The End of the World

Well, this is it. The big finish of our trip to San Francisco is the total destruction of the world! I am talking about Gotterdamerung! It means the twilight of the gods… it also means 5 ½ hours of broken hearts, betrayal, poison drinks, polluted rheinmaidens, evil plots and machinations, stabbings, smotherings, neck breaking, self immolations and the world catching fire and Valhalla crashing down in flames.

It started off with the norns weaving fate with cables. They recap the first 3 operas and then as they try to see the future, the cable breaks. Thus ends their eternal wisdom.

The scene gives way to Brunnhilde and Siegfried. She urges him to go back out and resume his heroic deeds. He gives her the ring to pledge his undying love, and she gives him Grane, her horse. He leaves her surrounded by flames and heads out.

Next we meet Gunther, Hagan, and Gutrune lounging on leopard skin pillows and drinking weird glowing lemonade. Hagan tells Gunther that he has great goals to accomplish, such as getting married. He tells Gunther about Brunnhilde and Gutrune about Siegfried. He informs them that the potion he’s made will make Siegfried fall in love with Gutrune and make him capture Brunnhilde for Gunther. Just as they are wondering when Siegried will come to their territory, his horn sounds and he arrives.

Gutrune gives him the potion and he drops instantly to his knees and declares his love. He swears a blood oath with Gunther and agrees to get Brunnhilde for him. That night he goes back to the rock using the magic tarnhelm to look like Gunther and declares Brunnhilde to be his. She is shocked and devastated and tries to escapes, but he overpowers her and wrenches the ring from her hand.

Meanwhile, Alberich appears to his son, Hagan in a dream and tells him to do whatever he has to to get the ring. Hagan swears that he will.

Next morning Sigfried arrives back at the home of the Gibichungs and prepares for the double wedding. During the ceremony, Brunnhilde sees the ring on Siegfried’s hand and realizes the betrayal and treachery. Siegfried swears on Hagan’s spear that he has done nothing wrong, but Brunnhilde next seizes the spear and swears that it will be the instrument of her revenge.

Everyone then goes off to enjoy the wedding feast, except Brunnhilde. Hagan comes back out with Gunther and the three of them plan their revenge for their various betrayals (except for Hagan, who just wants the ring and is actually the one betraying everyone else).

Next morning the men go off on a hunting party. Siegfried is separated from the group and runs into the rheinmaidens (3 saucy sprites picking up plastic bottles out of their hideously polluted river). They give him a chance to return the ring before the curse kills him. He refuses and they tell him that the ring’s next owner will be a noble woman who will return it to them by nightfall.

Seigfried returns to the hunting party and tells them stories of his past. Hagan gives him a potion to help him remember and he remembers the woman truly loves and pledged eternal love to and then horribly betrayed. Hagan pretends to be so disgusted by Siegfried’s broken oaths that he spears him in the back. After the world’s longest dying scene, the hunting party returns carrying Siegfried’s body.

Gitrune accuses her brother, Gunther, of murder, but Hagan admits that he did it. Gunther and Hagan fight over the ring and Hagan breaks Gunther’s neck. Hagan tries to take the ring, but Siegfried raises his arm from beyond the grave and scares him away. Brunnhilde walks in and everyone knows she was Siegfried’s true wife, and the ring is hers.

She orders a huge funeral pyre and invites the rheinmaidens to take the ring from her ashes after she burns herself on Siegfried’s pyre. The fire is to remove the curse and melt the gold back into the river. Hagan runs in and tries to steal the gold from the flames, but the rheinmaidens tackle him and suffocate him with a yellow plastic bag.

That is the second opera I’ve seen where someone is suffocated with a plastic bag – Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades was the first one.

Brunnhilde finally understands what Wotan desired and dreaded the destruction of the world and collapse of Valhalla. The funeral pyre burns down the world and when the ring returns to the Rhein, it floods its banks and extinguishes the fire. A small girl in a white dress emerges from the smoke and water carrying an ash tree sapling. She kneels to plant it as the curtain falls.

And now for my commentary…

The opera was incredible. Unfortunately, Siegfried lost his voice about ½ way through the second act. After the second intermission, David Gockley came out to say he had “a vocal indisposition and had been treated by their specialist and was determined to perform”. He asked for the audience’s understanding. He (Siegfried, did sound better when he came out for the 3rd act, but you could tell he was really suffering).

Again, Brunnhilde was supremely awesome! Everyone leapt from their seats, screaming when she came out. Her applause was thunderous, I was surprised the ceiling didn’t fall in. Overall, my first Ring Cycle was a fantastic experience. The only thing that could have been better was if we had the incredibly cool Viking helmets so many other people were wearing. Ah well, next time and that next time might be 2013! My mom is looking at tickets for the Seattle Opera Ring Cycle!