Die Walküre (Apr. 8, 1989)

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Levine; Behrens, Norman, Ludwig, Lakes, Morris, Moll

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Approximate running time: 3 hrs. 50 min.

It is all about love—an overwhelming, all-consuming erotic love that will not be bound by law; and a father’s deep love for a son he must sacrifice and a daughter he must discipline at a profound cost to himself. In this incandescent performance conducted by James Levine, James Morris’s legendary Wotan is coupled with Hildegard Behrens’s searing Brünnhilde, and Jessye Norman and Gary Lakes are the passionate Siegmund and Sieglinde. The great Christa Ludwig is Wotan’s exacting wife Fricka.