Following Rheingold and Die Walküre, EuroArts releases the next volume in their series of "Ring" productions from Stuttgart. In this live recording of the third part of the tetralogy, Jon Fredric West's Siegfried is joined by Lisa Gasteen as Brünnhilde. Jossi Wieler's direction of the opera is set among designs by Anna Viebrock. The production is marked by the unprecedented power of suggestion in the gloomiest of all comedies; one which makes laughter die in the throat, and yet the only truly negative figure to emerge from the opera is the Wanderer, Wotan. The performances of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle in Stuttgart created a sensation unheard of since the monumental "century" Ring in Bayreuth in the late seventies. "Four operas -- four stage directors" was the artistic idea behind the 1999/2000 cycle under the musical direction of Lothar Zagrosek. Appreciating the individual operas of "Der Ring des Nibelungen" without having to relate to previous or subsequent storylines enabled the stage directors -- handpicked among the successful Stuttgart Opera team surrounding Artistic Director Klaus Zehelein -- to express their individual insights into the well-known drama of Siegfried and Wotan. In 2002 German critics voted Stuttgart's Staatsoper "Opera House of the Year" for the fourth time in five years. This DVD series was recorded live at revival performances in 2002 and 2003, and it pays tribute to the artistic and musical achievement of the Stuttgart Opera House and a wonderful cast of singers.

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