We’re finishing our time with Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts on this week’s Sunday Opera (11/01 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 (Daniel Brenna) and Sieglinde (Manuela Uhl), who were separated at birth and have no knowledge of each other, fall in love through an act of fate. Their incestuous union angers the gods, forcing Wotan (Egils Silins), the king of the gods and their father, to order his favorite Valkyrie daughter, Brünnhilde (Ewa Vesin), to ensure Siegmund's death in a fight with Hunding (Liang Li), 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 Okka von der Damerau as Fricka, the goddess of marriage and Wotan’s wife and the other eight Valkyries performed by Xu Xiaoying, Zhou Fan, Zhang Yuan, Wang Hongyao, Qin Kanru, Niu Shasha, Xu Xiaoyi, and Zhao Kehan.
Pietari Inkinen conducts the NCPA orchestra and Chorus.
We’ll have just enough time together after the opera for a short choral piece by Wagner from Act II of “Tannhauser.” We’ll hear the Soloists and Chorus of the Royal Swedish Opera and the Royal Swedish Orchestra, conducted by Leif Segerstam, perform The Guests’ Procession into the Hall of Song at the Wartburg Castle.
