Placido Domingo and Katarina Dalayman lead the cast in the best-loved opera from Wagner's epic Ring Cycle. Siegmund and Sieglinde are brother and sister - but by the time they discover that, they've fallen in love. Their father Wotan, the arrogant leader of the Gods, is forced to disown them by his nagging wife Fricka, who's horrified by their incestuous relationship. But then comes the crucial turning-point of the whole Ring Cycle.

Brunnhilde - the Valkyrie of the title, who's another of Wotan's army of illegitimate children - is so moved by Siegmund's love for Sieglinde that she decides to defy her father and help the lovers. Presented from New York by Margaret Juntwait.

New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Valery Gergiev

Act 1