The Annotated Ring Cycle

Wagner’s magnum opus meets the celebrated translator of Jules Verne novels in this colorful and original work.

Frederick Paul Walter makes The Valkyrie accessible not only to scholars and opera buffs but also to fans of Tolkien, Star Wars, and Hogwart. Walter provides a dazzling, new translation in lively modern English and annotations that spotlight the libretto, lyrics, and stage directions. The translation conveys Wagner’s humor, rhymes, alliterative effects, subliminal messages, and inventive tale spinning, and gets the most basic ingredient right: the actual story! It highlights the motives, secrets, and plot twists—what’s really going on and what its narrative shows and tells.

The Annotated Ring Cycle includes newly created graphic-novel style illustrations that visually represent the storyline alongside color photos and classic artwork by Arthur Rackham, Howard Pyle, Aubrey Beardsley, the 1876 costume & set designs, and much more.