The summer of 1876. Bayreuth. After decades of composition, exile, debt, and an improbable rescue by Ludwig II of Bavaria, Richard Wagner's Ring cycle was finally being prepared for its world premiere in the festival theater he had built from nothing to house it.

The rehearsals were exhausting and fractious. Singers struggled with roles that had never been performed. The technical demands — the dragon, the swimming Rhinemaidens, the forge, the fire — pushed stagecraft beyond anything previously attempted. Wagner was everywhere: conducting, cajoling, despairing, insisting.

On 13 August 1876, Das Rheingold opened. The world heard the Ring for the first time. This is an AI-imagined reconstruction of those final preparations.

Part of Aufbruchmatt: a year-long scored walking practice threading Wagner's twelve operas through New York City.