The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden is once again the home for this week’s Sunday Opera (8/31 3:00 p.m.) as we turn to the second of the operas in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, “Die Walkure.”
The story unfolds after the mortal twins Siegmund (Stanislas de Barbeyrac) and Sieglinde (Natalya Romaniw), who were separated at birth and have no knowledge of each other but fall in love by an act of fate. Their incestuous union angers the gods, forcing Wotan (Christopher Maltman), the king of the gods and their father, to order his favorite Valkyrie daughter, Brünnhilde (Elisabet Strid), to ensure Siegmund's death in a fight with Hunding (Soloman Howard), Sieglinde’s husband. Brünnhilde, however, protects Siegmund, leading Wotan to punish her by putting her into a magic sleep on a rock surrounded by an impenetrable magic fire.
The rest of the cast includes Marina Prudenskaya as Fricka, the goddess of marriage and Wotan’s wife and the other eight Valkyries performed by Maida Hundeling, Katie Lowe, Lee Bisset, Claire Bernett-Jones, Catherine Carby, Alison Kettlewell, Monika-Evelin Liiv, and Rhonda Browne.
Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the Royal Opera House Orchestra.
