Brünnhilde repents and orders a funeral pyre to be built. She rides into the fire herself, and the Rhinemaidens get the ring back. The story closes with flames flickering about Valhalla in the ...

PARIS (AP) — Calixto Bieito turned introspective as he sat in a cafe across from the Opéra Bastille, where his production of the first night Wagner’s Ring Cycle was to premiere the following day.

Donner, the god of thunder, wore a Los Angeles Dodgers cap. Rhinemaidens were attired in blue-and-yellow scuba gear with oxygen tanks. The giant Fafner wore cowboy duds, and Freia, the goddess of ...