August 17, 1876: Richard Wagner Completes His "Ring Cycle"

August 17, 1876, 150 years ago: Götterdämmerung premieres, as part of the opening festival of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany. It is the 1st performance in the final part of Richard Wagner's operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung ) . Born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, Saxony, Richard Wagner (pronounced "REE-kard VOG-ner"), 61 years old at the time of the…