This books takes a comprehensive look at The Ring, exploring the mythology behind it and the story, music, characters, and language of Wagner's monumental work. Intended as both an introduction to The Ring and a powerful reference tool, the book provides listeners, audiences, and readers with a basic guide to the four operas, answering the seemingly simple questions asked by Wagner scholars and newcomers alike: who is who? and what happens?

The book contains extensive synopses with the composer's stage directions, thus laying out Wagner's original intentions for staging the work. The book explores the heart of The Ring - the music - and vividly portrays the characters by mapping out their complex relationships, their appearances in the four operas, and their mythological backgrounds.

1. Finally, it includes the first English-language concordance to The Ring. Illustrated with photos of stage sets and costume designs from a recent Metropolitan Opera production, and including a photographic and written survey of influential Ring productions since World War II, the book is an essential handbook for beginners and experts alike.