Barrie Kosky's Die Walküre, the second chapter of the Royal Opera's new Ring, opened at Covent Garden with Antonio Pappano conducting.
Barrie Kosky’s staging of Die Walküre opened at the Royal Opera House on Thursday 1 May 2025, the second chapter of a new Ring cycle that began at Covent Garden with Das Rheingold in 2023.
Wagner finished the text in 1852 and the music in 1856, yet the first performance came only on 26 June 1870 in Munich, arranged at the insistence of Ludwig II of Bavaria although Wagner had wanted to hold it back until the whole Ring could be shown. The story comes from the Völsunga saga and the Poetic Edda. The twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, parted in childhood, meet and fall in love, and Wotan’s daughter Brünnhilde, the Valkyrie of the title, defies her father to save them.
It is the most performed opera of the cycle, and its third act opens with the Ride of the Valkyries. Wagner wrote the Ring texts in reverse order, so this was the third he finished. Antonio Pappano conducted, after twenty-two years as the house’s music director that ended in 2024, with Rufus Didwiszus designing the sets.
Christopher Maltman returned as Wotan from Das Rheingold, with Elisabet Strid as Brünnhilde, Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Siegmund and Marina Prudenskaya as Fricka. Natalya Romaniw sang Sieglinde in place of Lise Davidsen, and Soloman Howard was Hunding. The run closed on Saturday 17 May.