This Die Walkure from the Festival d"Aix-en-Provence features the second installment of what is both Simon Rattle"s and the festival"s first Ring Cycle. Filmed last year in the recently built Grand Theatre de Provence and staged by Stephane Braunschweig, the opera is performed in modern dress in a modern setting (although the Valkyries do wear helmets). Wotan is played by the great Jamaican bass-baritone Willard White. Fricka is sung by Lilli Paasikivi with Robert Gambill as Siegmund and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Sieglinde. Rattle"s Ring Cycle in Aix continues with Siegfried in late 2008 and Gotterdammerung in 2009.