Editing Das Rheingold (section)

====Traditional productions====
[[File:FischerRheingold.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Emil Fischer (bass)|Emil Fischer]] as Wotan at the 1889 New York premiere]]
After the 1876 festival, ''Das Rheingold'' was not seen again at Bayreuth for 20 years, until Cosima revived the ''Ring'' cycle for the 1896 festival.{{sfn|Spotts|1994|p=116}} Meanwhile, opera houses across Europe sought to mount their own productions, the first to do so being the [[Vienna State Opera]], which staged ''Das Rheingold'' on 24 January 1878.<ref>{{cite web|title= Spielplan der Wiener Oper 1869 bis 1955|url= http://www.mdw.ac.at/iatgm/operapolitics/spielplan-wiener-oper/web/opus/142|publisher= Universität für Musik und Darstellende Wien|language= de|access-date= 27 July 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170105170731/http://www.mdw.ac.at/iatgm/operapolitics/spielplan-wiener-oper/web/opus/142|archive-date= 5 January 2017|url-status= dead}}</ref> In April 1878 ''Das Rheingold'' was produced in [[Leipzig]], as part of the first full ''Ring'' cycle to be staged outside Bayreuth.{{sfn|Jacobs|1980|pp=115–116}} London followed suit in May 1882, when ''Rheingold'' began a cycle at [[Her Majesty's Theatre|Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket]], under the baton of [[Anton Seidl]].{{sfn|Kennedy et al, 2013|p=770}} In the years following the London premiere, ''Ring'' cycles were staged in many European capitals. In [[Budapest]] on 26 January 1889, the first Hungarian performance of ''Das Rheingold'', conducted by the young [[Gustav Mahler]], was briefly interrupted when the prompt-box caught fire and a number of patrons fled the theatre.{{sfn|Carr|1997|p=51}}

The American premiere of ''Das Rheingold'' was given by the New York [[Metropolitan Opera]] in January 1889, as a single opera, with Seidl conducting. The production used [[Carl Emil Doepler]]'s original Bayreuth costume designs, and scenery was imported from Germany.<ref name=Met>{{cite web|title= United States premiere, ''Das Rheingold''|url= http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=6970&limit=500&xBranch=ALL&xsdate=&xedate=&theterm=Das%20Rheingold%3A%20Alberich%20%5BBeck,%20Joseph%5D&x=0&xhomepath=&xhome=|publisher= Metropolitan Opera Archives|access-date= 28 July 2018|archive-date= 24 February 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210224211258/http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=6970&limit=500&xBranch=ALL&xsdate=&xedate=&theterm=Das%20Rheingold%3A%20Alberich%20%5BBeck,%20Joseph%5D&x=0&xhomepath=&xhome=|url-status= dead}}</ref> According to ''[[The New York Times]]'', "[t]he scenery, costumes and effects were all designed and executed with great art and caused admirable results."<ref name=Met/> Of particular note was the performance of [[Joseph Beck (baritone)|Joseph Beck]] who sang Alberich: "a fine example of Wagnerian declamatory singing, His delivery of the famous curse of the ring was notably excellent in its distinctness and dramatic force".<ref name=Met/> On 4 March 1889, with largely the January cast, Seidl conducted ''Das Rheingold'' to begin the first American ''Ring'' cycle.<ref>{{cite web|title= United States premiere, ''Ring'' cycle|url= http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm|publisher= Metropolitan Opera Archives|access-date= 28 July 2018|archive-date= 12 August 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180812164001/http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref> Thereafter, ''Das Rheingold'', either alone or as part of the ''Ring'', became a regular feature of the international opera repertory, being seen in Saint Petersburg (1889), Paris (1901), Buenos Aires (1910), Melbourne (1913),{{refn|In Melbourne, the British impresario [[Thomas Quinlan (impresario)|Thomas Quinlan]] staged all four ''Ring'' operas, although not on consecutive evenings; he interspersed them with performances of operas by [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]], [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]] and others. The complete ''Ring'' cycle as an entity was not staged in Australia until 1998.<ref>{{cite web|title= The Melbourne Ring Cycle is a once in a century celebration|url= https://theconversation.com/the-melbourne-ring-cycle-is-a-once-in-a-century-celebration-19519|website=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]]|date= 22 November 2013|access-date= 29 July 2018}}</ref> |group= n}}, and Rio de Janeiro (1921), as well many other major venues.<ref name= Perfhist>{{cite web|title= Performance History|url= http://opera.stanford.edu/Wagner/Rheingold/history.html|work= opera.stanford.edu|publisher= Opera Glass|access-date= 29 July 2018}}</ref>

After the 1896 revival, ''Das Rheingold'' was being performed regularly at the Bayreuth Festival, although not every year, within a variety of ''Ring'' productions.<ref>{{cite web|title= Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival: all the productions|url= http://www.wagneropera.net/bayreuth/bayreuth-ring-productions.htm|publisher= Wagneropera.net|access-date= 1 August 2018}}</ref> Until the [[Second World War]], under the successive artistic control of Cosima (from 1896 to 1907), her son [[Siegfried Wagner|Siegfried]] (1908 to 1930) and Siegfried's widow [[Winifred Wagner|Winifred]] (1931 to 1943),{{sfn|Millington|2006|pp=147–148}} these productions did not deviate greatly from the stagings devised by Wagner for the 1876 premiere. With few exceptions, this generally conservative, even reverential approach – which extended to all Wagner's operas – tended to be mirrored in performances outside Bayreuth.{{sfn|Holman|2001|p=373}}