Opera Stories from Wagner

Long before Peter Jackson conjured dragons or Tolkien spun epics, Richard Wagner created the greatest mythological saga in Western music: the Ring Cycle. Florence Akin, writing in 1915, brings these towering operas within reach of young readers, distilling four massive works - The Rhine Gold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried, and Twilight of the Gods - into spellbinding prose. Here Alberich's greed steals the gold that drives the world to ruin. Here Siegfried forges his father's sword, slays the dragon Fafner, and wins a kingdom. Here gods and giants, heroes and Rhine-maidens collide in a tale where the price of power is always paid in blood. Akin retains the magic, the grandeur, the heartbreak - while softening nothing essential. This is not sanitized myth. This is Wagner at his most elemental, refracted through Edwardian eyes, perfect for readers ready to graduate from fairy tales to something darker and more magnificent. The gods are dying. The ring is cursed. And true love - when it appears at all - arrives too late.