Die Walküre
Die Walküre (German pronunciation: [diː valˈkyːʁə]; The Valkyrie), WWV 86B, is the second of the four epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (English: The Ring of the Nibelung). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 26 June 1870, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 14 August 1876.
"The Valkyrie" redirects here. For other uses, see Valkyrie (disambiguation).Die Walküre
The Valkyrie
Richard Wagner
German
Nordic and German legends
As the Ring cycle was conceived by Wagner in reverse order of performance, Die Walküre was the third of the four texts to be written, although Wagner composed the music in performance sequence. The text was completed by July 1852, and the music by March 1856.
Wagner largely followed the principles related to the form of musical drama, which he had set out in his 1851 essay Opera and Drama under which the music would interpret the text emotionally, reflecting the feelings and moods behind the work, using a system of recurring leitmotifs to represent people, ideas, and situations rather than the conventional operatic units of arias, ensembles, and choruses. Wagner showed flexibility in the application of these principles here, particularly in Act III, when the Valkyries engage in frequent ensemble singing.
As with Das Rheingold, Wagner wished to defer any performance of the new work until it could be shown in the context of the completed cycle, but the 1870 Munich premiere was arranged at the insistence of his patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Die Walküre has achieved some popularity as a stand-alone work and continues to be performed independently from its role in the tetralogy.
The story of Die Walküre is based on the Norse mythology told in the Völsunga saga and the Poetic Edda. In this version, the Volsung twins Sieglinde and Siegmund, separated in childhood, meet and fall in love. This union angers the gods, who demand that Siegmund must die. Sieglinde and the couple's unborn child are saved by the defiant actions of Wotan's daughter, the title character, Valkyrie Brünnhilde, who as a result faces the gods' retribution.
Synopsis[edit]
Prior history[edit]
During the lengthy time that has passed since the gods entered Valhalla at the end of Das Rheingold, Fafner has used the Tarnhelm to assume the form of a dragon, and guards the gold and the ring in the depths of the forest. Wotan has visited Erda seeking wisdom, and by her has fathered a daughter, Brünnhilde; he has fathered eight other daughters, possibly also by Erda. These, with Brünnhilde, are the Valkyries, whose task is to recover heroes fallen in battle and bring them to Valhalla, where they will protect the fortress from Alberich's assault should the dwarf recover the ring. Wotan has also wandered the earth, and with a woman of the Völsung race has fathered the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, who have grown up separately and unaware of each other. From the Völsungs Wotan hopes for a hero who, unencumbered by the gods' treaties, will obtain the ring from Fafner.
Critical assessment[edit]
The first Munich performances of Die Walküre were generally hailed as successes by audiences and critics; leading composers who were present greeted the work with acclaim, recognising in it evidence of Wagner's genius.[91] One dissident voice was presented by the critic of the Süddeutsche Presse, who was scathing about the dearth of moral standards expressed in the story and furthermore found the whole experience tedious: the first act was, for the most part, "wearyingly long-winded"; the second act only occasionally sprang to life, while in the third it was "barely possible to hear isolated shrieks from the singers through the tumult of the orchestra".[40] The overall effect was "not agreeable ... permeated with what one can only call pagan sensuality, and ... produces finally nothing but an enervating dullness".[40] This harsh, if isolated judgement, found some echo six years later, when Die Walküre was first performed at Bayreuth as part of the Ring cycle. Critics could now form relative views on the merits of the four operas. Although there was general admiration for the first act, Die Walküre emerged as the least-liked of the four, in particular on account of the second act, deemed "a great failure" and an "abyss of boredom".[92]
Many modern critics of Die Walküre have recorded much more positive opinions. To Charles Osborne it is "marvellously rich ... Wagner has found a way to integrate his voice parts into the overall structure without sacrificing their lyrical independence". It is, he says, the opera that stands up most strongly outside the tetralogy, and is popular enough to be staged frequently on its own, even within Bayreuth festivals.[59][n 3]
Writing in 2006, Millington thought that, notwithstanding the liberal use of ensembles in the third act, Die Walküre showed the greatest fidelity of the four operas to the theoretical principles expressed by Wagner in Opera and Drama: "A thoroughgoing synthesis of poetry and music is achieved without any notable sacrifice in musical expression".[69] The modern view is that, of the Ring operas, Die Walküre is both the most approachable and the one that can most successfully be performed in extracts.[69]