A young hero enters a world full of dangers – without fear, without knowledge of his origins, armed only with a shattered sword as his father’s final legacy. Siegfried grows up far from humankind, raised by the cunning dwarf Mime. When he succeeds in reforging the broken sword Nothung, he becomes a hero of destiny: he slays the dragon Fafner, gains possession of the mighty ring, and drinks the monster’s blood. This grants him an extraordinary gift – he can now understand the language of birds. From them he learns of Brünnhilde, who has been cast into a deep sleep by Wotan. To reach her, Siegfried must pass a ring of blazing fire – a trial that only the truly fearless can endure.

In the third part of his monumental RING tetralogy, Richard Wagner draws on fairy-tale motifs. Traces of the Brothers Grimm tale “The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was” are as evident as classic fairy-tale figures: the cunning dwarf Mime, the dragon-slaying hero Siegfried, and the mysterious Woodbird. Precisely through this abundance of fairy-tale symbolism, SIEGFRIED is perhaps the most imaginative and playful part of the opera cycle. The music is characterized by a luminous, narrative musical language that clearly distinguishes itself from the darker drama of the preceding parts.

Richard Wagner began composing SIEGFRIED in 1856. However, in the middle of the second act, he was interrupted for seven years. During that time he composed two of his most significant operas: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE and DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG. It was not until 1869 that Wagner resumed work on SIEGFRIED. The premiere took place on 16 August 1876 as part of the first Bayreuth Festival.

Following the successful opening of the RING with DAS RHEINGOLD and the spectacular continuation with DIE WALKÜRE, director Paul-Georg Dittrich transports SIEGFRIED into a virtual metaverse of the future, a world without limits. A digital adventure game in search of the ring – one in which two familiar rivals once again compete: Alberich and Wotan.