Such a passage as bars 5 to 8 in the first movement of Beethoven's 8th symphony is as unintelligible from the point of view of Wagnerian opera as the opening of the Rheingold is unintelligible from the point of view of symphony.
Meantime Der Ring des Nibelungen was rapidly approaching completion, and on the 13th of August 1876 the introductory portion, Das Rheingold, was performed at Bayreuth for the first time as part of the great whole, followed on the 14th by Die Walkiire, on the 16th by Siegfried and on the 17th by Geitterdiimmerung.
Das Rheingold, prologue in 4 scenes to Der Ring des Nibelungen; ein Buhnenfestspiel (poem written last of the series, which was begun in 1848 and finished in 1851-1852; music, 1853 - 1854).
According to their guru, Howard Rheingold, the values of the counter-culture baby boomers are shaping the development of new information technologies.
The success of the opera was very great; but the production of the Nibelung tetralogy as a whole still remained impracticable, though Das Rheingold and Die Walkiire were performed, the one on the 22nd of September 1869 and the other on the 26th of June 1870.