Love & Redemption: Ring Cycle Highlights

Welcome to our specially curated playlists, highlighting the essential moments within Wagner’s mighty operatic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. Through each of our four playlists, you’ll discover the major themes and motifs that make The Ring such a compelling experience. And for those using the Apple Music Classical app, we offer an exclusive Listening Guide commentary as each track plays. In this playlist, hear how love and redemption bring a sense of hope to Wagner’s epic drama. In The Ring’s second opera, Die Walküre, love blossoms between Siegfried’s parents, Siegmund and Sieglinde, while Wotan’s fatherly love for his Valkyrie daughter, Brünnhilde, is captured in music of extraordinary power and beauty. Ultimately, it’s the love between Brünnhilde and the heroic Siegfried that carries the drama to its full culmination in the final two operas, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Among the many musical motifs you’ll hear are Siegfried’s own heroic motif, Wotan’s Affection for Brünnhilde, and the Redemption motif, scored to dazzling effect in the Ring’s final bars. All the music is taken from Georg Solti’s landmark studio recording, made between 1958 and 1965—the first ever made of the complete Ring, its legendary status secured by a matchless cast and orchestra, and pioneering sound that has now been remastered in superb Spatial Audio.