Forget everything you think you know about Wagner! Kent Nagano, the Dresden Festival Orchestra, and Concerto Köln are setting new standards with their performance of the Ring cycle. For the first time ever, this monumental project is being heard in a historically informed interpretation. Just as in Wagner’s own day, the string players use gut strings; the wind instruments are reconstructed based on 19th-century models; the orchestra’s tuning is lower; and the text is at times declaimed rather than traditionally “sung.” Suddenly everything becomes intelligible — and at times it almost recalls the delivery of art song. Working with an international research team, Nagano has brought surprising insights to light. The result is striking. “Light and airy” is how Jan Brachmann described this Wagner in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; in particular, the winds impress “with sharper definition in their individual colors: they creak, belch, and grunt with a kind of unruly physicality.” With Götterdämmerung, the Ring comes full circle this summer. And once more we have the chance to experience Wagner’s music as he himself most likely heard it.

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Dresden Festival Orchestra | Concerto Köln | Dresden Festival Choir of the Richard Wagner Academy | Kent Nagano | Soloists

KKL Luzern Concert Hall

What began in 2023 with a concert performance of »Das Rheingold« and continued in 2024 with »Die Walküre« and now with »Siegfried« is no less than a redefinition of standards in Wagner interpretation. The project »The Wagner Cycles« is dedicated to a unique collaboration between academic expertise and practice, tackling Richard Wagner’s monumental opera tetralogy. In Dresden and on tour through Europe’s musical centers, the results of this spectacular sound workshop and the historically informed perspective on Wagner’s epoch-making theatrical oeuvre have been celebrated as revolutionary. In the third part of the »Ring«, »Siegfried», depictions of nature and the visceral portrayals of action reveal Wagner at the height of his expressive musical powers. As in previous years, the newly-won transparent orchestra sound and the focus on the singers’ treatment of language will ensure novel listening experiences.

Richard Wagner: »Siegfried«

Kulturpalast Dresden

Lucerne Festival

Due to organizational reasons, the performance of the Verdi Requiem has to be postponed until next year. We will keep you updated with further details. Already purchased tickets will be refunded. Please return them via our customer service.

Verdi Requiem

Kreuzkirche, Dresden

Richard Wagner‘s »Der Ring des Nibelungen« features all kinds of heroes, gods and fabled creatures, creating a fairytale-like cosmos at whose center the fateful ring determines all the protagonists’ fates. The fascinating adventure story, which lasts for 16 hours in the original, and for which  the composer was inspired by myths and legends, has now been adapted for young concertgoers by the multi-award-winning Taschenoper Lübeck (the »Pocket Opera Company« from Lübeck). Apart from a brass quintet from the Festival’s own Dresdner Festspielorchester, a wonderful ensemble of singers takes everyone, regardless of their age, on a fantastical journey of discovery in this enchanting one-hour adaptation.

The Ring For Children

Deutsches Hygiene-Museum

What began in 2023 with a concert performance of »Das Rheingold« and continued in 2024 with »Die Walküre« and now with »Siegfried« is no less than a redefinition of standards in Wagner interpretation. The project »The Wagner Cycles« is dedicated to a unique collaboration between academic expertise and practice, tackling Richard Wagner’s monumental opera tetralogy. In Dresden and on tour through Europe’s musical centers, the results of this spectacular sound workshop and the historically informed perspective on Wagner’s epoch-making theatrical oeuvre have been celebrated as revolutionary. In the third part of the »Ring«, »Siegfried», depictions of nature and the visceral portrayals of action reveal Wagner at the height of his expressive musical powers.

Dresdner Festspielorchester

Sep 10, 2026

Dresden Festival Orchestra | Concerto Köln | Dresden Festival Choir of the Richard Wagner Academy | Kent Nagano | Soloists

Jun 14 - Sep 12, 2025

Richard Wagner: »Siegfried«

Dresdner Festspielorchester