Libretto & Synopsis - EMI Classics

Compact Disc 2
But once he has drunk, he has eyes only for Gutrune [1], the second woman he has seen in his life. He offers to help Gunther
find a wife, if Gutrune can be his bride. Gunther tells him about Brünnhilde, and the fire that surrounds her rock; Siegfried reacts
confusedly to his description but agrees to cross the fire to woo her for Gunther. They swear an oath of blood-brotherhood [2],
the first of the ‘treaties’ with the human world that will lead to Siegfried’s death. Hagen does not participate, explaining to
Siegfried [3] that his blood would mar their drink. Gunther and Siegfried set off for Brünnhilde’s rock. Hagen is left on watch,
looking forward to owning the ring and enjoying the fact that the ‘freeborn sons’ Gunther and Siegfried are in fact working for
him [4]. An orchestral transition, whose plangent wind-writing and modal string passages were a clear influence on Sibelius’s
orchestral writing, describes Brünnhilde waiting on her rock for Siegfried’s return.
Scene Three
The rocky height, as in the Prologue.
Brünnhilde recognises the sound of a Valkyrie flying towards her rock [5]. She is amazed that Waltraute has come to see her and
hopes that Wotan has forgiven her. But Waltraute explains [6] that Wotan sits silent in Valhalla, with his broken spear in his
hand, waiting for the gods’ end, which will be signalled by the return of the ravens he sent out. But if Brünnhilde were to give the
ring back to the Rhinedaughters then she would save both him and the world. But Brünnhilde is now indifferent to Valhalla’s fate
[7]. She refuses to give away the ring, Siegfried’s pledge of his love for her. Waltraute leaves, despairing of her sister’s ‘loveless
loyalty’ [8].
The flames surrounding the rock flare up. She hears Siegfried’s horn-call but the man who approaches through the flames has
Gunther’s shape and calls on her to become his wife [9]. Wagner wrote Siegfried’s part as low as he dared to imitate the baritone
Gunther. As Siegfried wrestles the ring from Brunnhilde, the motif of Alberich’s curse stalks up the scale in hideously transfigured
form. The orchestration of this scene in general, with its snarling but muted brass and fluid bass, was much admired by
Chabrier (his opera Le Roi Arthus) and Dukas (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice). Believing this is some further punishment by Wotan,
Brünnhilde refuses and tries to use the ring to defend her honour. Siegfried-as-Gunther wrests the ring from her hand and drives
her into the rocky chamber for the night, swearing to his blood brother Gunther that his sword Nothung will separate them [10].
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