The Live Cinema series continues with a screening of the current Royal Opera production of Wagner’s Die Walküre, with one screening on Sunday, December 9 at 1:00 p.m.
Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second opera in Richard Wagner’s epic Der Ring Des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle). It features several of the Ring’s musical highlights – the sparkling Magic Fire Music and the electrifying Ride of the Valkyries. But among the musical fireworks and Norse mythology, at the centre of this opera are the unforgettable characters and the complex entanglements between them, including twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, and Wotan and his Valkyrie daughter, Brünnhilde.
Die Walküre will features a stellar international cast including Australian tenor Stuart Skelton (Siegmund) and John Lundgren (Wotan), who both make their Royal Opera debuts, American soprano Emily Magee (Sieglinde) and award winning Swedish soprano Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde). Die Walküre will be conducted by Antonio Pappano Music Director of The Royal Opera House.
This is a story of love, loss and family entanglements. Years before the opera opens, Wotan, ruler of the gods, disguised himself as a mortal man and had twins with a mortal woman who gave birth to twins Siegmund and Sieglinde who were separated during their childhood. Wotan hopes that he can use his son Siegmund to retrieve a gold ring of ultimate power, which threatens to bring about the Gods’ destruction. He engineers a meeting between Siegmund and Sieglinde, now unhappily married to Hunding. Initially unaware of each other’s identity, the siblings fall in love. Wotan intends to protect his incestuous children from Hunding’s wrath, but his wife Fricka, guardian of marriage, forbids him to do this. However, Wotan’s daughter Brünnhilde, who is moved by Siegmund’s devotion to Sieglinde, intervenes in an attempt to save the couple. Wotan kills Siegmund, fulfilling his promise to Fricka. Brünnhilde manages to save Sieglinde, now pregnant with Siegmund’s child but cannot escape punishment from Wotan, who condemns her to mortality and marriage. However, Wotan’s love for his daughter leads him to grant her a final request: that she be left to sleep encircled by magical fire, so that only a hero can find and wake her.
The Royal Opera House cinema broadcasts offer audiences an equivalent to the best seat in the house, with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and incredibly detailed close-ups of performers.
This production of Die Walküre is sung in German with English surtitles.
Runtime: approximately 5 hours, including an onscreen introduction and two intermissions. Beer, wine, popcorn, and snacks will be available for purchase, and may be taken into the theater. No outside food or beverages allowed.
Reserved seating: $15 Adults, $10 Students are available online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500. For group ticket sales, please call 509-876-1662.
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The 2018 Live Cinema Series is sponsored by Shakespeare Walla Walla, a local 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that aims to make Shakespeare and theater approachable and entertaining to students in eastern Washington and Oregon.
