A new live recording of Wagner's Das Rheingold taken from concert performances from May/June 2019.

Water Damage turned into luck "The Rhine is where Richard Wagner's cycle of operas "Der Ring des Nibelungen" begins and ends and it was beside the Rhine in 1851 that the composer first dreamed of this equally visionary and monumental work. Even if Wagner's plans for a festival would ultimately be realised in an entirely different part of Germany, the performance of a "Ring on the Rhine" will always remain something very special.

And where better to make this happen than at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein? Two cities, two orchestras, two casts of singers with the Rhine opera's fantastic ensemble of singers and its two outstanding orchestras, the Duisburger Philharmoniker and the Dsseldorfer Symphoniker, at their two venues in Duisburg und Dsseldorf, the essential conditions were in place. The "Ring on the Rhine" staged by Dietrich W. Hilsdorf and under my own musical direction gradually began to take shape from June 2017 onwards.

The successful conclusion of this two year musical and scenic collaboration was planned for the end of the 2018/19 season with the performance of a complete "Ring" cycle at each of the two venues. However, a few weeks before the premiere of "Gtterdmmerung", a defective sprinkler system flooded Theater Duisburg. The damage this caused made completing the staged "Ring" cycle in Duisburg (for the time being) impossible..." (From the Editorial of the musical director Axel Kober)