pale mist falls and their colours fade to grey. Only Loge still flickers. Wotan decides to go down to Nibelheim, Alberich's underground kingdom, and take the gold himself.RG13Down to NibelheimIntro1:29Wotan and Loge climb down through a crack full of sulphur smoke into the caverns of the Nibelungs, where eighteen anvils ring out together and sparks fly over the whole house. When the hammering dies away, Alberich comes dragging his brother Mime by the ear.RG14The TarnhelmIntro1:26Alberich takes the helmet his brother Mime was made to forge, and when he puts it on, he vanishes. Unseen, he whips Mime and drives his workers back to their anvils, just as Wotan and Loge arrive.RG15The HoardIntro1:26Alberich drives his slaves in with their treasure, and the gold piles up in the middle of the porch. He holds up the ring and they flee in terror, then he turns to Wotan and boasts that one day the whole world, and the gods with it, will be his.RG16The SerpentIntro1:27Loge asks Alberich to show what his helmet can do, and Alberich turns himself into a giant serpent that coils over the whole house, snapping its jaws. Loge pretends to be terrified, and then, very innocently, asks whether it could make him small as well.RG17The ToadIntro1:22Loge dares Alberich to make himself small, and the helmet turns him into a tiny hopping toad. Wotan puts his foot on it, Loge grabs the helmet, and Alberich is caught and tied up tight. Then they drag him up out of the dark.RG18Up from the DepthsIntro1:25The long climb out of the caverns, with Alberich tied up and dragged along. Eighteen anvils hammer as the glow of the forges falls away beneath them, and they come out into a grey dawn where even the gods look old.RG19The RansomIntro1:24To buy his freedom, Alberich orders his Nibelungs to carry the whole hoard up to the mountain, and they pile it up in front of him, helmet and all. Then Wotan wants the ring too, and when Alberich will not give it, Wotan tears it off his finger.RG20Alberich's CurseIntro1:27Robbed of everything, Alberich swears that the ring will bring ruin and death to whoever holds it, and the whole house turns red and black. Then he vanishes into the dark, and the grey morning slowly comes back.RG21Freia RansomedIntro1:29The giants bring Freia back and plant their staves around her, and the gods heap up the gold until she is hidden. But one giant can still see her eye through a gap, and there is only one thing left to fill it: the ring on Wotan's hand.RG22ErdaIntro1:24The mountain goes dark, and the ancient earth itself rises out of the porch in a deep green light to warn Wotan: the ring brings only ruin. He listens, and gives it up. The heap opens, Freia runs free, and the gods get their colour back.RG23Fafner StrikesIntro1:26The giants quarrel over the ring, and Fafner strikes his brother dead with one blow. The curse on the ring has claimed its first victim. Fafner carries off the gold, and the gods are left staring after him as a storm gathers.RG24Entry into ValhallaIntro1:28Donner gathers the storm and splits it with one blow of his hammer, Froh lays a rainbow bridge across the whole house, and the gods march into their gleaming new castle, Valhalla.RG25IntermissionIntermission5:00The house becomes the Rhine, deep blue-green, and the gold fills it from both wings toward the porch over five minutes, glinting in the water ahead of it, until it meets in the middle and the opera begins again.
For your own show
Short, bright pieces meant to be watched. The FSEQ (v2, zstd, 40 fps) plays in Falcon Player on a house with the same layout; see About for how it is made.