Die Walküre

Richard Wagner

New production of the Teatro alla Scala

From 7 December 2010 to 2 January 2011

Running Time: 4 hours 55 minutes

Sung in German with electronic libretto in Italian, English, German

Notes on the performancesOpen: After the “prologue” of Das Rheingold we arrive at the “first day” of The Ring of the Nibelung.

Die Walküre marks the start of the saga and the fatal weaving of the plot between the world of the gods, Wotan and Valkyrie rebel Brünnhilde, and the more dramatically human world of heroes, the world of Siegmund and Sieglinde.

Unravelling the plot in this production are director Guy Cassiers, aided by some of the very latest theatrical technology, musical director Daniel Barenboim and a cast that includes the finest Wagnerian voices of today: Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde), Waltraud Meier (Sieglinde), Vitalij Kowaljow (Wotan) and Ekaterina Gubanova (Fricka). Together with Nina Stemme, Simon O’Neill (Siegmund) and John Tomlinson (Hunding) make their La Scala debuts.

On 7 December the opening night of Die Walküre was broadcast live on television by Rai5, a new Rai channel and by the French channel Mezzo. It was also broadcast by Servus Tv (Austria) on 19 December.

As in previous years, the opening night was shown live in Italian cinemas and in cinemas all over the world. It was also transmitted live on a giant screen at the centre of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan.

The opera was repeated on Rai5 on Sunday 26 December at 10 am and on Friday 31 Dicember at 3.15 pm.