Wagner: Siegfried - Staatsoper Unter den Linden (2022) [Blu-ray]

Siegfried, the son of Siegmund and Sieglinde, is young and dynamic an. Raised by the devious Nibelung dwarf, Mime, he does not know his parents. All that remains of his father are fragments of a sword. Siegfried forges its steel into a new, powerful weapon with which he slays the dragon Fafner. Fafner had been guarding the ring that Siegfried now takes for himself. And he wins over Brünnhilde, whom he awakens from sleep.

This part of the Ring is often referred to as the scherzo of the tetralogy, as it contains passages of apparent lightheartedness that are rare throughout the work.

Dmitri Tcherniakov's direction remains consistently sober and without illusions. There is no way out of the premises of the research company E.S.C.H.E. out, all protagonists remain trapped in the labyrinth of business premises, corridors and laboratories. At times it seems visually tiring, there is no forest, no forest bird, Siegfried doesn't have to break through a fire to get to Brünnhilde in the sleep laboratory.

Recorded live at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, October 2022