It's been an awful lot of time that I wanted to make a Richard Wagner's picture, and this month's challenge theme seemed the perfect occasion, since there's no music in the whole world that moves me like Wagner's, and specially his tetralogy, "Der Ring des Nibelungen". In this scenery there's more than one open reference to the controversial, new and astounding "mise en sce" of the "Ring" by Patrice Cheau during the Centennial Festpiele in Bayreuth, with the orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez. The Nibelung's Forge is represented here (as it was in that edition) in a sort of post-industrial setting, with the huge, massive hammers laboring the Rhine Gold subtracted by the two dwarves in the first opera, "The Rhinegold". On the high-left is Wotan, watching the Nibelungs while they're forging Notung, the sword that, in the hands of Siegfried, ultimately will bring the fall of Walhalla and the consequent "Twilight of the Gods" (the last opera of the "Ring"). This impeding doom is represented by the demolition ball ready to bring havoc on the fragile structure of the Gods' castle.

A sidenote: for those interested, the Boulez/Cheau edition of the "Ring" is still available on DVD (Philips Classics) and it's really, really astounding, both musically and visually. I won't report here the lyrics because... er, the Tetralogy is over 14 hours long, LOL :)

Tech info/details: Rendered at 1100x880 with normal AA (had to drop the usual 36rpp due to the very high rendertime of the volumetrics), reduced size for challenge posting. Total rendertime about 12 hours. Postwork: minor color enhancement in Photoshop, halo around Wotan is Dodge Brush, the sparkles on the hammers are done in Universe Image Creator. Mayang textures on floor and walls. Everything modelled in Bryce except, of course, the three human figures that are Poser.

If you want, you can check a higher-res version in my gallery.

Thanx for lookin'! :)

Stefano