(; The Valkyrie), WWV 86B, is the second of the four epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's cycle 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.

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.

Background and context

Wagner began work on what became his Ring project in October 1848, when he prepared a prose outline for Siegfried's Death, based on the legendary hero of Germanic myth. During the following months, he developed the outline into a full "poem" or libretto.

After his travels to Switzerland in May 1849, Wagner continued to expand his project, having decided that a single work would not suffice for his purposes. He would, therefore, create a series of music dramas, each telling a stage of the story, basing the narrative on a combination of myth and imagination; Siegfried's Death would provide the culmination. In 1851, he outlined his purposes in his essay "A Communication to My Friends": "I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel)". Each of these dramas would, he said, constitute an independent whole, but would not be performed separately. "At a specially appointed Festival, I propose, some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of three days and a fore-evening".

In accordance with this scheme, Wagner preceded Siegfried's Death (later Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) with the story of Siegfried's youth, Young Siegfried, later renamed Siegfried. This was, in turn, preceded by Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), dealing with Siegfried's origins, the whole tetralogy being fronted by a prologue, Das Rheingold. Because Wagner prepared his texts in reverse chronological sequence, Die Walküre was the third of the dramas to be conceived and written, but appears second in the tetralogy.

Roles

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!Munich premiere cast 26 June 1870<br /> (Conductor: Franz Wüllner)

!Cast at premiere of complete cycle 14 August 1876

left|thumb|Act I at the Bayreuth premiere, August 1876: Sieglinde and Siegmund

Wagner was involved in every stage of the preparations; according to Ernest Newman's biography he was "a far better conductor than any of his conductors, a far better actor than any of his actors, a far better singer than any of his singers in everything but tone". Heinrich Porges, a contemporary chronicler, describes Wagner demonstrating to Amalie Materna, as Brünnhilde, how to sing the scene in which she tells Sieglinde of the impending birth of Siegfried: "He sang [the final words] with truly thrilling force". The singer Lilli Lehmann (Helmwige), in her 1913 memoirs, remembered Wagner acting the role of Sieglinde in rehearsals: "Never yet has a Sieglinde known how to approach him, even approximately".

The Die Walküre performance on 14 August was free from the mechanical problems that had affected Das Rheingold the day before, and was generally well received by the distinguished audience that included the Kaiser Wilhelm I, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, representatives from various European royal houses and many of Europe's leading composers. Wagner, however, was far from pleased. He was unnerved by an incident involving the kaiser, when the 79-year-old Wilhelm stumbled and almost fell over a doorstep, and was very critical of two of his main singers, Niemann and Betz, whom he deemed "theatre parasites" and said he would never employ again – a view he later revised. Among the scenes that he felt had not come off were those on the mountain-top: "I'll change that some day when I produce Walküre in heaven, at the right hand of God, and the old gent and I are watching it together".

Three Ring cycles were performed in the first Bayreuth Festival. The stage designs used in Die Walküre, and the other operas, were based on sketches by Josef Hoffman which were converted to stage sets by the Brückner brothers from the Coburg State Opera. These designs, and Carl Döpler's costumes, influenced productions well into the 20th century.

The London performance, at Her Majesty's Theatre on 6 May 1882, was the first Ring cycle to be performed anywhere, after the 1876 Bayreuth premiere. The correspondent for The Era newspaper was distressed by the incestuous nature of the story, which it described as "brutal and degrading", despite the quality of the music: "A composer must have lost all sense of decency and all respect for the dignity of human nature who could thus employ his genius and skill".

The New York Met performance, on 30 January 1885, was part of a Wagner festival conducted by Leopold Damrosch – no other Ring operas were staged. Amalie Materna, Bayreuth's original Brünnhilde, reprised the part here. The stage designer, Wilhelm Hock, recreated the original Bayreuth designs. The performance was received with great enthusiasm by the audience, who demanded numerous curtain calls.

During the 1880s and 1890s, Die Walküre was shown in many European cities, sometimes as part of a Ring cycle but often as an independent work: Brussels, Venice, Strasbourg and Budapest in 1883, Prague in 1885, St Petersburg in 1889, Copenhagen in 1891 and Stockholm in 1895. By then it was travelling worldwide: to Mexico in 1891, Argentina in 1899, Australia in 1907, South Africa in 1912 and Brazil in 1913.

According to Charles Osborne, Die Walküre is sufficiently self-contained to be quite frequently staged on its own. The 2018 Bayreuth Festival broke new ground when for the first time it scheduled Die Walküre as a stand-alone, outside the context of the Ring cycle.

Music

Osborne writes that, like Das Rheingold, Die Walküre is primarily a work for solo voices, but with better integration of the vocal parts into the overall musical structure. As with its predecessor, Wagner composed Die Walküre under the principles he had defined in his book-length 1851 essay Opera and Drama, eschewing the traditional operatic norms of chorus, arias and vocal "numbers". There is, however, some division of opinion as the extent that these principles were fully observed. The critic Barry Millington opines that of all Wagner's works, Die Walküre is the fullest embodiment of the Opera and Drama precepts, achieving a complete synthesis of music and poetry. This, he says, is achieved without any notable sacrifice in musical expression". In his analytical essay The Perfect Wagnerite, Bernard Shaw praises the synthesis of music and drama: "There is not ... a note in it that has any other point than the single direct point of giving musical expression to the drama". Gutman's view, however, is that this only applies to the first two acts; the "apogee" of this style, he says, is found in the later opera Tristan and Isolde. Roger Scruton refers to deviations in Die Walküre such as the "Spring Song" (Winterstürme), in which Siegmund holds up the action to declare his love for Sieglinde in what is to all intents and purposes an aria, while Osborne notes the "impressive ensembles" in Act III, as the Valkyries sing together.

Act I

The act opens in the key of D minor, which frames the music until Siegmund's death in Act II. The short prelude depicts a storm; a stamping rhythm in the basses rises to a climax in which "Donner's Call" from Das Rheingold is heard. As the scene proceeds, several new motifs are introduced; that representing Siegmund, derived from the "Spear" motif from Das Rheingold; that for Sieglinde, a gentle melody on strings, which Holman says "conveys at once Sieglinde's inner beauty and misfortune"; and the motif which Newman names "The Dawning of Love", which will recur in the final love duet of the act. These three motifs, and their developed variants, are prominent throughout the act. Among other motifs, the aggressive brass staccato that identifies Hunding is a particularly striking phrase, "as dark and dour as the man himself".

Wagner uses other Rheingold motifs to deliver key information. Thus, the parentage of Siegmund and Sieglinde is revealed to the audience as Wotan, when the Valhalla music plays softly on trombones. The same theme references Wotan again, when Sieglinde recounts the visit of the old man at her wedding. A repeated falling octave in G♭, extracted from the "Sword" motif, illustrates Siegmund's desperate desire for the sword, and recurs at the end of the act, together with the full "Sword" motif in triumphant brass, as he draws the sword from the tree.

Act II

The second act opens exuberantly, with a short prelude that prefigures the celebrated Valkyrie motif that in the following act will form the basis of the "Ride of the Valkyries" in Act III. This motif was first sketched in 1851, for intended use in Siegfried's Tot, before the full plan of the Ring cycle was developed. The first scene of the act introduces Brünnhilde's energetic "Hojotoho!", as she answers Wotan's summons, expressing what Holman describes as her "manly enthusiasm" for her role as warrior maiden. The Wotan-Fricka dialogue that follows is illustrated by motifs that express Fricka's sour disillusion with her marriage, and Wotan's bitterness and frustration as he is unable to answer his wife's forceful arguments.

In the colloquies between Wotan and Brünnhilde, several soundings of the "Woman's Worth" motif are heard. The "Annunciation of Death" motif is the crucial point, where the two narratives (Wotan/Brünnhilde and Siegmund/Sieglinde) come together. Wagner chose the tonality of F♯ minor for this scene, eventually modulating to B minor in preparation for the Valkyries' entry in Act III.

Act III

The act opens with the famous sequence known as the "Ride of the Valkyries", formed by combining the Valkyries' own belligerent theme with Brünnhilde's war cry from act II. The Ride has achieved lasting popularity as an orchestral concert piece outside the framework of the Ring cycle; according to Newman, in the orchestral version and sometimes within the opera itself, the basis staccato phrasing is corrupted by eliding the second and third notes and emphasising the fourth rather than the first as originally written.

At the midpoint of the act, prior to Wotan's vengeful entrance and the long denouement with Brünnhilde, we hear the "Reconciliation" motif ("Redemption by Love" per Newman) in which Sieglinde praises Brünnhilde for her rescue: "O highest of wonders! Noblest of maids!". The motif will next be heard at the very end of the Ring cycle, bringing the entire tetralogy to a close on a note of reconciliation and optimism.

thumb|[[Renatus Mészár as Wotan, Weimar 2008]]

The final section of the act is marked by what Millington describes as "a succession of carefully controlled climaxes", of which the most affecting is that of Wotan's farewell to his errant daughter. The music is eventually dominated by the five falling notes of Brünnhilde's "Sleep" motif which, when Wotan has used his spear to summon Loge, is transformed into the "Magic Fire" music as Brünnhilde is encircled in the ring of fire, and Wotan sadly departs.

Instrumentation

Die Walküre is scored for the following instrumental forces:

  • Woodwinds: piccolo; 3 flutes (3rd doubling 2nd piccolo); 3 oboes; cor anglais; 3 clarinets (3rd doubling D clarinet); bass clarinet; 3 bassoons
  • Brass: 8 horns (5-8 doubling Wagner Tubas in Bb and F); 3 trumpets; bass trumpet; 2 tenor trombones; bass trombone; contrabass trombone (doubling bass trombone); contrabass tuba
  • Percussion: 2 sets of timpani; cymbals; triangle; tam-tam; tenor drum; glockenspiel
  • Strings: 16 first violins; 16 second violins; 12 violas; 12 cellos; 8 double basses; 6 harps
  • Off-stage: cow horn, thunder machine

Critical assessment

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. 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". The overall effect was "not agreeable ... permeated with what one can only call pagan sensuality, and ... produces finally nothing but an enervating dullness". 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".

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.

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". 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.

Recordings

Notes and references

Notes

Citations

Sources

  • (Originally published by G. Richards, London 1898, )
  • Complete libretto (in German), following the 1971 re-edition
  • Piano/vocal score of Die Walküre, William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Indiana University School of Music
  • Die Walküre, wagneroperas.com
  • La Valkyrie, 1880 publication, French, digitized by BYU on archive.org