Wagner's "Ring" performed in its entirety for first time in Prague

The opera cycle "The Ring of the Niebelung" by German composer Richard Wagner based on stories from German mythology takes us into a world of gods, dwarfs, and giants. It was originally intended to be performed as a whole but the cycle is so long and so demanding on the performers, opera houses usually put on only one section a season. But Prague's National Theatre has now decided to present the whole cycle for the first time ever in the Czech Lands.

The Ring Cycle being performed in Prague's National Theatre is in co-production with the German theatre Deutsche Oper am Rhein from Düsseldorf. As the director of the performance Kurt Horres says, even though the whole tetraology has never been featured in Prague, they believe that Richard Wagner's music will be well accepted by the Czech audience.

"Wagner is actually not a German but Saxon musician and Saxony is not very far from Bohemia, so there have been many influences. I think this is something that has been in blood of the musicians here. There are no national borders in this sense."

Whereas the Rhinegold and the Valkyrie have just been premiered the other two pieces in the cycle - Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods are to be performed in the coming days. If you are interested to hear more about The Niebelung Cycle in National Theatre, listen to the Arts this Friday.