Deryck Cooke: Thinking About The Ring: Part 1; BBC Radio Talk (1970)

“Thinking About The Ring”, presented by Deryck Cooke
(Broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on 13th October, 1970)

“Deryck Cooke is currently working on a book on Wagner and has also recorded a much-discussed introduction to “The Ring”. In these two talks he considers some of the ways in which “The Ring” has been analysed and discussed in the past. He illustrates Wagner’s symphonic methods rather than the dramatic significance of the leitmotiv.”

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This was the first of two talks. The second can be found here:

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“Der Ring des Nibelungen” (“The Ring of the Nibelung”) is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner, with German libretti by the composer. The four works are, in sequence: “Das Rheingold” (“The Rhinegold”), “Die Walküre” (“The Valkyrie”), “Siegfried”, and “Götterdämmerung” (“Twilight of the Gods”). The complete cycle was first performed at the Bayreuth Festival Theatre in 1876.