From the Bayreuth Festival: "Das Rheingold" (The Rhine Gold) by Richard Wagner, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, directed by Harry Kupfer. With John Tomlinson (Wotan), Bodo Brinkmann (Donner), Kurt Schreibmayer (Froh), Graham Clark (Loge), Linda Finnie (Fricka), Eva Johansson (Freia), Birgitta Svendén (Erda), Günter von Kannen (Alberich), Helmut Pampuch (Mime), Matthias Hölle (Fasolt), Philip Kang (Fafner), Hilde Leidland (Woglinde), Annette Küttenbaum (Wellgunde), Jane Turner (Floßhilde) and the Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival. In 1988, conductor Daniel Barenboim, stage director Harry Kupfer, set designer Hans Schavernoch and costume designer Reinhard Heinrich came to Bayreuth to realize their vision of Wagner's Ring. They firmly turned away from the work's time of origin and set their sights on a "critique of the history of mankind and of the entire evolution of culture, the destruction of which we are actively furthering" (Kupfer). While Wagner's "critique of mankind's desructive frenzy, its coldness and alienation" (Kupfer) was rooted in Germanic mythology, Kupfer's team locates its Ring in a present that also embraces the past and the future. The place where present, past and future converge is the "road of history", which sets the scene for struggles of power and love, and takes us straight into the depths of the human psyche.