Twilight of the gods at Nationaltheater Mannheim

The Nornen give an account of Wotan's destruction of the world ash tree and of the destruction of his spear and contracts by Siegfried. Walhalla awaits the twilight of the gods. The Nornen rope breaks, its »eternal knowledge« is at an end. Siegfried leaves Brünnhilde for new adventures, and as a pledge of his love, gives her the ring stolen from Fafner. At the court of the Gibichungen, Alberich’s son Hagen has chosen Siegfried as the husband for his half-sister Gutrune and Brünnhilde as the wife for his half-brother Gunter. Siegfried forgets Brünnhilde because of a magic potion, and in the figure of Gunter wins her over by force. Hagen wants to gain possession of the ring and kills Siegfried with the help of the betrayed Brünnhilde. As he is dying, Siegfried remembers her again. Gunter is also killed by Hagen in a fight for the ring. Brünnhilde meanwhile throws herself onto the flames of Siegfried’s funeral pyre and gives the Ring back to the Rhine daughters to be free of Alberich's curse. Hagen is swallowed up by floods and the gods' castle of Walhalla goes up in flames.

Götterdämmerung joins together the beginning and end of Wagner's tetralogy. Over 20 years separate the text poem, begun in 1848 at the beginning of the creation of the overall work, and its completion in the composition (1869 - 1874). This results in a counter tension between the textual and musical substance of the work. Whereas the plot still contains conventional operatic traits, the complex late musical style of Wagner reveals the forward-looking compositional achievements of his vision of music drama.