Libretto by the composer
World premiere June 26th 1870, Royal Court & National Theater, Munich
First performed as part of the Ring des Nibelungen August 14th 1876
This production first seen October 31 2010
Sung in German with German & English surtitles
an introductory talk starts in the Holzfoyer 30 mins before performances begin and can be heard here and everywhere podcasts can be found
Wotan hopes a hero, unanswerable to the gods, can do what he's not allowed to do: win back Alberich's Ring – which is in Fafner’s possession. To this end he sired the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde with a mortal woman, and Erda bore him Brünnhilde, who's building an army of fallen heros with her eight half-sisters, the Valkyries. A wounded, unarmed man collapses in a stranger’s house and is tended by the woman who lives there. When her husband Hunding returns he realises that the man's the enemy he was hoping to kill. He grants him hospitality for the night but says they'll fight next morning. The wife gives her husband a sleeping draught. She and the stranger fall in love, although she realises that he must be her twin brother, from whom she became separated as a child. The stranger’s father promised him he'd find a sword if he found himself in mortal danger. The sword's there, thrust into an oak tree by a stranger long ago. He pulls it out. Sieglinde reveals her name and calls him Siegmund. Wotan’s wife Fricka insists that Wotan punish them for their incest. The god must turn his back on Siegmund, his own son. Going against her father’s instructions Brünnhilde tries to help Siegmund in his battle with Hunding but Wotan’s spear shatters Siegmund’s sword. Wotan punishes Brünnhilde for her disobedience by depriving her of her divinity and putting her to sleep surrounded by a ring of fire until a hero's brave enough to wake her. Brünnhilde told Wotan that Sieglinde's expecting Siegmund's baby. So hope remains.
The real story in Wagner’s Ring begins inWalküre. Wotan paid for Valhalla with Alberich‘s Ring, thereby getting himself into a bit of a mess with injustice and contracts. It’s vital he ensures that neither Alberich or his descendants manage to get the Ring back because this would endanger his own end. Wotan’s plan needs a hero who's completely free from contracts or divine rule. His son Siegmund. When he and Sieglinde fall in love, unaware that they're twins, something »unheard of« comes to pass. Incest and passion. Hope stirs when Nothung’s mended, but it’s under threat from the word go. Wotan’s plan’s thwarted during a row with Fricka, and Brünnhilde, until now catalyst of his wishes, follows her own instincts for the first time. Her disobedience changes everything ... and the opera ends with heartbreaking farewells and the beginning of a journey into the unknown.
