Lecture Access

This lecture will be available to view until 7 September 2026

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OVERVIEW

Watch on Demand | Online Lecture


German composer and theorist Richard Wagner pursued his most ambitious artistic aims in Der Ring des Nibelungen, a vast cycle that redefined the scale, structure, and narrative scope of opera. 

Conceived over decades and written largely during periods of exile, the Ring draws on Norse and Germanic mythology to explore power, desire, law, and collapse, using music as a continuous dramatic force rather than episodic display. 

The cycle’s complexity lies not only in its length but also in its integration of story, symbol, and sound across four interlinked operas, with Wagner's use of leitmotifs revolutionising musical storytelling and laying the groundwork for modern film scores.

In this lecture, Professor Carol Reynolds offers a guided introduction to the Ring, outlining its mythological sources, central characters, and dramatic arc from Das Rheingold to Götterdämmerung, examining Wagner’s use of leitmotifs creates musical memory and coherence across the cycle, and how themes of authority, rebellion, love, and destruction unfold over time. This monumental work is integral in understanding the lasting artistic and interpretive challenges posed by Wagner’s most demanding work.

LECTURER

Biography

Prof. Carol Reynolds is a musicologist who specialises in Russian, East European, and German cultural history. Carol spends much of her time as a curriculum developer, and consultant engaged in the revival of Classical Education. With her husband Hank, a music theorist and copyright attorney, she has written books and created courses in history and the Fine Arts. She works closely with Memoria Press, Classical Academic Press, the Circe Institute, and teaches in a Great Books Masters’ Program at Memoria College.

Prof Carol Reynolds

Musicologist