The birth of power, its corruption and the fracture of an order that seemed eternal
“What is sacred cannot be possessed; only revered”
Walter Benjamin
With Das Rheingold, prelude to Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner opens a mythical universe that speaks directly to our present: the birth of power, its corruption and the fracture of an order that seemed eternal. In this new production, stage director Tobias Kratzer intertwines myth and modernity in a proposal full of poetic and unsettling images and turns the legend into a vibrant and absolutely contemporary theatrical experience.
The primordial gold, pure treasure of the Rhine, is profaned by the desire for dominion. With this gesture, Alberich —performed by Bo Skovhus— sets in motion a chain of deceptions that will shake gods and humans. At the center of the conflict, Wotan (Nicholas Brownlee), Fricka (Tanja Ariane Baumgartner) and the powerful Erda (Okka von der Damerau) reveal the tensions of a divine world that is breaking apart. The enigmatic presence of Loge (Nicky Spence), the unease of Mime (Mikeldi Atxalandabaso) and the strength of Fasolt (Ante Jerjunica) and Fafner (Wilhelm Schwinghammer) complete a Wagnerian cast of high dramatic intensity.
From the pit, Jonathan Nott unfolds all the symbolic power of the orchestra: the leitmotifs emerge as sonic archetypes that evoke water, greed, law, lost love. His conducting —precise, organic, deeply narrative— turns the score into a living organism that breathes with the drama.
Das Rheingold is not just the story of a ring: it is the beginning of a spiritual crisis. Love, nature and commitment are turned into currency, but in this darkness there also pulses a promise: the possibility of breaking the cycle of power and recovering what cannot be bought.
Thus, Wagner places us before a radical idea and a breathtaking beauty: that what is truly sacred is only reborn when reverence defeats domination and that, perhaps, we are still in time to return to the origin.
Epic opera in one act. Prologue to the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)
Libretto and music by Richard Wagner
- World premiere: 22 September 1869 at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich
- Premiere in Barcelona: 30 March 1910 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (in Italian)
- Last performance at the Liceu: 2 May 2013
- Total performances at the Liceu: 46
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Dates and tickets
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General public sale on Monday 15 June 2026 at 10h.
Artistic profile
- Stage direction
- Tobias Kratzer
- Set design and costumes
- Rainer Sellmaier
- Lighting
- Michael Bauer
- Video
- Manuel Braun, Jonas Dahl and Janic Bebi
- Dramaturgy
- Bettina Bartz and Olaf Roth
- Co-production
- Bayerische Staatsoper and Gran Teatre del Liceu
- Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
- Director Pablo Assante
- Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor Jonathan Nott
Cast
Special sessions
Audiodescription
Live audio description service in one performance of each staged opera that provides information about key visual elements, for the benefit of blind and visually impaired spectators. The service consists of two parts: a fifteen-minute audio introduction before the start of the performance, and simultaneous audio description during the performance.
LifeVoice app
To listen to the audio description, you just need to click on Audiodescripció al Liceu, or enter the LiveVoice app and enter the code: 075177.
Sunday 21 February
6 pm
COMING SOON