Richard Wagner
Götterdämmerung (1876)
Götterdämmerung (1876)
Karl Elmendorff
Chor & Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele
21 Jul 1942
1:56:55 - Act 2
2:58:48 - Act 3
Set Svanholm
-- Siegfried
Egmont Koch --
Gunther
Friedrich
Dalberg -- Hagen
Robert Burg --
Alberich
Marta Fuchs --
Brünnhilde
Else Fischer --
Gutrune
Camilla Kallab --
Waltraute
Camilla Kallab -- 1. Norn
Hildegard
Jachnow -- 2. Norn
Charlotte
Siewert -- 3. Norn
Hilde Scheppan --
Woglinde
Irmgard
Langhammer -- Wellgunde
Margery
Booth -- Floßhilde
Götterdämmerung, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle
of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung,
or The Ring for short). It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus
on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the Ring.
The
title is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase Ragnarök, which in
Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that
ultimately results in the burning, immersion in water, and renewal of the
world. However, as with the rest of the Ring, Wagner's account diverges
significantly from his Old Norse sources.
Prologue
The
three Norns, daughters of Erda, gather beside Brünnhilde's rock, weaving the
rope of Destiny. They sing of the past and the present, and of the future when
Wotan will set fire to Valhalla to signal the end of the gods. Without warning,
their rope breaks. Lamenting the loss of their wisdom, the Norns disappear.
As
day breaks, Siegfried and Brünnhilde emerge from their cave, high on a
mountaintop surrounded by magic fire. Brünnhilde sends Siegfried off to new
adventures, urging him to keep their love in mind. As a pledge of fidelity,
Siegfried gives her the ring of power that he took from Fafner's hoard. Bearing
Brünnhilde's shield and mounting her horse Grane, Siegfried rides away as an
orchestral interlude (Siegfried's Journey to the Rhine) starts.
Act 1
The
act begins in the Hall of the Gibichungs, a population dwelling by the Rhine.
Gunther, lord of the Gibichungs, sits enthroned. His half-brother and chief
minister, Hagen, advises him to find a wife for himself and a husband for their
sister Gutrune. He suggests Brünnhilde for Gunther's wife, and Siegfried for
Gutrune's husband. He reminds Gutrune that he has given her a potion that she
can use to make Siegfried forget Brünnhilde and fall in love with Gutrune;
under its influence, Siegfried will win Brünnhilde for Gunther. Gunther and
Gutrune agree enthusiastically with this plan.
Siegfried
appears at Gibichung Hall, seeking to meet Gunther. Gunther extends his
hospitality to the hero, and Gutrune offers him the love potion. Unaware of the
deception, Siegfried toasts Brünnhilde and their love. Drinking the potion, he
loses his memory of Brünnhilde and falls in love with Gutrune instead. In his
drugged state, Siegfried offers to win a wife for Gunther, who tells him about
Brünnhilde and the magic fire which only a fearless person can cross. They
swear blood-brotherhood (Hagen holds the drinking horn in which they mix their
blood, but he does not join in the oath) and leave for Brünnhilde's rock.
Hagen, left on guard duty, gloats that his so-called masters are unwittingly
bringing the ring to him (Monologue: Hagen's watch).
Meanwhile,
Brünnhilde is visited by her Valkyrie sister Waltraute, who tells her that
Wotan returned from his wanderings with his spear Gungnir shattered. Wotan is
dismayed at losing his spear, as it has all the treaties and bargains he has
made—everything that gives him power—carved into its shaft. Wotan ordered
branches of Yggdrasil, the World tree, to be piled around Valhalla; sent his
magic ravens to spy on the world and bring him news; and currently waits in
Valhalla for the end. Waltraute begs Brünnhilde to return the ring to the
Rhinemaidens, since the ring's curse is now affecting their father, Wotan.
However, Brünnhilde refuses to relinquish Siegfried's token of love, and
Waltraute rides away in despair.
Siegfried
arrives, disguised as Gunther by using the Tarnhelm, and claims Brünnhilde as
his wife. Though Brünnhilde resists violently, Siegfried overpowers her,
snatching the ring from her hand and placing it on his own.
Act 2
Hagen,
waiting by the bank of the Rhine, is visited in his semi-waking sleep (sitting
up, eyes open, but motionless) by his father, Alberich. On Alberich's urging,
he swears to kill Siegfried and acquire the ring. Alberich exits as dawn
breaks. Siegfried arrives via Tarnhelm-magic, having resumed his natural form
and left Brünnhilde on the boat with Gunther. Hagen summons the Gibichung
vassals to welcome Gunther and his bride. He does this by sounding the
war-alarm. The vassals are surprised to learn that the occasion is not battle,
but their master's wedding and party.
Gunther
leads in a downcast Brünnhilde, who is astonished to see Siegfried. Noticing
the ring on Siegfried's hand, she realizes she has been betrayed—that the man
who conquered her was not Gunther, but Siegfried in disguise. She denounces
Siegfried in front of Gunther's vassals and accuses Siegfried of having seduced
her himself. Siegfried, who does not remember ever having been Brünhilde's
lover, swears on Hagen's spear that her accusations are false. Brünnhilde
seizes the tip of the spear and swears that they are true. Once again Hagen
supervises silently as others take oaths to his advantage. But this time, since
the oath is sworn on a weapon, the understanding is that if the oath is proven
false, the weapon's owner should avenge it by killing the perjurer with that
weapon. Siegfried then leads Gutrune and the bystanders off to the wedding
feast, leaving Brünnhilde, Hagen, and Gunther alone by the shore. Deeply shamed
by Brünnhilde's outburst, Gunther agrees to Hagen's suggestion that Siegfried
must be killed for Gunther's standing to be regained. Brünnhilde, seeking
revenge for Siegfried's manifest treachery, joins the plot and tells Hagen that
Siegfried would be vulnerable to a stab in the back. Hagen and Gunther decide
to lure Siegfried on a hunting-trip and murder him. They sing a trio in which
Brünnhilde and Gunther vow in the name of Wotan, "guardian of oaths",
to kill Siegfried, while Hagen repeats his pledge to Alberich: to acquire the
ring and rule the world through its power.
Act 3
In
the woods by the bank of the Rhine, the Rhinemaidens mourn the lost Rhine gold.
Siegfried happens by, separated from the hunting party. The Rhinemaidens urge
him to return the ring and avoid its curse, but he laughs at them and says he
prefers to die rather than bargain for his life. They swim away, predicting
that Siegfried will die and that his heir, a lady, will treat them more fairly.
Siegfried
rejoins the hunters, who include Gunther and Hagen. While resting, he tells
them about the adventures of his youth. Hagen gives him another potion, which
restores his memory, and he tells of discovering the sleeping Brünnhilde and
awakening her with a kiss. Hagen stabs him in the back with his spear. The
others look on in horror, and Hagen explains in three words ("Meineid
rächt' ich!" – "I have avenged perjury!") that since Siegfried
admitted loving Brünnhilde, the oath he swore on Hagen's spear was obviously
false, therefore it was Hagen's duty to kill him with it. Hagen calmly walks
away into the wood. Siegfried recollects his awakening of Brünnhilde and dies.
His body is carried away in a solemn funeral procession (Siegfried's funeral
march) that forms the interlude as the scene is changed and recapitulates many
of the themes associated with Siegfried and the Wälsungs.
Back
in the Gibichung Hall, Gutrune awaits Siegfried's return. Hagen arrives ahead
of the funeral party. Gutrune is devastated when Siegfried's corpse is brought
in. Gunther blames Siegfried's death on Hagen, who replies that Siegfried had
incurred the penalty of his false oath, and further, claims the ring on
Siegfried's finger by right of conquest. When Gunther objects, Hagen appeals to
the vassals to support his claim. Gunther draws his sword but Hagen attacks and
easily kills him. However, as Hagen moves to take the ring, Siegfried's hand
rises threateningly. Hagen recoils in fear.
Brünnhilde
makes her entrance, after having received the complete information from the
Rhinemaidens. Gutrune, initially angry at Brünnhilde, later understands the
truth of Hagen's deception and that, in fact, Brünnhilde was the true bride of
Siegfried. Brünnhilde issues orders for a huge funeral pyre to be assembled by
the river (the start of the Immolation Scene). She takes the ring and tells the
Rhinemaidens to claim it from her ashes, once fire has cleansed it of its
curse. Lighting the pyre with a firebrand, she sends Wotan's ravens home with
"anxiously longed-for tidings", and to fly by the magic fire for Loge
to fulfill his task. After an apostrophe to the dead hero, Brünnhilde mounts
her horse Grane and rides into the flames.
The
fire flares up, and the hall of the Gibichungs catches fire and collapses. The
Rhine overflows its banks, quenching the fire, and the Rhinemaidens swim in to
claim the ring. Hagen tries to stop them but they drag him into the depths and
drown him. As they celebrate the return of the ring and its gold to the river,
a red glow is seen in the sky. As the Gibichungs watch, deeply moved, the
interior of Valhalla is finally seen, with gods and heroes visible as described
by Waltraute in Act 1. Flames flare up in the Hall of the Gods, hiding it and
them from sight completely. As the gods are consumed in the flames, the curtain
falls.
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