Unsurprisingly, a convincing performance of The Ring cycle needs some pretty serious orchestral clout. It's all designed to involve the listener even more and without them even realising. There are dozens more to explore besides these two, and it's great fun to get to know them so you can anticipate a character's appearance in the drama. So for Siegfried, the hero, we have this rather nice Leitmotif:Д«ut for the two giants who take the ring from Wotan, Fafner and Fasolt, there's a rather more lumbering, threatening Leitmotif:ДЄnd here's one for a storm, summoned by Donner, the God of Thunder. Rather than an excuse to eat up composing time, the Leitmotifs act as a reminder about those characters, and Wagner occasionally changes them slightly to change how you feel about who it's representing. Many of the characters, places and ideas in The Ring Cycle have their very own signature tune, or Leitmotif. Wagner's idea was that it should be a 'Gesamtkunstwerk' ('Complete Artwork'), a complete synthesis of music and drama where you didn't focus on one or the other - they just co-exist.Д«ut how did he do it? Well, here are some tricks he used: There are all sorts of little interesting corners, quirky sub-plots, massive staging considerations and, above all, the incredible music. Wagner took around 26 years to complete the whole thing, and it's easy to see why. And the Sydney Symphony Orchestra have also put together this easy-to-follow(ish) video:

Der ring der nibelungen