Zubin Mehta is finalizing rehearsals for Wagner's Die Walküre at the Palau de les Arts

· Carlus Padrissa of La Fura dels Baus directs the staging of the most awarded production in the history of the Valencian arts center
· Jennifer Wilson (Brünnhilde) and Stephen Milling (Hunding) reprise their roles in the cast, which brings together leading voices from the Wagnerian repertoire
· Nikolai Schukoff (Siegmund), Thomas Johannes Mayer (Wotan), Heidi Melton (Sieglinde) and Elisabeth Kulman (Fricka) complete the main cast

Valencia. Zubin Mehta is finalizing rehearsals for Wagner's Die Walküre , the second title that the Bombay maestro is conducting in the 2013-2014 season at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.

The Valencian arts center is reviving its production of Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung ) with stage direction by Carlus Padrissa of La Fura dels Baus, video creation by Franc Aleu, set design by Roland Olbeter, costumes by Chu Uroz and lighting by Peter van Praet, produced in co-production with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

The collaboration between Zubin Mehta and La Fura dels Baus has earned the Palau de les Arts the highest accolades from national and international critics for this work, which has won the Campoamor Awards for best new production and best stage direction, as well as two Franco Abbiati Awards from the Italian musical critics for its staging.

Furthermore, in its journey on DVD and Blu-ray, The Valencian Ring has obtained some of the main European awards, such as Best DVD at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA), Echo Klassik for best DVD of 2010 and two awards from the German Record Critics Association.

The staging by La Fura dels Baus, which integrates the scenic elements and resources that Wagner himself designed, along with avant-garde components such as video projections, light effects, multimedia costumes and impressive displays of human architecture, in keeping with the mythological aspect of the Tetralogy , has been requested by other opera houses, such as the Maestranza in Seville, Spain, and the Houston Grand Opera.

Prominent Wagnerian performers

The Palau de les Arts brings together a cast made up of renowned names from the Wagnerian firmament, including some of the performers responsible for the success of this production in Valencia, such as the American Jennifer Wilson and the Dane Stephen Milling, as well as the Austrian Nikolai Schukoff, who, after his successes with Strauss and Mussorgsky at the Valencian arts center, presents his first foray into the Wagnerian repertoire in the capital of the Turia.

Joining them, singing for the first time in Valencia, are the German Thomas Johannes Mayer, the American Heidi Melton and the Austrian Elisabeth Kulman.

Die Walküre , which premieres on November 3, will also be performed on the 6th, 9th, and 16th of that same month. With this production, the Palau de les Arts joins the celebrations of the bicentenary of the birth of the German composer Richard Wagner.

Die Walküre

Die Walküre is the second of the operas that make up Richard Wagner's monumental tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung ), to whose composition the German dedicated 26 years of his life.

This is the most frequently performed work of Wagner's total oeuvre, whose events take place long after Das Rheingold , following the loss of the Nibelung's coveted ring, now in the hands of the giant Fafner, by the god Wotan. Bound by the pacts upon which his sovereignty rests, the god has devised a plan: to recover the powerful ring through a mortal hero who, free from the limitations inherent in the divine pacts, will return the lost jewel to him.

Nikolai Schukoff plays Siegmund the Valkyrie—the offspring of the god Wotan (Thomas Johannes Mayer) and a mortal woman—who, after finding refuge in the hut of the mortal Hunding (Stephen Milling), becomes enamored with Hunding's wife, who is none other than his sister Sieglinde (Heidi Melton). After Siegmund acquires the sword Notung, the incestuous twins flee Hunding under the protection of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde (Jennifer Wilson), at the behest of their father, Wotan.

But the sovereign will of all the gods breaks the laws that uphold his leadership, as his inexorable wife Fricka (Elisabeth Kulman), protector of marriages, reminds him. Enraged, the god condemns Siegmund to death and withdraws the protection of the pious Brünnhilde. The warrior goddess, moved by the love of the Welsung, disobeys her father to save the couple and the child Sieglinde carries in her womb, Siegfried, the pure hero.

Enraged upon discovering the betrayal, the sovereign god allows Hunding to kill Siegmund after shattering his powerful sword. Brünnhilde, with the ill-fated Sieglinde on her steed, seeks refuge with her eight Valkyrie sisters: Gerhilde (Bernadette Flaitz), Ortlinde (Julia Borchert), Waltraute (Pilar Vázquez), Schwertleite (Nadine Weissmann), Helmwige (Eugenia Bethencourt), Siegrune (Julia Rutigliano), Grimgerde (Patrizia Scivoletto), and Rossweisse (Gemma Coma-Alabert).

But no sooner has the Valkyrie escaped than she is surprised by her father, who, unyielding, deprives her of her immortality and plunges her into a deep sleep, so that the first man who awakens her may possess her. Moved by his affection for his favorite daughter, Wotan grants her last wish: to be surrounded by a curtain of fire that only he who does not fear the spear of the sovereign god can pierce.