Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

Chief Characters Brünnhilde, Gutrune, Valtrauta, Sieg-fried, Gunther, Hagen, Alberich
IN Act 1 the Three Norns, or Fates, are shown weaving their rope of runes-the Cord of Destinywhich
presently breaks, causing the weird sisters to depart with cries of woe, as they realise that
the Twilight of the Gods is at hand. As daylight breaks Siegfried comes forth from his rocky bridechamber
and departs to seek fresh adventures. Before going, however, he gives his mighty Ring of
Power to Brünnhilde, as the token of his love.
Act 2 takes place in the palace of Gunther, King of the Gibichungs, on the Rhine, whose sister,
Gutrune, though betrothed to a neighbouring Prince, desires the love of the hero Siegfried, of
whom she has heard. When Siegfried presently appears, therefore, he receives a glad welcome; for
Gunther has heard the story of the beautiful sleeping Valkyrie, and longs to win her, a feat he
desires to be undertaken for him by the hero. Siegfried is therefore presented with a cup containing
a magic potion which, when he has partaken of it, causes him to forget his beautiful warrior-bride
and to fall in love with the triumphant and scheming Gutrune, whose hand he now asks in
marriage. Gunther consents on condition the hero shall bring him the enchanted Valkyrie as his
bride; and this Siegfried agrees to do, and sets out upon his enterprise, being still under the
influence of the magic potion. With Gunther there lives his half-brother, Hagen, who is the child
of the gnome Alberich; and the latter visits his son in a vision and bids him slay the hero,
Siegfried, and secure from him the famous Ring. It was at Hagens suggestion that the potion was
given to Siegfried, and he now awaits his opportunity to kill him. Meanwhile Brünnhilde is visited
by her Valkyrie sister, Valtrauta, who implores her to give back the Magic Ring to the Rhine
Maidens from whom it was taken, and thus save the threatened gods from their quicklyapproaching
doom; but Brünnhilde will not part with the gift of her beloved hero, and Valtrauta
returns to Wotan in despair. Siegfried now appears as Gunther, whose shape he has assumed by
means of the " Tarnhelm," or Magic Wishing-Cap; and, to the grief and dismay of Brünnhilde, he
deprives her of the Ring and forces her away to be the bride of Gunther, who takes his place whilst
the Valkyrie, sleeps. When, therefore, Brünnhilde sees Siegfried in his proper shape making love
to Gutrune, and finally learns from the latter how she has been deceived and betrayed by her herolover,
she is filled with grief and righteous indignation; but presently realising that he, too, has
been tricked, she longs only for his death, knowing that in death alone can they be united and
regain each others love.
The evil Hagen is the means by which her hope is realised; and in Act 3 Siegfried is invited to join
in a hunting party, during the progress of which Hagen assassinates the hero by stabbing him in
the back. When the dead body of the once-radiant hero is brought back to the Hall of the
Gibichungs, Gunther and Hagen fight for possession of the Ring, and the latter kills the former;
but when Hagen afterwards tries to draw the mighty talisman from the finger of the dead hero the
arm is suddenly raised in a forbidding attitude, so that he falls back dismayed. Then Brünnhilde
nobly deter-mines to break for ever the Curse of the Ring by offering herself as a voluntary
sacrifice as a propitiation for the evil it has wrought; and she commands a funeral pyre to be
lighted at once. Then she mounts her favourite horse, Grani, with the dead body of her beloved
hero, and, leaping into the flames, she is consumed with him. At the same moment the Rhine river
rises and overflows its banks, enveloping the burning pyre, and the nymphs eagerly seek their
treasure, which Brünnhilde has tossed to them in her last dying effort; and Hagen, on plunging
into the waves after the Ring, is drowned. Thus the Rhine Maidens regain their lost treasure; and