The Paris Opera continues its exploration of Richard Wagner’s colossal Ring, directed by Calixto Bieito. After the final scene of The Rhinegold, in which the gods ascend to Walhalla, The Valkyrie, the second part of the cycle, focuses on humans in the form of twins Sieglinde and Siegmund.

While their irrepressible, incestuous passion unleashes the wrath of Fricka, the goddess of marriage, it deeply moves the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, prompting her to defy her father, the god Wotan.

To express the power of human love, but also the contradictions of a god who wishes to engender a being who is free yet subject to his own will, Richard Wagner writes music that is by turns lyrical and sensual, fiery and heroic, like the famous “Ride of the Valkyries”.