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Richard Wagner
Die Gotterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods) Synopsis |  |
Prologue
Die Gottrerdammerung begins with an elaborate prologue. The three
Norns sit in the night on Brynhild's mountain top spinning their
thread of destiny, and telling the story of Wotan's sacrifice of
his eye, and of his breaking off a bough from the World Ash to
make a heft for his spear, also how the tree withered after
suffering that violence. They have also some fresher news to
discuss. Wotan, on the breaking of his spear by Siegfried, has
called all his heroes to cut down the withered World Ash and
stack its faggots in a mighty pyre about Valhalla. Then, with his
broken spear in his hand, he has seated himself in state in the
great hall, with the Gods and Heroes assembled about him as if in
council, solemnly waiting for the end. All this belongs to the
old legendary materials with which Wagner began The Ring.
The tale is broken by the thread snapping in the hands of the
third Norn; for the hour has arrived when man has taken his
destiny in his own hands to shape it for himself, and no longer
bows to circumstance, environment, necessity (which he now freely
wills), and all the rest of the inevitables. So the Norns
recognize that the world has no further use for them, and sink
into the earth to return to the First Mother. Then the day dawns;
and Siegfried and Brynhild come, and have another duet. He gives
her his ring; and she gives him her horse. Away then he goes in
search of more adventures; and she watches him from her crag
until he disappears. The curtain falls; but we can still hear the
trolling of his horn, and the merry clatter of his horse's shoes
trotting gaily down the valley. The sound is lost in the grander
rhythm of the Rhine as he reaches its banks. We hear again an
echo of the lament of the Rhine maidens for the ravished gold;
and then, finally, a new strain, which does not surge like the
mighty flood of the river, but has an unmistakable tramp of hardy
men and a strong land flavor about it. And on this the opera
curtain at last goes up--for please remember that all that has
gone before is only the overture.
The First Act Summary
We now understand the new tramping strain. We are in the
Rhineside hall of the Gibichungs, in the resence of King Gunther,
his sister Gutrune, and Gunther's grim half brother Hagen, the
villain of the piece. Gunther is a fool, and has for Hagen's
intelligence the respect a fool always has for the brains of a
scoundrel. Feebly fishing for compliments, he appeals to Hagen
to pronounce him a fine fellow and a glory to the race of Gibich.
Hagen declares that it is impossible to contemplate him without
envy, but thinks it a pity that he has not yet found a wife
glorious enough for him. Gunther doubts whether so extraordinary
a person can possibly exist. Hagen then tells him of Brynhild and
her rampart of fire; also of Siegfried. Gunther takes this rather
in bad part, since not only is he afraid of the fire, but
Siegfried, according to Hagen, is not, and will therefore achieve
this desirable match himself. But Hagen points out that since
Siegfried is riding about in quest of adventures, he will
certainly pay an early visit to the renowned chief of the
Gibichungs. They can then give him a philtre which will make him
fall in love with Gutrune and forget every other woman he has yet
seen.
Gunther is transported with admiration of Hagen's cunning when he
takes in this plan; and he has hardly assented to it when
Siegfried, with operatic opportuneness, drops in just as Hagen
expected, and is duly drugged into the heartiest love for Gutrune
and total oblivion of Brynhild and his own past. When Gunther
declares his longing for the bride who lies inaccessible within
a palisade of flame, Siegfried at once offers to undertake the
adventure for him. Hagen then explains to both of them that
Siegfried can, after braving the fire, appear to Brynhild in the
semblance of Gunther through the magic of the wishing cap (or
Tarnhelm, as it is called throughout The Ring), the use of which
Siegfried now learns for the first time. It is of course part
of the bargain that Gunther shall give his sister to Siegfried
in marriage. On that they swear blood-brotherhood; and at this
opportunity the old operatic leaven breaks out amusingly in
Wagner. With tremendous exordium of brass, the tenor and baritone
go at it with a will, showing off the power of their voices,
following each other in canonic imitation, singing together in
thirds and sixths, and finishing with a lurid unison, quite in
the manner of Ruy Gomez and Ernani, or Othello and Iago. Then
without further ado Siegfried departs on his expedition, taking
Gunther with him to the foot of the mountain, and leaving Hagen
to guard the hall and sing a very fine solo which has often
figured in the programs of the Richter concerts, explaining that
his interest in the affair is that Siegfried will bring back the
Ring, and that he, Hagen, will presently contrive to possess
himself of that Ring and become Plutonic master of the world.
And now it will be asked how does Hagen know all about the
Plutonic empire; and why was he able to tell Gunther about
Brynhild and Siegfried, and to explain to Siegfried the trick of
the Tarnhelm. The explanation is that though Hagen's mother was
the mother of Gunther, his father was not the illustrious Gibich,
but no less a person than our old friend Alberic, who, like
Wotan, has begotten a son to do for him what he cannot do for
himself.
In the above incidents, those gentle moralizers who find the
serious philosophy of the music dramas too terrifying for them,
may allegorize pleasingly on the philtre as the maddening chalice
of passion which, once tasted, causes the respectable man to
forget his lawfully wedded wife and plunge into adventures which
eventually lead him headlong to destruction.
We now come upon a last relic of the tragedy of Wotan. Returning
to Brynhild's mountain, we find her visited by her sister
Valkyrie Valtrauta, who has witnessed Wotan's solemn preparations
with terror. She repeats to Brynhild the account already given by
the Norns. Clinging in anguish to Wotan's knees, she has heard
him mutter that were the ring returned to the daughters of the
deep Rhine, both Gods and world would be redeemed from that stage
curse off Alberic's in The Rhine Gold. On this she has rushed on
her warhorse through the air to beg Brynhild to give the Rhine
back its ring. But this is asking Woman to give up love for the
sake of Church and State. She declares that she will see them
both perish first; and Valtrauta returns to Valhalla in despair.
Whilst Brynhild is watching the course of the black thundercloud
that marks her sister's flight, the fires of Loki again flame
high round the mountain; and the horn of Siegfried is heard as he
makes his way through them. But the man who now appears wears the
Tarnhelm: his voice is a strange voice: his figure is the unknown
one of the king of the Gibichungs. He tears the ring from her
finger, and, claiming her as his wife, drives her into the cave
without pity for her agony of horror, and sets Nothung between
them in token of his loyalty to the friend he is impersonating.
No explanation of this highway robbery of the ring is offered.
Clearly, this Siegfried is not the Siegfried of the previous
drama.
The Second Act Summary
In the second act we return to the hall of Gibich, where Hagen,
in the last hours of that night, still sits, his spear in his
hand, and his shield beside him. At his knees crouches a dwarfish
spectre, his father Alberic, still full of his old grievances
against Wotan, and urging his son in his dreams to win back the
ring for him. This Hagen swears to do; and as the apparition of
his father vanishes, the sun rises and Siegfried suddenly comes
from the river bank tucking into his belt the Tarnhelm, which has
transported hi from the mountain like the enchanted carpet of the
Arabian tales. He describes his adventures to Gutrune until
Gunther's boat is seen approaching, when Hagen seizes a cowhorn
and calls the tribesmen to welcome their chief and his bride.
It is most exhilarating, this colloquy with the startled and
hastily armed clan, ending with a thundering chorus, the drums
marking the time with mighty pulses from dominant to tonic,
much as Rossini would have made them do if he had been a pupil
of Beethoven's.
A terrible scene follows. Gunther leads his captive bride
straight into the presence of Siegfried, whom she claims as her
husband by the ring, which she is astonished to see on his finger:
Gunther, as she supposes, having torn it from her the night
before. Turning on Gunther, she says "Since you took that ring
from me, and married me with it, tell him of your right to it;
and make him give it back to you." Gunther stammers, "The ring!
I gave him no ring--er--do you know him?" The rejoinder is
obvious. "Then where are you hiding the ring that you had from
me?" Gunther's confusion enlightens her; and she calls Siegfried
trickster and thief to his face. In vain he declares that he got
the ring from no woman, but from a dragon whom he slew; for he is
manifestly puzzled; and she, seizing her opportunity, accuses him
before the clan of having played Gunther false with her.
Hereupon we have another grandiose operatic oath, Siegfried
attesting his innocence on Hagen's spear, and Brynhild rushing
to the footlights and thrusting him aside to attest his guilt,
whilst the clansmen call upon their gods to send down lightnings
and silence the perjured. The gods do not respond; and Siegfried,
after whispering to Gunther that the Tarnhelm seems to have been
only half effectual after all, laughs his way out of the general
embarrassment and goes off merrily to prepare for his wedding,
with his arm round Gutrune's waist, followed by the clan.
Gunther, Hagen and Brynhild are left together to plot operatic
vengeance. Brynhild, it appears, has enchanted Siegfried in such
a fashion that no weapon can hurt him. She has, however, omitted
to protect his back, since it is impossible that he should ever
turn that to a foe. They agree accordingly that on the morrow a
great hunt shall take place, at which Hagen shall thrust his
spear into the hero's vulnerable back. The blame is to be laid
on the tusk of a wild boar. Gunther, being a fool, is remorseful
about his oath of blood-brotherhood and about his sister's
bereavement, without having the strength of mind to prevent
the murder. The three burst into a herculean trio, similar in
conception to that of the three conspirators in Un Ballo in
Maschera; and the act concludes with a joyous strain heralding
the appearance of Siegfried's wedding procession, with strewing
of flowers, sacrificing to the gods, and carrying bride and
bridegroom in triumph.
It will be seen that in this act we have lost all connection with
the earlier drama. Brynhild is not only not the Brynhild of The
Valkyries, she is the Hiordis of Ibsen, a majestically savage
woman, in whom jealousy and revenge are intensified to heroic
proportions. That is the inevitable theatrical treatment of the
murderous heroine of the Saga. Ibsen's aim in The Vikings was
purely theatrical, and not, as in his later dramas, also
philosophically symbolic. Wagner's aim in Siegfried's Death was
equally theatrical, and not, as it afterwards became in the
dramas of which Siegfried's antagonist Wotan is the hero,
likewise philosophically symbolic. The two master-dramatists
therefore produce practically the same version of Brynhild.
Thus on the second evening of The Ring we see Brynhild in the
character of the truth-divining instinct in religion, cast into
an enchanted slumber and surrounded by the fires of hell lest
she should overthrow a Church corrupted by its alliance with
government. On the fourth evening, we find her swearing a
malicious lie to gratify her personal jealousy, and then plotting
a treacherous murder with a fool and a scoundrel. In the original
draft of Siegfried's Death, the incongruity is carried still
further by the conclusion, at which the dead Brynhild, restored
to her godhead by Wotan, and again a Valkyrie, carries the slain
Siegfried to Valhalla to live there happily ever after with its
pious heroes.
The Third Act Summary
The hunting party comes off duly. Siegfried strays from it and
meets the Rhine maidens, who almost succeed in coaxing the ring
from him. He pretends to be afraid of his wife; and they chaff
him as to her beating him and so forth; but when they add that
the ring is accursed and will bring death upon him, he discloses
to them, as unconsciously as Julius Caesar disclosed it long ago,
that secret of heroism, never to let your life be shaped by fear
of its end.* So he keeps the ring; and they leave him to his
fate. The hunting party now finds him; and they all sit down
together to make a meal by the river side, Siegfried telling them
meanwhile the story of his adventures. When he approaches the
subject of Brynhild, as to whom his memory is a blank, Hagen
pours an antidote to the love philtre into his drinking horn,
whereupon, his memory returning, he proceeds to narrate the
incident of the fiery mountain, to Gunther's intense
mortification. Hagen then plunges his spear into the back of
Siegfried, who falls dead on his shield, but gets up again, after
the old operatic custom, to sing about thirty bars to his love
before allowing himself to be finally carried off to the strains
of the famous Trauermarsch.
The scene then changes to the hall of the Gibichungs by the
Rhine. It is night; and Gutrune, unable to sleep, and haunted by
all sorts of vague terrors, is waiting for the return of her
husband, and wondering whether a ghostly figure she has seen
gliding down to the river bank is Brynhild, whose room is empty.
Then comes the cry of Hagen, returning with the hunting party to
announce the death of Siegfried by the tusk of a wild boar. But
Gutrune divines the truth; and Hagen does not deny it.
Siegfried's body is brought in; Gunther claims the ring; Hagen
will not suffer him to take it; they fight; and Gunther is slain.
Hagen then attempts to take it; but the dead man's hand closes on
it and raises itself threateningly. Then Brynhild comes; and a
funeral pyre is raised whilst she declaims a prolonged scene,
extremely moving and imposing, but yielding nothing to resolute
intellectual criticism except a very powerful and elevated
exploitation of theatrical pathos, psychologically identical with
the scene of Cleopatra and the dead Antony in Shakespeare's
tragedy. Finally she flings a torch into the pyre, and rides her
war-horse into the flames. The hall of the Gibichungs catches
fire, as most halls would were a cremation attempted in the
middle of the floor (I permit myself this gibe purposely to
emphasize the excessive artificiality of the scene); but the
Rhine overflows its banks to allow the three Rhine maidens to
take the ring from Siegfried's finger, incidentally extinguishing
the conflagration as it does so. Hagen attempts to snatch the
ring from the maidens, who promptly drown him; and in the distant
heavens the Gods and their castle are seen perishing in the fires
of Loki as the curtain falls.
The Ring Cycle consists of four plays, intended to be performed on four
successive evenings, entitled The Rhine Gold (a prologue to the
other three), The Valkyries, Siegfried, and Twilight of the
Gods; or, in the original German, Das Rheingold, Die Walkure,
Siegfried, and Die Gotterdammerung.
Richard Wagner Facts and Information
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