The Valkyrie

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Work data
Title: The Valkyrie
Stage design by Helmut Jürgens for “Die Walküre”, performance by Bayer. Munich State Opera 1952

Stage design by Helmut Jürgens for “Die Walküre”, performance by Bayer. Munich State Opera 1952

Shape: Opera in three acts
Original language: German
Music: Richard Wagner
Libretto : Richard Wagner
Premiere: June 26, 1870
Place of premiere: Munich, National Theater
Playing time: approx. 3:45 hours
  • 1st act: approx. 1:05 hours
  • 2nd act: approx. 1:30 hours
  • 3rd act: approx. 1:10 hours
Place and time of the action: Hunding's dwelling and mountains, mythical prehistory
people

The Valkyries:

  • Brünnhilde (soprano)
  • Helmwige (soprano)
  • Gerhilde (soprano)
  • Ortlinde (soprano)
  • Waltraute (mezzo-soprano)
  • Siegrune (mezzo-soprano)
  • Roßweiße (mezzo-soprano)
  • Grimgerde ( Alt )
  • Sword line (old)

Die Walküre ( pronunciation : [ diː ˈvalkyːrə ]) ( WWV 86 B) is the title of an opera by Richard Wagner . Together with the operas Das Rheingold , Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, it forms the complete work Der Ring des Nibelungen . The Ring of the Nibelung is a tetralogy , namely a “stage festival for three days and an evening before”. Die Walküre is the first day after the prelude (Das Rheingold) . The premiere took place on June 26, 1870 in the Royal Court and National Theater in Munich under the direction of Franz Wüllner . The work has been published by Verlag Schott , Mainz (Richard Wagner Complete Edition). The autograph of the score has been lost since the Second World War .

action

First elevator

In the first act of the Walküre, Siegmund seeks shelter under the name Wehwalt with Sieglinde , Hunding's wife . Siegmund and Sieglinde are twins, conceived by Wotan, whom they only know by the name of Wälse. Since Sieglinde was stolen from an early age and Hunding was given for marriage ( "... a woman whom thieves gave him as a wife without being asked" ), the twin siblings initially do not recognize each other.

When he got home, Hunding asks the guest's origin and finds out that Siegmund belongs to that hated “wild sex” that he has just hunted - unsuccessfully - to “make atonement for blood of the kin” , only to find the trace of the “ fleeing wrongdoer” to be spotted in your own house ” . Although the hospitality forces him to accommodate Siegmund for the night, he determines that the duel between him and Siegmund should decide the next morning.

Hunding goes to sleep (Sieglinde: "I spice him up with an anesthetic drink" ). Sieglinde sneaks up to Siegmund and tells him about the sword in the trunk of the ash tree in the middle of the room, which one day a mysterious stranger had pushed into it and was only intended for someone who could pull it out, which no one has yet succeeded in doing. Siegmund calls the sword Notung (written in the score and piano reduction Not h ung), since he wins it in the greatest need, and enthusiastically draws it from the trunk. The siblings recognize one another, they glow in love for one another. Siegfried is conceived in the incestuous union of the siblings (“so bloom then Wälsungen blood”) .

second elevator

The second elevator transports us into divine spheres. A violent argument develops between Wotan and Fricka , Wotan's wife.

Wotan's plan, which he had drawn up at the end of the Rheingold, had meanwhile been implemented further. Heroes who have fallen in battle are brought by the nine Valkyries, Wotan's daughters, to Valhalla Castle, built by the giants, to form Wotan's army and fend off the feared attack by Alberich on the rule of the gods. In addition, Wotan wants to prevent Alberich from regaining possession of the ring ("then Valhalla would be lost") . But he himself is not allowed to compete against Fafner , who is guarding the gold treasure and ring in the form of a dragon (“with whom I got along, I must not meet”) ; so he wants an independent hero who could win the ring back for him. In this role he sees Siegmund . Favorite daughter Brünnhilde is supposed to support him in the upcoming fight with Hunding and help him to victory.

However, Fricka now demands from Wotan to stand up for Hunding in a duel because Hunding was the victim of adultery - and an incestuous one at that. Wotan, the keeper of divine order, she argues, cannot leave this adultery unpunished. Wotan tries to get out of it by pointing out that Siegmund as a free man must be able to cope with the situation himself, but Fricka sees through him - he, Wotan, brought Siegmund into this emergency situation in the first place and also brought him the sword, that should save him, leaked. Fricka demands and at the end receives Wotan's oath to kill Siegmund in battle (Fricka: "The Wälsung falls to my honor!" ).

When Brünnhilde returns to Wotan shortly afterwards and finds him deeply shaken, she manages to get Wotan to talk (Wotan: “... I just advise, I talk to you” ). He reveals to her the history of the ring, that the earth goddess Erda warned him, but he ignored the warning, and what grew out of it for him ( "I caught myself in my own bondage, I most unfree of all!" ).

When Brünnhilde finally receives the order from Wotan to turn the fight in favor of Hunding, she is dejected. She appears to Siegmund in the fourth scene of the second act, the so-called death announcement. She is deeply moved to discover that Siegmund is only attached to Sieglinde and does not want to know anything about the delights of Walhall, the dream of all heroes. She decides to defy Wotan's order and help Siegmund. Angry, Wotan intervenes in the fighting himself. Siegmund falls as Wotan's spear smashes his sword. Wotan Hunding grimly instructs Fricka to describe the course of the fight and kills him with a "contemptuous wave of the hand". Then he takes up the pursuit of Brünnhilde, who is on the run with the desperate Sieglinde to the Valkyries rock.

Valkyries ( Valkyrien ), painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo , 1865
Hunding kills Siegmund

third elevator

All of Wotan's daughters, the Valkyries, meet on the Valkyrie Rock to move to Valhalla with the heroes who have fallen in battle and who have collected them. Probably the best-known piece of music from the Ring of the Nibelung, the Ride of the Valkyries , sounds as the prelude and beginning of this scene.

Wotan pursues the rebellious Brünnhilde in order to punish her for her disobedience. Brünnhilde still succeeds in showing Sieglinde the way to escape, announcing to the tired woman that she will give birth to a son ("you have the noblest hero in the world, oh woman, in your protective lap!") . Siegmund's sword, which broke in the duel, she gives to her as a paternal inheritance for this son. Sieglinde flees in exuberant jubilation over the promised pledge of love that grows within her.

Brünnhilde, on the other hand, faces the wrath of Wotan, who announces the harshest punishment: that from now on she will no longer exist as a divine Valkyrie. Degraded to a human being, as a “woman”, she is supposed to follow the first man who wakes her up from the “defenseless sleep” into which Wotan will put her, and henceforth lead the dreary life of a housewife ( “... she obeys the imperious man from now on , she sits at the hearth and spins, aim and game of all scornful people ” ). Brünnhilde points out to Wotan that his instruction to her, since he loves Siegmund, was always to protect him, and that his contradicting withdrawal of this instruction is based only on the fact that Fricka had alienated him with her arguments. She dares to suggest that Wotan should set a fire around the mountain on which he wants to banish her asleep in order to spare her the shame of possibly becoming "easy prey for the cowardly man" . She achieves Wotan's promise that only a hero (thinking of Sieglinde's future son) who can fearlessly break through the fire will awaken her. Wotan says goodbye to his favorite daughter, looks into her eyes for the last time and kisses the god of her. Then he orders Loge to surround the rock with fire and stipulates: "Whoever fears the point of my spear, never cross the fire!"

layout

Instrumentation

Duration (using the example of the Bayreuth Festival)

At the Bayreuth Festival it was customary to document the length of the individual elevators, but not all years were recorded there and sometimes not all files were recorded. The information given here only includes the years and the conductors for which all three acts were documented. Even with the same conductor, the length of the acts differed from year to year and performance to performance. The type of voice and the temperament of the singers also influenced the duration.

Overview (1876 to 1970)
The Valkyrie 1st act 2nd act 3rd act Total duration
Hours. conductor Hours. conductor Hours. conductor Hours. conductor
Shortest duration 1:00 Otmar Suitner 1:23 Lorin Maazel ,
Otmar Suitner 		1:04 Otmar Suitner ,
Clemens Krauss 		3:27 Otmar Suitner
Longest duration 1:07 Siegfried Wagner 1:36 Hans Knappertsbusch 1:15 Franz von Hoeßlin 3:53 Hans Knappertsbusch
Span * 0:07 (12%) 0:13 (16%) 0:11 (17%) 0:26 (13%)

* Percentages based on the shortest duration

Playing time with individual conductors of the Bayreuth Festival (in hours)
year conductor 1st act 2nd act 3rd act Total duration
1876 Hans Richter 1:02 1:27 1:10 3:39
1896 Felix Mottl 1:06 1:32 1:10 3:48
1896 Siegfried Wagner 1:07 1:30 1:07 3:44
1897 Hans Richter 1:03 1:27 1:09 3:39
1904 Franz Beidler 1:02 1:28 1:06 3:36
1909 Michael Balling 1:05 1:27 1:07 3:39
1927 Franz von Hoeßlin 1:06 1:30 1:15 3:51
1930 Karl Elmendorff 1:01 1:28 1:09 3:38
1934 Heinz Tietjen 1:05 1:29 1:13 3:47
1936 Wilhelm Furtwängler 1:05 1:26 1:07 3:38
1951 Herbert von Karajan 1:02 1:27 1:07 3:36
1951 Hans Knappertsbusch 1:05 1:36 1:12 3:53
1952 Joseph Keilberth 1:03 1:24 1:07 3:34
1953 Clemens Krauss 1:01 1:24 1:04 3:29
1960 Rudolf Kempe 1:02 1:28 1:11 3:41
1964 Berislav Klobučar 1:03 1:27 1:07 3:37
1965 Karl Bohm 1:01 1:24 1:05 3:30
1966 Otmar Suitner 1:00 1:23 1:04 3:27
1968 Lorin Maazel 1:04 1:23 1:05 3:32
1970 Horst Stein 1:02 1:26 1:05 3:33

premiere

The singers and actors in the premiere in 1870 were:

Recordings (selection)

Web links

Commons : Die Walküre  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Egon Voss: The conductors of the Bayreuth Festival, 1976, Gustav Bosse Verlag, Regensburg; P. 98.
  2. ↑ So justified in Egon Voss (ibid.)