Siegfried, WWV 86C, is the third of the four epic music dramas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen, by Richard Wagner. It premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring cycle.
Jean de Reszke as Siegfried (c. 1896)
Siegfried tastes the dragon's blood (Rackham)
Siegfried awakens Brünnhilde - Otto von Richter, (1892)
Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the Nibelungenlied. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel", structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring cycle, Wagner's Ring, or simply The Ring.
Scene 1 of Das Rheingold from the first Bayreuth Festival production of the Bühnenfestspiel in 1876
Illustration of Brünnhilde by Odilon Redon, 1885
Amalie Materna, the first Bayreuth Brünnhilde, with Cocotte, the horse donated by King Ludwig to play her horse Grane
The Rhinemaidens in the first Bayreuth production in 1876