Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 5th of May 2013 at 3 - 6 pm
Sunday 7th of September 2008 at 3 - 5.40 pm
Sunday 3rd of September 2009 at 3 - 6 pm
Sunday 17th of April 2011 at 3 - 6pm
PRELUDE
SYNOPSIS
LIBRETTO
SCORE
WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen, the stage-festival play,
performed as a tetralogy of prologue and three operas
2013
Das Rheingold, a prologue in one act, or:
an opera in four scenes
The theft of the gold from the Rhine and a curse on the ring forged from it will eventually bring about the downfall of Valhalla’s gods.
Wotan.......................... Mark Delavan
Loge............................. Stefan Margita
Fricka........................... Stephanie Blythe
Freia............................. Wendy Bryn Harmer
Donner......................... Dwayne Croft
Froh............................. Richard Cox
Erda............................. Meredith Arwady
Alberich....................... Eric Owens
Mime............................ Gerhard Siegel
Fasolt........................... Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner.......................... Hans-Peter König
Woglinde..................... Dísella Làrusdóttir
Wellgunde................... Jennifer Johnson Cano
Flosshilde..................... Renée Tatum
Metropolitan Opera Orch/Fabio Luisi
2011
WAGNER: Das Rheingold, an opera in four scenes
The prelude to The Ring of the Nibelungen, is an introduction to the characters of the cycle and their relationships as they play out in the next three operas. It begins with Alberich stealing the Rheingold from which the ring that causes all the trouble is forged
Wotan........................... Bryn Terfel
Loge............................. Arnold Bezuyen
Fricka........................... Stephanie Blythe
Freia............................. Wendy Bryn Harmer
Donner.......................... Dwayne Croft
Froh.............................. Adam Diegel
Erda.............................. Patricia Bardon
Alberich........................ Eric Owens
Mime............................ Gerhard Siegel
Fasolt............................ Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner........................... Hans-Peter König
Woglinde...................... Lisette Oropesa
Wellgunde..................... Jennifer Johnson
Flosshilde...................... Tamara Mumford
Metropolitan Opera Orch/Fabio Luisi
2009
Freia............................. Wendy Bryn Harmer
Fricka........................... Yvonne Naef
Erda.............................. Jill Grove
Loge............................. Kim Begley
Wotan........................... James Morris
Alberich........................ Richard Paul Fink
Fasolt............................ Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner........................... John Tomlinson
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/James Levine
Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (‘The Ring of the Nibelung’, namely Alberich, an underworld dwarf). In our local video-opera group we have already had several potted versions of this massive work (some productions run to 17 hours of words and music). There was the Stagehand’s Ring (where the backstage boys told the story as seen from their vantage points). We have been regaled by Anna Russell in pink chiffon, holding forth on the oddities of the storyline. We have seen Placido Domingo (a serious Wagnerian tenor) preparing for a performance of ‘The Valkyrie’. In 2009 we were working our way slowly through a Bayreuth Festival video-recording (Pierre Boulez, Patrice Chéreau, Donald Macintyre, Gwynneth Jones), in which the GBShaw interpretation of the epic-drama is followed (see UNDERGROUND).
The Ring is a trilogy, in four parts (a tetraptych disguised as a triptych; Wagner thought he could fool some of the people some of the time, but when you count up the number of nights you have to go out to see it you use four fingers).
The last part is Götterdämmerung (‘Twilight of the Gods’); the German word Dämmerung can refer to the ‘tweenlight’ of sunrise or sunset, but even though the real action of the opera begins with the sun rising (Dawn and Siegfried’s journey along the Rhine River) the catastrophic ending informs us that this is the ‘nightfall’ of the gods, and their downfall. Bernard Shaw translated it as 'Night falls on the gods'.
It is important to understand that Wagner wrote the whole thing backwards. He first called it ‘Siegfried’s Death’, and in it he told the audience, through conversations between the characters, how Siegfried met Brünnhilde, what Siegfried’s parentage was, and the origin of the fateful ring. So he decided to write the libretto Siegfried, to explain those three themes. Then he produced ‘The Valkyrie’, to introduce Wotan and his daughter Brünnhilde. Finally, he added ‘The Rhine Gold’ as the prologue. Then he started composing the music. This shows why The Ring is so repetitive. Wagner could have shortened them all down to the size of Rheingold (150 minutes, or 2 and 1/2 hours) by eliminating all the flashback stuff!
As Anna Russell tells us, if you know the E flat chord then that is basically what the 150 bars of the Rhinegold prelude are about. It is true that you will hear the preludes and overtures to Wagner’s music-dramas on the radio (from Rienzi to Parsifal) but certainly not this one (very minimalist!); but the same applies to the opening music of the other three parts of The Ring. To my ears it is the same theme as for Erda, the goddess of the Earth, though in a different key. Remember, Wagner makes extensive use of ‘leading motifs’. So we are starting deep down in the ground, but there are seven rising notes in the theme: DAAA-DI-DAAA-DI-DAAA-DI-DIII. And there are arpeggios representing the moving waters of the Rhine.
Suddenly in the climactic surging there is a breakthrough, and we are up into the clear air, with the voices of the three Rhine maidens ringing out. They are ‘wogeling’ (Weia Waga Woge Wagalaweia), an aquatic form of yodelling. They are nixies (water-elves); their names are Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde. They see a dwarf coming out of a cleft in the rock, sneezing. It is Alberich the Nibelung. They think he is ugly, and tease him terribly, pretending to be attracted to him, but always slipping away from his grasp. When the sun shines on the hoard of gold that they are guarding, Alberich loses interest in them. They inform him that anyone who renounces love can make a ring from this gold and rule the universe. They are not called nixies for nothing: they act seductively, but when it comes to the point they say Nix, Nothing doing. So Alberich gets his own back and nicks the gold from the nixies. They go into ‘Oy vey’ mode: ‘Wehe! Wehe! ‘ (Woe!Woe!).
Second Scene
The chief-god Wotan (Woden) and his consort Fricka (Frygge) are sleeping in a flowery meadow on a mountain-top above the Rhine River. She wakes him to point out their completed new home, a glorious castle (we eventually learn that its name is Walhall, Valhalla). Fricka is the patroness of ‘family values’, and she is not happy about the reward that is being given to the two giants who built the divine residence; it is her sister Freia, goddess of youth and beauty, who produces the apples that keep the gods young. In their heated argument, Wotan finds cause to mention that he lost an eye when courting her. (Watch for the patch over his eye-socket.)
Freia comes in, pursued by the big brothers Fafner and Fasolt. Her brothers Donner (Thor, the wielder of thunderbolts) and Froh (what employment he engages in is uncertain, but his name tells us he is glad) want to sock it to the giants. But Loge (Loki, the cunning demi-god, connected with fire) is called in to restart negotiations over the contract. He offers the idea of Alberich’s gold, and the Ring. The giants like the idea of wealth, but take Freia off as hostage. Immediately the gods start to look old. Wotan and Loge prepare to descend to the underworld.
Third Scene
In the intermezzo Wotan and Loge go underground. We hear the flickering motif of Loge, semiquavers darting about, representing trickery and wildfire; also the renunciation-of-love theme, letting us know that we are entering the realm of Alberich the Nibelung, who has forsworn love to achieve power (but somehow he still manages to father a beastly son named Hagen, the villain of the final part of the drama); then we are assailed by the sound of hammers on anvils (dum di-di dum-dum-dum).
Alberich is dragging his brother Mime by the ears, and calling him a treacherous dwarf (!), for not achieving his productivity quota. Where is that special helmet I ordered? The motif of the tarnhelm is heard (chords on horns moving about slowly and mysteriously). Mime says he was afraid it would not be up to standard, but Alberich takes it and tries it on; pronouncing a spell about night and mist (Nacht und Nebel) he disappears from sight into a ‘nebulous’ column. While invisible he whips Mime, and then moves off to let all the Nibelungs know who’s the boss, and that he will be watching them even though they cannot see him.
Wotan and Loge engage Mime in conversation, and at length suggest they might be able to take Alberich’s power away and save the Nibelungs from his tyranny. When Alberich comes back and asks what their business is in Nibelheim, they say they want to pay their respects and see the wonders he has wrought. Alberich shows off all his gold.
Alberich boasts that he will become master of the whole world, and having renounced love he will overpower the gods and have his way with their women (in a loveless mode, naturally). Wotan becomes angry, but Loge inervenes and asks Alberich to demonstrate the magic powers he has acquired through the tarnhelm. His first trick is to change himself into a giant snake. How about something tiny? When he turns into a toad, Wotan puts his foot on him, the dwarf returns to his own form, and the gods bind him, and drag him up to the world above. In the interlude listen for the ring, and the anvils.
Fourth Scene
Alberich complains about the service, being trussed up like a Christmas turkey, and he threatens revenge. If he wants to be untied, he must yield up the gold. Well, at least I get to keep the ring, he murmurs. He orders the Nibelungs to bring up the hoard. Then he demands the tarnhelm, but Loge throws it on the heap. Wotan now covets the ring. No, no, anything but that; and anyway it really belongs to the Rhine maidens. Wotan snatches it from Alberich, and puts it on one of his own fingers. Right, I now put a curse on this ring; misery and death will prey on anyone who has it in their possession. So saying, Alberich crawls back into his hole. He has forsworn love, but ultimately we learn he has fathered (lovelessly) a nasty son named Hagen, who is to regain the ring for him.
The gods gather round, and the giants return with Freia; and the divine beings cheer up and look young again. The giants will accept the gold, as long as it hides Freia. But in the end there is a hole in the pile through which she is still visible. The ring will fix that, but Wotan has already become attached to it! Fasolt seizes Freia and is making off with her, when Erda (the earth mother) appears out of the ground (but only as a torso, like the Rapanui / Easter-Island statues). Give it up, Wotan, flee the ring’s curse, she admonishes. A gloomy day is dawning for the gods (dämmert den Göttern), hence the name of the last of the four parts: Götterdämmerung; as I said, the German word can mean dawning or dusk, and it is the end of the gods that Wagner had in mind. Wotan reluctantly tosses it on the hoard. Thereupon Fasolt and Fafner fight over the ring. Fafner kills Fasolt, takes all the gold including the ring, and stalks off. When we meet him again, in part 3 (Siegfried), he has used the tarnhelm to become a dragon and he is living with the gold in a cave.
Anna Russell pokes fun at this, shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head in disbelief. In ignorance, actually. We readers of Beowulf (see the movie with Angelina Jolie!) know that it is a dragon’s hallowed role to guard gold in a barrow; and we are not talking about a barrowful of gold, but a hoard of treasure in a tomb.
So, we and the gods look on aghast at this outcome. Death has a nasty smell. Let’s go inside. Donner swings his hammer and there is a thunderclap. A rainbow bridge springs up, allowing the gods to make their entry in Walhall(a) (at last we learn the castle’s name). Loge stays out of it, muttering that they are hastening to their end, and he just might be the arsonist who will burn their home down in the end. The maidens of the Rhine whine: “Rheingold, reines Gold”(pure gold) is Wagner’s pun. (Of course it was pure, it was washed by the river's water constantly.)
Wagner was a great lover of animals (so were all the Nazi folk-slaughterers). Lohengrin and Parsifal have a swan as the central motif. You would not have realized till now that The Ring epitomizes that immortal line (though mortal and fatal in its context) of the Spear-Shaker (not Wotan, William): “My kingdom for a horse”. Setting aside the snake and toad of Rheingold, we meet a host of horses in The Valkyrie, ridden by teen-age girls (on a high, but not on their high horse) who have not yet graduated to a sexual fixation on boys (men are just dead meat for them at this stage); in Siegfried, the young hero has a pet bear, but his horizons expand when he sees the sturdy steed Grane; however, he gets through his horsey stage rapidly when he strides through the fire and undresses Grane’s owner, Brünnhilde the Valkyrie, and though she finds her feelings scary she quickly soars out of adolescence with the eager Siegfried. In the end, in The Twilight of the gods, when Siegfried has taken Brünnhilde’s place on a bed surrounded by fire (and she has lost her salamander status), and when she rides into the flames to be united with him, the horse (or the back end of the beast) is the last thing we see (of course, since the equestrian Australian Marjorie Lawrence stopped doing it, producers leave the ponies in the stable).
Sunday 7th of September 2008 at 3 - 5.40 pm
Wotan........................... Alan Titus
Donner.......................... Oskar Hillebrandt
Froh.............................. Attila Fekete
Loge............................. Christian Franz
Fricka........................... Judit Németh
Freia............................. Anna Herczenik
Erda.............................. Cornelia Kallisch
Alberich........................ Hartmut Welker
Mime............................ Michael Roider
Fasolt............................ Jan-Hendrik Rootering
Fafner........................... Walter Fink
Woglinde...................... Eszter Wierdl
Wellgunde..................... Katalin Gémes
Hungarian Radio SO/Adám Fischer
(recorded in the Bartók National Concert Hall, Palace of Arts,
Budapest by Hungarian Radio)
COMPOSER
CHARACTERS
BACKGROUND
UNDERGROUND The meaning of it all
ANALYSIS
SYNOPSIS
STORYLINE
- As I listened to this performance live from the Met from the States, this blog was very helpful in going through the opera. As helpful as the Met's site. I visit often. Just thought I would pass along my gratitude for the work you do here.
- March 29, 2009 8:01 AM
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