A Ring at Versailles, the dream of Ludwig II of Bavaria.

For any opera house, Richard Wagner's Ring – the Ring of the Nibelung – is one of the pinnacles of operatic art. Composed between 1853 and 1874, this cycle is totally mythical, constructed like a “stage festival” in a prologue: Das Rhinegold, and three days: Die Walkyrie, Siegfried, The Twilight of the Gods. This famous Tetralogy was created as a whole for the inauguration of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth in 1876.

The absolute passion that animated King Ludwig II of Bavaria for Versailles and for Wagner creates a singular link between this Ring and the most beautiful Palace in the World...

To celebrate the upcoming anniversary of the one hundred and fifty years of the Ring (1876-2026), the Royal Opera of Versailles asked the Saar National Theater in Saarbrücken, which has been staging each of the four Ring operas since the previous season, to come present them at Versailles in concert version: the singers will perform their role without score, the orchestra also being on stage.

Since its creation in 1786, the Saarland National Theater has become one of the most renowned theater, ballet and opera houses in Germany, displaying seven hundred performances and two hundred thousand spectators each season. Its national orchestra created in 1912 has been directed by great permanent conductors, particularly in recent decades, such as Jiří Kout, Christof Perick and Jun Märkl, and the Frenchman Sébastien Rouland has been in charge since 2018. It is he who will take over the direction of the entire Tetralogy.

For every German opera, it is a tradition to regularly stage a production of the Tetralogy. The singers of the permanent troupe, of which this is a basis of the repertoire, are here supplemented by Wagnerian soloists who perform the major roles in all German-speaking operas. It is therefore a project anchored in one hundred and fifty years of practice that the Saarbrücken Opera will present in Versailles for four years. After the success of Rheingold in May 2023, and Die Walkyrie in March 2024, here is the third part – and the second day – of the Tetralogy.

Composed between 1856 and 1871, but created for the inauguration of Bayreuth in 1876, Siegfried is the opera of its eponymous hero, who will kill the dragon Fafner and the dwarf Mime, then free the Valkyrie Brünnhilde by crossing the wall of flames which protects her: kissing her to wake her, he gives her the Ring as an oath of love... Wagner gives this powerful fresco an extraordinary scale.