The Metropolitan Opera: Götterdämmerung

The last of the four music dramas in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. On the rock of Brünnhilde the three Norns weave fate. Valhalla must burn, bringing an end to the gods. Siegfried acquires Brünnhilde’s strength as a Valkyrie. He gives her his ring, and she gives him Grane, her horse. Hagen urges his half-brother Gunther to marry Brünnhilde, although she is fated to be the wife of Siegfried, who is tricked into marrying their sister, Gutrune. Brünnhilde curses Siegfried and tells Hagen he can be wounded only from the back. Hagen pierces Siegfried’s back and mortally wounds him. Siegfried's body is brought back, to Gutrune's distress. Gunther and Hagen fight and the former is killed, but the ring cannot be taken from Siegfried's body. Brünnhilde orders a pyre to be raised and rides into it on Grane, wearing the ring, which will return, on her death, to the Rhinemaidens, who drag Hagen down to the depths of the river. Valhalla finally burns.