Nightly Opera Streams, Week 2 (March 23–29)

View the Playbills from the original performance dates for each stream, including synopses, program notes, and more.

New to Wagner and don’t know Niebelheim from Nürnberg? This guide will introduce you to these epic dramas and get you ready for an eye-opening week of opera.

This feature-length documentary chronicles the herculean efforts of director Robert Lepage, the world’s greatest singers, and the Metropolitan Opera to fulfill Wagner’s grand vision for his epic Ring cycle. Available for free for the duration of this Wagner-focused week of opera streams.

Learn about the storied history of Wagner’s operas at the Met, from the house’s opening season in 1883 to the present day.

Wagner’s legendary four-part Ring cycle poses the ultimate challenge for any opera company. Hear from director Robert Lepage about his groundbreaking Met staging, which premiered over the course of the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons.

Wagner’s use and development of musical themes known as leitmotifs create a symbolic undercurrent of meaning throughout the Ring cycle. In this video, members of the Met Orchestra play and discuss some of the themes.

Mythology provided Wagner with a steady supply of gods, goddesses, and psychosexual dynamism to satisfy his rich and ingenious imagination. Learn more about the composer’s Nordic sources of inspiration.

Take a backstage look at a 2011 dress rehearsal for Siegfried, when tenor Jay Hunter Morris stepped into the daunting title role at the last minute.

In Mariusz Treliński’s production of Tristan und Isolde, which opened the 2016­–17 Met season, the director explores the extreme psychological forces that propel the lovers into uncharted waters.