Far beneath the River Rhine glints the ancient Rhine Gold, guarded by the playful Rhine Maidens. Meanwhile, high above the world, Wotan, King of the Gods, completes his fortress of Valhalla and prepares to rule over the Earth. But the treasure in the Rhine contains a force stronger than any living being, and the soaring towers of Valhalla are built on a deception. When the Nibelung Alberich renounces love and forges a magical ring, he acquires a power that will threaten the future of humans and gods alike. In the introductory chapter (or “preliminary night”) of his Ring cycle, Richard Wagner doesn’t just tell a timeless story. He evokes a whole new imaginative world in music—setting out the characters and the themes to come, in music that glows with colour. This first chapter of Decca’s classic Ring transformed recorded opera when it first appeared in 1959 and stars George London in the role of Wotan and Kirsten Flagstad—arguably the greatest Wagner singer of the 20th century—in an unforgettable late-career cameo as his wife Fricka. Georg Solti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic with an urgency that makes it feel as if Wagner’s universe is being created anew before your ears. Experience it here in newly remastered Spatial Audio.