Der Ring Des Nibelungen - Other Treatments of The Ring Cycle

Other Treatments of The Ring Cycle

Orchestral 'versions' of the Ring Cycle, summarizing the work in a single movement of an hour or so, have been made by Leopold Stokowski, Lorin Maazel (Der Ring ohne Wörte) (1988) and Henk de Vlieger (The Ring: an Orchestral Adventure), (1991).

The comedienne Anna Russell had a renowned 22-minute routine 'explaining' the plot and music of the Ring Cycle, which included a phrase which became identified with her: 'I'm not making this up, you know.'

Produced by the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Charles Ludlum's 1977 play Der Ring Gott Farblonjet was a spoof of Wagner's operas. The show received a well-reviewed 1990 revival in New York at the Lucille Lortel Theater.

In 1982 the National Theatre of Brent performed a summary of the cycle in about 75 minutes, which also included a recapitulation of the composer's life, with a cast of three and a piano (inviting members of the audience to participate as Valkyries and as Gunther's vassals).

Tom Holt's 1982 humorous fantasy novel, Expecting Someone Taller, includes many of the characters of Wagner's operas, and features the Ring and the Tarnhelm. Stephen R. Donaldson's science-fiction space opera series The Gap Cycle also shares elements with Der Ring des Nibelungen.

The 1996 film The Twilight of the Golds includes references to the "Mini-Ring," a fictional adaptation of Wagner's Ring Cycle staged by a gay man, David Gold (played by Brendan Fraser).

What's Opera, Doc? is a 1957 American animated cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Chuck Jones for Warner Bros. Cartoons. The Michael Maltese story features Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny through a parody of 19th-century classical composer Richard Wagner's operas, particularly Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) and Tannhäuser. It is sometimes characterized as a condensed version of Wagner's Ring Cycle, and its music borrows heavily from the second opera Die Walküre, woven around the standard Bugs-Elmer conflict. In 1992 it became the first cartoon short to be deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.