Dresden Music Festival Presents Wagner's Ring Cycle With Historical Instruments

Featuring historically informed performance practice, the concerts will be held across the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands

Founded in 1978 by the City of Dresden, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele’s range of events includes guest appearances from international orchestras, plus acclaimed soloists and jazz ensembles — this year will feature the Dresden debut of the Grammy-winning artist Laufey.

Held this year from May 9 to June 9, 2024, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele will spotlight Wagner’s Die Walküre, which will be heard for the first time with the use of period instruments and performed in the style Wagner would have deemed ideal. 

Presented in collaboration with the Prague State Opera, the concert’s premiere and tour will feature the Dresden Festival Orchestra, the Concerto Köln ensemble, and conductor Kent Nagano. 

Die Walküre is the second of the four epic dramas of Wagner’s The Ring Cycle. The first, Das Rheingold, was presented to great acclaim in the Festival’s 2023 edition after the “Wagner Cycles” project first formed in 2021. 

The “Wagner Cycles” aims to present one part of The Ring Cycle every year, using historical instruments and the vocal and declamatory practice of the time alongside academic experts. 

Nagano, Concerto Köln, and a team of scholars reconstructed the instrumental, vocal, and linguistic practice of Wagner’s era in order to present an authentic rendition. The project will conclude in 2026 — the 150th anniversary since the first performance of The Ring Cycle in full was held in Bayreuth. 

After the March 9 premiere in Prague, Die Walküre will be performed on March 16 at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, on March 24 at the Philharmonie Cologne, on May 1 at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, May 9 at the opening of the 2024 Dresdner Musikfestspiele, and on August 21 at the Lucerne Festival. 

The Dresden performance will be accompanied by a program of events, including a workshop concert, academic lectures, panel discussions, and presentations of instruments, among other activities. 

To attend the concerts, click here. 

“Here, academic research and performance practice meet history and tradition,” wrote Dresdner Musikfestspiele’s artistic director Jan Vogler. “We are proud and delighted that this fascinating project will contribute to a new understanding of Richard Wagner’s music.”

“May the magic of music unite our wonderful cities of Prague and Dresden, and us, their residents, even more closely in friendship,” Vogler added in the press release. 

“With Die Walküre, we intensify our efforts: not only will further experts support us in examining aspects such as tempo, source materials and rhetoric, but issues such as Wagner’s notions of femininity will also be scrutinized, for which a work such as Die Walküre offers a good basis for discussion,” said Nagano on the events page. 

“First and foremost, however, we will dedicate ourselves to Wagner’s revolutionary innovations in orchestral practice: brand-new at the time, the orchestral colors and textures he developed went far beyond the limitations of contemporary musical practice – and that also applies to his treatment of vocalism,” he added. “His open form enabled him to revolutionize dramatic expression and narration. That is our point of departure, to make all that audible and experience Wagner’s The Ring Cycle in a completely different way!”

An excerpt of Das Rheingold from the 2023 Dresden Music Festival can be viewed below.