Wagner: Twilight of the Gods // Müpa Budapest (Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
At the very end of the Ring's final musical drama, the musical resonance of the work is hopeful despite the impending destruction of the world: the end holds the possibility of a new beginning. The last word is the redemption motif, singing broadly on the strings and unfolding with a spirit of reverence. There is hardly a work of art today that contains a more important warning to humanity, which is debating the threat of natural phenomena and the possible fate of the Earth, than The Twilight of the Gods. Perhaps there is still time to return the ring to the mermaids of the Rhine.
Schedule
It is a telling creative decision by Wagner that in the last piece of the tetralogy, the central figure of the great work, the driving force behind all the events, Wotan, no longer appears, but is only heard from Waltraud. Or is it not Wotan who is the most important character, but the disgraced Valkyrie, Brünnhilde? In a moral sense, it is certainly her. Wotan is a fallible god, who breaks his agreements by taking action, even though, as the runes on his spear indicate, he is the guardian of the keeping of treaties. The pure, noble and brave Brünnhilde, however, is a living memento of the command to 'be worthy'. When she leaps with her steed, Grané, onto Siegfried's funeral pyre, it is not death but the ecstasy of ultimate union.
Iréne Theorin's Brünnhilde and Stefan Vinke's Siegfried will be well remembered by Müpa audiences from previous Wagner Days. After Hunding, Albert Dohmen's dark organ can be heard in Hagen's solo as a representation of another gritty character. Deniz Uzun, the young Turkish-German mezzo-soprano who sings Waltraud in Act II, is a special prize winner of the 20th Eva Marton International Singing Competition 2021.
18.06.2023.
16:00 - 22:30 (with two breaks)
Müpa Budapest
Müpa Budapest is one of Hungary's best-known cultural brands and one of the most modern cultural institutions, bringing together different artistic disciplines in a unique way: it hosts classical, contemporary, light, jazz and world music, opera, new circus, dance, literature and film.