Met Opera's Ring Cycle comes to Fiery End with 'Götterdämmerung'

Related Media

From left, Brünnhilde, played by Deborah Voigt, is visited by her Valkyrie sister Waltraute, played by Waltraud Meier.

• In the prologue to Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung,” the three Norns weave the rope of destiny.
• Gutrune, played by Wendy Bryn Harmer, offers a love potion to the unsuspecting Siegfried, played by Jay Hunter Morris.

POTSDAM, NY (01/26/2012)(readMedia)-- The next installment of The Met: Live in HD will feature the dramatic conclusion to the Metropolitan Opera's latest production of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. In "Götterdämmerung," the dramatic saga reaches an end.

With its cataclysmic climax, the Met's new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage, comes to its resolution. The opera focuses on Brünnhilde and Siegfried -- the star-crossed lovers doomed by fate. In the fourth and final opera of the "Ring des Nibelungen" saga, Wagner depicts the Old Norse legends about a war between the gods bringing an end to the world.

Fabio Luisi conducts this masterwork, which will screen live to movie theaters across the world on Feb. 11.

In her Met role debut, Deborah Voigt will sing the central role of Brünnhilde. Jay Hunter Morris, who stepped into the title role of Wagner's Siegfried earlier this season to great acclaim, will again take the role of the doomed hero. "Götterdämmerung" also features Wendy Bryn Harmer as Gutrune, Waltraud Meier as Waltraute, Hans-Peter König as Hagen, Eric Owens as Alberich and Iain Paterson as Gunther.

Lepage's Ring production features a technologically advanced set that can assume many configurations and receive video projections to realize Wagner's stage directions.

"Götterdämmerung" will screen live at noon on Saturday, Feb. 11 at Potsdam's Roxy Theater. There is no encore transmission for this opera.

The opera will be performed in German, with English subtitles. The approximate running time is six hours, with intermission breaks.

In the North Country, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music and J.S. Cinemas sponsor the 2011-12 season of The Met: Live in HD. Music-lovers and novices alike can watch the staging live from the Metropolitan stage in New York City, where high-definition cameras capture the action and the dramatic music is presented in surround sound, with English subtitles.

The Metropolitan Opera's The Met: Live in HD series has won both Peabody and Emmy Awards, and sold more than 2.6 million tickets last season, expanding to 1,600 theaters in 54 countries.

Ticket prices for the series are the lowest available in the nation: $18 for an adult, $15 for senior citizens, $12 for students and $9 for youth age 18 and under.

Tickets are available by calling the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277, or visiting the Roxy Theater or Northern Music & Video in downtown Potsdam or the CPS Box Office in the lobby of Sara M. Snell Music Theater. You can also reserve tickets online by visiting www.cpspotsdam.org.

For more information on the 2011-12 The Met: Live in HD season, visit the Metropolitan Opera website at www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx.

To learn more about The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution, and is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2011-12.

-www.potsdam.edu/crane-