Editing Richard Wagner (section)

===== Starting the ''Ring'' =====
{{Main|Der Ring des Nibelungen|Der Ring des Nibelungen: Composition of the music|Der Ring des Nibelungen: Composition of the poem}}
[[File:Ring22.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Brünnhilde]] the [[Valkyrie]], as illustrated by [[Arthur Rackham]] (1910)|alt=A youthful [[valkyrie]], wearing armour, cloak and winged helmet and holding a spear, stands with one foot on a rock and looks intently towards the right foreground. In the background are trees and mountains.]]

Wagner's late dramas are considered his masterpieces. ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'', commonly referred to as the ''Ring'' or "''Ring'' cycle", is a set of four operas based loosely on figures and elements of [[Germanic mythology]]—particularly from the later [[Norse mythology]]—notably the [[Old Norse]] ''[[Poetic Edda]]'' and ''[[Volsunga Saga]]'', and the [[Middle High German]] ''[[Nibelungenlied]]''.<ref>See {{harvnb|Millington|2001a|p=286}}; Donington (1979) 128–130, 141, 210–212.</ref> Wagner specifically developed the libretti for these operas according to his interpretation of ''[[Alliterative verse#Old High German and Old Saxon|Stabreim]]'', highly alliterative rhyming verse-pairs used in old Germanic poetry.{{sfn|Millington|2001a|pp=239–240, 266–267}} They were also influenced by Wagner's concepts of [[ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] drama, in which [[tetralogy|tetralogies]] were a component of [[Athenian festivals]], and which he had amply discussed in his essay "[[Oper und Drama]]".{{sfn|Millington|2008|p=74}}

The first two components of the ''Ring'' cycle were ''[[Das Rheingold]]'' (''The Rhinegold''), which was completed in 1854, and ''[[Die Walküre]]'' (''The Valkyrie''), which was finished in 1856. In ''Das Rheingold'', with its "relentlessly talky 'realism' [and] the absence of lyrical '[[Number (music)|numbers]]{{'"}},{{sfn|Grey|2008|p=86}} Wagner came very close to the musical ideals of his 1849–1851 essays. ''Die Walküre'', which contains what is virtually a traditional [[aria]] (Siegmund's ''Winterstürme'' in the first act), and the quasi-[[choral music|choral]] appearance of the [[Valkyrie|Valkyries]] themselves, shows more "operatic" traits, but has been assessed by Barry Millington as "the music drama that most satisfactorily embodies the theoretical principles of 'Oper und Drama'...&nbsp;A thoroughgoing synthesis of poetry and music is achieved without any notable sacrifice in musical expression."{{sfn|Millington|2002c}}