WAGNER - Götterdämmerung
The first performance of this, the last of the four Ring operas, took place as part of a complete cycle in 1876: thus fully a quarter-century after Wagner had realised that his prose drama Siegfried’s Death needed expansion the giant opera tetralogy was complete. Wagner’s reaction would have been, I think, similar to Bernard Haitink’s as he first listened to the final bars of the master of this recording, his eyes wet with emotion as the beautiful ‘Redemption’ theme brought to a close one of the longest operas in the standard repertoire. This recording was made in 1991 with Eva Marton and Siegfried Jerusalem continuing their portrayals of Brünnhilde and Siegfried; they are joined by John Tomlinson, today a Wotan of considerable experience, as the evil Hagen, and Thomas Hampson and Eva Maria Bundschuh as brother and sister, Günther and Gutrune. Bernard Haitink again conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

0946 3 58724 2 2 (4CDs)
0946 3 58724 5 3 (Digital Download)