Long before “Game of Thrones,” “Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” captured imaginations, German composer Richard Wagner inspired fantastic visions through his music. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra aims to pay homage to the 19th-century visionary with a concert of selections from his epic masterpiece, “The Ring Cycle.”
“It is very exciting. This is music that we don’t very often get to play,” said conductor JoAnn Falletta, noting the works are often reserved for the opera houses of the world.
“The Ring Cycle” compiles ancient Nordic stories as well as a German poem, “Nibelungenlied,” about the rise of a dragon-slayer. Wagner’s original spans 15 hours, so Falletta needed to focus on the heart of it. But it’s still a grandiose journey covering love, revenge, magic and how the world came to be.
“It’s really a fairytale about the world,” Falletta said. “The characters they created are characters that have filtered down through the ages. When we go to a ‘Harry Potter’ movie or we read ‘Lord of the Rings’ or we watch ‘Game of Thrones,’ we see these same elements.”
The concert features seven orchestral parts of “The Ring Cycle,” skipping over the vocal segments. Narrator Jake Gardner will convey the story while the music amplifies it. Falletta was quick to note that it’s not the somber affair some might expect.
“It’s glowing,” she said. “It’s a fairytale of such great beauty. It makes it all of a sudden very relevant and fun to listen to.”
Numbers such as “Ride of the Valkyries” are recognizable, and the concert will provide further context to the music for the audience.
“I hope they will take away, first of all, an understanding of Wagner’s love of myth and his sense of drama,” Falletta said. “They’ll hear simply great music. It’s music that’s just overwhelming in sound and scope and so beautiful.”
Want to go?
The VSO’s Wagner concert performs 8 p.m. Saturday at Norfolk’s Chrsyler Hall and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Sandler Center for Performing Arts in Virginia Beach. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased by calling 892-6366 or online at virginiasymphony.org.
The VSO’s Halloween Spooktacular also scares up the Sandler Center at 3 p.m. Oct. 29; pre-concert activities begin at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults and $11 for children.
Birkenmeyer can be reached by phone at 757-790-3029.
