Das Rheingold
On Sunday I had a lovely trip to the opera, thanks to the lovely Ms. isara scoring some free tickets. We saw Das Rheingold by Wagner. It is the first of the Ring Cycle. The SF Opera is doing the rest of the Ring Cycle in two years. It was a really fantastic show, made better by having really great seats. The costumes were lovely in WWI style fashion. The sets were very minimal and modernist. A lot of the set work was done with lighting, projection, a fog machine and a scrim. It gave me a lot to think about. The performers were excellent, and the opera itself was very good, but on it's own without the rest of the Ring Cycle I wouldn't say that is exceptional. Not exceptional when compared to The Magic Flute. I would love to see the rest of the Ring Cycle. I hear that the whoel Cycle put together is a masterpiece. And has the valkyries song.

The story is fascinating, probably because I'm already familiar with Norse mythology. Das Rheingold starts out with magic gold of the Rhine guarded by three river nymphs. Things made out of the gold have special magic properties. A ring made from the gold will give the wearer power to rule the world. When the sun comes up the gold appears to glow in the river. A dwarf comes along to try to get the Rheingold by seducing the women, but the only way to get the gold (and the power) is to give up love and sex. So he does. He scorns love and sex and takes the gold. He makes a ring out of it and enslaves his brother and the other dwarves. He also makes a helmet from the gold that allows the wearer to turn into anything they want. All the while, Wotan, leader of the gods, has just finished building Valhalla. He promised the giants who built the castle his beautiful sister-in-law Freia. Freia grows the golden apples that keep the gods young, and nobody wants to let her go to the giants. Loge and Wotan plan to get the gold and the ring and give that to the giants rather than Freia. So Loge and Wotan go and trick the dwarf out of the ring, helmet and remaining gold. When the ring is taken from him, the dwarf curses it. The wearer of the ring will be unhappy, become a murderer, die and that the ring will be desired by everyone. While Wotan is wearing the ring, Erda, and earth goddess, warns him of all sorts of horrible things to come. When they give the gold and the ring to the giant, he immediately kills his own brother and takes the gold away. The gods all return to Valhalla, but Loge says that they are all cursed. And the Rheine water nymphs mourn the loss of their gold.