Scene IV. A pale mist still veils the prospect as at the end of the
second scene. _Loge_ and _Wotan_ place _Alberich_ on the ground and _Loge_ dances around the pinioned Nibelung, mockingly snapping his fingers at the prisoner. _Wotan_ joins _Loge_ in his mockery of _Alberich_. The Nibelung asks what he must give for his freedom. "Your hoard and your glittering gold," is _Wotan's_ answer. _Alberich_ assents to the ransom and _Loge_ frees the gnome's right hand. _Alberich_ raises the ring to his lips and murmurs a secret behest. The _Nibelungs_ emerge from the cleft and heap up the hoard. Then, as _Alberich_ stretches out the ring toward them, they rush in terror toward the cleft, into which they disappear. _Alberich_ now asks for his freedom, but _Loge_ throws the Tarnhelmet on to the heap. _Wotan_ demands that _Alberich_ also give up the ring. At these words dismay and terror are depicted on the Nibelung's face. He had hoped to save the ring, but in vain. _Wotan_ tears it from the gnome's finger. Then _Alberich_, impelled by hate and rage, curses the ring. The =Motive of the Curse=:
[Music]
To it should be added the syncopated measures expressive of the ever-threatening and ever-active =Nibelung's Hate=:
[Music]
Amid heavy thuds of the Motive of Servitude _Alberich_ vanishes in the cleft.
The mist begins to rise. It grows lighter. The Giant Motive and the Motive of Eternal Youth are heard, for the giants are approaching with _Freia_. _Donner_, _Froh_, and _Fricka_ hasten to greet _Wotan_. _Fasolt_ and _Fafner_ enter with _Freia_. It has grown clear except that the mist still hides the distant castle. _Freia's_ presence seems to have restored youth to the gods. _Fasolt_ asks for the ransom for _Freia_. _Wotan_ points to the hoard. With staves the giants measure off a space of the height and width of _Freia_. That space must be filled out with treasure.
_Loge_ and _Froh_ pile up the hoard, but the giants are not satisfied even when the Tarnhelmet has been added. They wish also the ring to fill out a crevice. _Wotan_ turns in anger away from them. A bluish light glimmers in the rocky cleft to the right, and through it _Erda_ rises. She warns _Wotan_ against retaining possession of the ring. The Erda Motive bears a strong resemblance to the Rhine Motive.
The syncopated notes of the Nibelung's Malevolence, so threateningly indicative of the harm which _Alberich_ is plotting, are also heard in _Erda's_ warning.
_Wotan_, heeding her words, throws the ring upon the hoard. The giants release _Freia_, who rushes joyfully towards the gods. Here the Freia Motive combined with the Flight Motive, now no longer agitated but joyful, rings out gleefully. Soon, however, these motives are interrupted by the Giant and Nibelung motives, and later the Nibelung's Hate and Ring Motive. For _Alberich's_ curse already is beginning its dread work. The giants dispute over the spoils, their dispute waxes to strife, and at last _Fafner_ slays _Fasolt_ and snatches the ring from the dying giant, while, as the gods gaze horror-stricken upon the scene, the Curse Motive resounds with crushing force.
_Loge_ congratulates _Wotan_ on having given up the curse-laden ring. But even _Fricka's_ caresses, as she asks _Wotan_ to lead her into Walhalla, cannot divert the god's mind from dark thoughts, and the Curse Motive accompanies his gloomy reflections--for the ring has passed through his hands. It was he who wrested it from _Alberich_--and its curse rests on all who have touched it.
_Donner_ ascends to the top of a lofty rock. He gathers the mists around him until he is enveloped by a black cloud. He swings his hammer. There is a flash of lightning, a crash of thunder, and lo! the cloud vanishes. A rainbow bridge spans the valley to Walhalla, which is illumined by the setting sun.
_Wotan_ eloquently greets Walhalla, and then, taking _Fricka_ by the hand, leads the procession of the gods into the castle.
The music of this scene is of wondrous eloquence and beauty. Six harps are added to the ordinary orchestral instruments, and as the variegated bridge is seen their arpeggios shimmer like the colours of the rainbow around the broad, majestic =Rainbow Motive=:
[Music]
Then the stately Walhalla Motive resounds as the gods gaze, lost in admiration, at the Walhalla. It gives way to the Ring Motive as _Wotan_ speaks of the day's ills; and then as he is inspired by the idea of begetting a race of demigods to conquer the Nibelungs, there is heard for the first time the =Sword Motive=:
[Music]
The cries of the _Rhinedaughters_ greet _Wotan_. They beg him to restore the ring to them. But _Wotan_ must remain deaf to their entreaties. He gave the ring, which he should have restored to the _Rhinedaughters_, to the giants, as ransom for _Freia_.
The Walhalla Motive swells to a majestic climax and the gods enter the castle. Amid shimmering arpeggios the Rainbow Motive resounds. The gods have attained the height of their glory--but the Nibelung's curse is still potent, and it will bring woe upon all who have possessed or will possess the ring until it is restored to the _Rhinedaughters_. _Fasolt_ was only the first victim of _Alberich's_ curse.
DIE WALKÜRE
THE VALKYR
Music-drama in three acts, words and music by Richard Wagner. Produced, Munich, June 25, 1870. New York, Academy of Music, April 2, 1877, an incomplete and inadequate performance with Pappenheim as _Brünnhilde_, Pauline Canissa _Sieglinde_, A. Bischoff _Siegmund_, Felix Preusser _Wotan_, A. Blum _Hunding_, Mme. Listner _Fricka_, Frida de Gebel, _Gerhilde_, Adolf Neuendorff, conductor. The real first performance in America was conducted by Dr. Leopold Damrosch at the Metropolitan Opera House, January 30, 1885, with Materna, the original Bayreuth _Brünnhilde_ in that rôle, Schott as _Siegmund_, Seidl-Kraus as _Sieglinde_, Marianne Brandt as _Fricka_, Staudigl as _Wotan_, and Kögel as _Hunding_.
CHARACTERS
SIEGMUND _Tenor_ HUNDING _Bass_ WOTAN _Baritone-Bass_ SIEGLINDE _Soprano_ BRÜNNHILDE _Soprano_ FRICKA _Mezzo-Soprano_
Valkyrs (Sopranos and Mezzo-Sopranos): Gerhilde, Ortlinde, Waltraute, Schwertleite, Helmwige, Siegrune, Grimgerde, Rossweisse.
_Time_--Legendary.
_Place_--Interior of Hunding's hut; a rocky height; the peak of a rocky mountain (the Brünnhilde-rock).
_Wotan's_ enjoyment of Walhalla was destined to be short-lived. Filled with dismay by the death of _Fasolt_ in the combat of the giants for the accursed ring, and impelled by a dread presentiment that the force of the curse would be visited upon the gods, he descended from Walhalla to the abode of the all-wise woman, _Erda_, who bore him nine daughters. These were the Valkyrs, headed by _Brünnhilde_--the wild horsewomen of the air, who on winged steeds bore the dead heroes to Walhalla, the warriors' heaven. With the aid of the Valkyrs and the heroes they gathered to Walhalla, _Wotan_ hoped to repel any assault upon his castle by the enemies of the gods.
But though the host of heroes grew to a goodly number, the terror of _Alberich's_ curse still haunted the chief of gods. He might have freed himself from it had he returned the ring and helmet made of Rhinegold to the _Rhinedaughters_, from whom _Alberich_ filched it; but in his desire to persuade the giants to relinquish _Freia_, whom he had promised to them as a reward for building Walhalla, he, having wrested the ring from _Alberich_, gave it to the giants instead of returning it to the _Rhinedaughters_. He saw the giants contending for the possession of the ring and saw _Fasolt_ slain--the first victim of _Alberich's_ curse. He knows that the giant _Fafner_, having assumed the shape of a huge serpent, now guards the Nibelung treasure, which includes the ring and the Tarnhelmet, in a cave in the heart of a dense forest. How shall the Rhinegold be restored to the _Rhinedaughters_?
_Wotan_ hopes that this may be consummated by a human hero who, free from the lust for power which obtains among the gods, shall, with a sword of _Wotan's_ own forging, slay _Fafner_, gain possession of the Rhinegold and restore it to its rightful owners, thus righting _Wotan's_ guilty act and freeing the gods from the curse. To accomplish this _Wotan_, in human guise as _Wälse_, begets, in wedlock with a human, the twins _Siegmund_ and _Sieglinde_. How the curse of _Alberich_ is visited upon these is related in "The Valkyr."
The dramatis personæ in "The Valkyr" are _Brünnhilde_, the valkyr, and her eight sister valkyrs; _Fricka_, _Sieglinde_, _Siegmund_, _Hunding_ (the husband of _Sieglinde_), and _Wotan_. The action begins after the forced marriage of _Sieglinde_ to _Hunding_. The Wälsungs are in ignorance of the divinity of their father. They know him only as _Wälse_.