# Das Rheingold

das rheingold (pronunciation ; The Rhinegold), WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, (English: The Ring of the Nibelung). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, on 13 August 1876. Wagner wrote the Ring librettos in reverse order, so that das rheingold was the last of the texts to be written; it was, however, the first to be set to music.