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Synopsis, Die Walküre

Music and lyrics:Richard Wagner

Libretto

Premiàre

First performance at the Nationaltheatret in Münich at the 22 of September 1869.

Act 1

A man flees from his foes. He arrives at a house where he is met by a woman, Sieglinde. She is married to the owner of the house, Hunding. The stranger and Sieglinde both find that there is something eerily familiar about the other. Hunding arrives home and asks who the stranger is. The stranger tells them that his family was attacked when he was a child - his mother was killed and his twin sister abducted. He and the father lived as outlaws in the forests until the father disappeared one day.

Recently, he defended a young woman in distress - but everything went wrong, and now he is on the run from his persecutors, one of whom is Hunding himself. Hospitlity shelters the stranger for the night, but revenge will be sought the next day. Hunding locks up the stranger and goes to sleep with Sieglinde…

Sieglinde soon returns. She has given her husband a sleeping potion and tells the stranger that her marriage to Hunding was forced. At their wedding an unknown man suddenly stepped forward and thrust a sword into a large ash tree. The sword was to belong to whoever could draw it. None of the guests were able to shift it, and it still sits in in the tree waiting for its owner.

Sieglinde realized that the unknown man at the wedding was her father, and that the sword was destined for the man who one day would avenge her. Sieglinde recognizes the stranger as her brother, Siegmund, and they embrace passionately. Together Siegmund and Sieglinde flee from Hunding, into the spring.

Act 11

The leader of the gods, Wootan, has a plan.The dwarf Alberich had originally stolen the rhinegold and created the ring with the power to rule the world. Wotan stole it from him but had to relinquish it as part of a deal. Since Wotan himself caught up in a web of deals and contracts that secure his power he is unable to break his promise and steal the ring back. His illegitimate son Siegmund is, on the other hand, a free hero, ignorant of Wotan´s true identity. He grew up alone in the forests. He is able to do what Wotan can`t - kill the dragon Faner guarding the treasure, seize the ring and make sure that world domination stays in family hands.

Wotan demands of his daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, that she let Siegmund win the battle over Hunding: Enthusiastically she agrees. But Wotan´s wifr, Fricka, who is the goddess of matrimony, demands Siegmund´s death because he has abducted Hunding´s wife - Sieglinde´s sister.

Fricka hates Brünnhilde and Siegmund who Wotan has fathered by being unfaithful with a different woman, so she reveals Wotan´s lie: Siegmund is not a free hero. On the contray, he was created by and is under the influence of Wotan who through Siegmund seeks to win back the ring. Siegmund must die. Reluctantly, Wotan annuls his order to Brünnhilde and grieves the loss of his son.

In the meantime, Sieglinde and Siegmund flee not knowing that their life is part of a grand political scheme. While Sieglinde sleeps, Brünnhilde steps forward and tells Siegmund that he is soon to die and go to Valhalla. But when he hears that Sieglinde cannot follow him, he draws his sword to kill her and the child she carries so that they all three may be united in the kingdom of death. Brünnhilde experiences the power of love for the first time and dares to defy Wotan by helping Siegmund in the battle against Hunding. But Wotan arrives and breaks Siegmund´s sword. Hunding kills Siegmund, Brünnhilde and Sieglinde flee and Wotan follows them to punish Brünnhilde´s disobedience.

Act 111

The Valkyries gather. They seek out the heroes among the dead on the battlefield so to bring their souls to Valhalla. Brünnhilde arrives with Sieglinde who only wants to die. Brünnhilde asks the sisters to protect Sieglinde but they refuse to defy Wotan. Brünnhilde tells Sieglinde that she is to give birth to the world´s mighty hero and asks her to flee from Wotan. She gives Sieglinde the broken sword that her son Siegfried is to inherit.

Wotan arrives and proclaims his judgment over Brünnhilde: she is to disowned and is no longer a Valkyrie but a comman mortal woman. She is to fall into a deep sleep and is to belong to the man who one day wakes her. But Brünnhilde fosters an idea: Wotan is to make sure that Siegfried ids the person to wake her up. Wotan slowly realises that this is a way of securing the free hero whom he could not create himself, and he concedes to Brünnhilde`s plan by protecting her with a belt of fire that can only be penetrated by the man who knows no fear. With great sorrow, Wotan bids farewell to his favourite daughter, who is left lying there with the flames as her only protection.

Recommended recordings

Wagner: Valkyrian
Vickers,Nilsson,London
London Symphony Orchestra/Leinsdorf
Decca 470 443-2[3CD].1962

Wagner:Nibelungens Ring
George London,Kirsten Flagstad,Claire Watson,Valdemar Kmentt,Eberhard Wächter,Set Svanholm,Paul Kuen,Jean Madeira,Gustav Neidlinger,Walter Kreppel,Kurt Böhme,Oda Balsborg,Hetty Plumacher,Ira Malaniuk,Wolfgang Windgassen,Birgit Nilsson,Hans Hotter,Marga Höffgen,Joan Sutherland,James King,Regine Crespin,Gottlob Frick,Christa Ludwig,Brigitte Faessbaender,Berit Lindholm.Helga Dernesch,Vera Schlosser,Helen Watts,Vera Little,Claudia Hellmann,Marilyn Tyler,Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,Lucia Popp,Gwyneth Jones,Maureen Guy,Grace Hoffman och Anita Valkki
Wiener Philharmoniker/Sir Georg Solti
Decca 455 555-2[14 CD].1965

Wagner: Nibelungens Ring
Birgit Nilsson,Leonie Rysanek,Annelies Burmeister,Martha Mödl,Ludmila Dvorakova,Helga Dernesch,Anja Silja,Marga Höffgen,Erika Köth,Theo Adam,Wolfgang Windgassen,Gustav Neidlinger,James King.Erwin Wohlfart,Josef Grindl,Thomas Stewart,Gerd Nienstedt,Martti Talvela,Kurt Böhme
Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele/Karl Böhm
Philips 446 057-2[14 CD].1967