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CHICAGO -- The immense world created by Richard Wagner in "The Ring of the Nieblungen" concludes with the longest opera in the repertoire, "Die Gotterdammerung" (The Twilight of the Gods).

Andrew Davis, Lyric of Opera Chicago's music director who becomes Pittsburgh Symphony's music adviser next season, led the triumphant performance with unflagging focus and intensity to provide a brilliant finale to the company's 50th anniversary season.

The first act begins with a lengthy Prologue. It was entirely characteristic of Lyric Opera's fabulous casting that the women portraying the three Norns who spin the rope of fate, were evenly matched powerful voices.

After the rope of fate breaks, the Norns are through. The prologue continues as Brunnhilde and Siegfried awaken at dawn and sing a love duet pledging eternal devotion. Although Jane Eaglen and John Treleaven sang with passion, their vocalism was less than ideally steady. Siegfried then departs to an extended orchestral interlude known as the "Rhine Journey" in which the Lyric Opera Orchestra again covered itself with glory.

But Siegfried quickly betrays Brunnhilde when he arrives at the home of siblings Gunther and Gutrune Gibichung. Their half-brother Hagen is the son of Alberich, whose lust for gold and power sets off this cycle of operas in "Das Rheingold."

Eric Halfvarson was the powerful bass singing Hagen, who gives Siegfried a magic potion that makes him forget his past, including Brunnhilde. Siegfried falls for Gutrune and agrees to help win Brunnhilde for Gunther.

"Die Gotterdammerung" includes opportunities to prevent its tragic outcome, beginning in the next scene with Brunnhilde rejecting an appeal by her Valkyrie sister Waltraute to give up the ring made from Rhine gold that was given to her by Siegfried. The fabulous duet between Michelle De Young and Eaglen was a highlight of the Lyric Opera's production.

The first act then concludes -- at last -- with a short scene in which Siegfried appears disguised as Gunther and overpowers Brunnhilde, taking back the ring. Her worst fears about her father's punishment have come true. But there's worse to come.

The second begins by emphasizing the interlocking aspects of the "Ring" cycle. Alberich appears, suspended on cords above his son in this production, to urge his son Hagen to bring swift vengeance to Siegfried -- a process he began earlier in the act.

Hagen calls the Gibichung clan and vassals together to welcome Gunther and his bride for the first choral passage in the operatic cycle. They witness Brunnhilde's shock at Siegfried's infatuation with Gutrune, and her claims of betrayal. Siegfried, still under the influence of Hagen's potion, swears on Hagen's sword that Brunnhilde's claims are false. Gunther, Hagen and Brunnhilde don't believe it and swear revenge on Siegfried. Brunnhilde seals Siegfried's fate by revealing he can be successfully attacked when his back is turned.

Although Siegfried seems to be presented as the ideal hero in Wagner's "Ring," the composer himself said he is stupid. A word to the wise might be sufficient, but never is for Siegfried, who starts the final act by rejecting an appeal to give up the ring he took back from Brunnhilde in Act I from the three Rhine Maidens who were last seen at the start of "Das Rheingold."

Siegfried's memory is restored with another of Hagen's potions during the ensuing hunting scene. After Siegfried sings of his love for Brunnhilde, contradicting his oath in Act I, Hagen tricks him by asking what three birds in the distance are saying. As Siegfried turns to the birds, Hagen stabs him in the back. The ensuing Funeral March is one of the most famous of opera excerpts and was magnificently played by the orchestra.

"Die Gotterdammerung" concludes with the celebrated "Immolation Scene," a fiery funeral for Siegfried that is a showpiece for Wagnerian sopranos and was brilliantly sung by Eaglen. Hagen dies as pulled under the rising waters of the Rhine River by the Rhine Maidens.

The staging of the final scene was only partly successful, and featured the gratuitous appearance of a boy and girl to symbolize the renewal of the world by the flooding Rhine.

The loudest cheering for the cast at the curtain call was for Eaglen and conductor Davis. When the curtain was opened to reveal the orchestra and chorus, the audience again went wild. In Chicago, renewal will come quickly, if temporarily, when "The Ring" is repeated this week.

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