Скачать или смотреть The Ride of the Valkyrires

Richard Wagner composed “Ride of the Valkyries” in the 1850s as part of his monumental four-opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. The piece appears at the opening of Act III of Die Walküre, which premiered in 1870 (the full cycle debuted in 1876 at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the theater Wagner built for his own works). Drawing on Old Norse mythology and the medieval German *Nibelungenlied*, the music accompanies the Valkyries—warrior maidens of Odin—riding through the storm to gather the souls of fallen heroes for Valhalla. With its galloping rhythm, blazing brass, and sweeping string figures, the piece exemplifies Wagner’s mature style: expansive orchestration, leitmotivic storytelling, and myth elevated to high drama. Over time it escaped the opera house and entered popular culture—most famously in Apocalypse Now—but its origins remain rooted in Wagner’s grand 19th-century vision of myth, nation, and music fused into a single overwhelming spectacle. #classicalmusic #wagner