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"Götterdämmerung" ("The Twilight of the Gods") is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas, entitled "Der Ring des Nibelungen", "The Ring of the Nibelung".

"Goetterdaemmerung" received its premiere
at the Bayreuth Fest Spiel Haus on
17 August 1876, as part of the first
complete performance of "The Ring of the Nibelung":

The title, "The twilight of the gods", is a translation, into German (Goetterdaemmerung), of the Old Norse phrase, "ragna-rök", which, in Norse mythology, refers to a prophesied War of the gods, that brings about the end of the world.

However, as with the rest of "The Ring of the Nibelung", Wagner's account of this apocalypse diverges significantly from his Old-Norse sources.

The term "Götterdämmerung" is occasionally used in English, referring to a disastrous conclusion of events.

Premiere cast, 17 August 1876
Conductor: Hans Richter.

Siegfried
(tenor)
. . . . Georg Unger

Brünnhilde
(soprano)
. . Amalie Materna

Gunther, lord
(baritone)
. . . Eugen Gura

Gutrune
soprano
. . . Mathilde Weckerlin

Hagen
bass
. . . . Gustav Siehr

Alberich, Hagen's father,
baritone
. . Karl Hill

Wal-traute, a Walkyrie, Brunilde's sister.
mezzo-soprano
. . . Luise Jaide

The Three Norns:

the first Norn
contralto
. . . Johanna Jachmann-Wagner

The second norn
mezzo-soprano
. . . Josephine Schefsky

the third Norn
soprano
. . . Friederike Grün

Wog-linde (soprano)
. . . Lilli Lehmann

Well-gunde
soprano
. . . Marie Lehmann

Floss-hilde
mezzo-soprano
. . . Minna Lammert

Vassals, women

*************

Prologue

The three norns are the daughters of Erda.

The three norns gather beside Brünnhilde's rock.

They are weaving the rope of destiny.

They sing of the past, and the present, and of the future:
when the god Wotan will set fire to Val-halla
to signal the end of the gods.

Without warning, their rope breaks.

------

Lamenting the loss of their wisdom, the three norns
disappear.

----

As day breaks, Sigfrido and Brünnhilde emerge
from their cave, which is high on a mountain-top
surrounded by a magic fire.

Brünnhilde sends Sigfrido off to new adventures,
urging him to keep their love
in mind.

As a pledge of fidelity, Sigfrido gives her
the Ring of power
that he took from
Fafner's hoard.

Bearing Brünnhilde's shield
he mounts her horse, "Grane".

Siegfried rides away, as an orchestral interlude
("Siegfried's Journey to the Rhine") starts.

*************************

Act 1

The act begins in the

Hall of the

Gibi-chungs.

The Gibichungs are a
population
dwelling
by the Rhine.

Gunther is the lord of the Gibichungs.

He sits enthroned.

His half-brother, and chief minister, is Hagen (bass).

Hagen advises his half brother, Gunther, to find a wife for himself
and a husband for their sister, Gutrune.

Hagen suggests
Brünnhilde for
Gunther's wife, and
Siegfried for
Gutrune's husband.

Hagen reminds Gutrune that he
has given her a potion that
she can use to make
Siegfried forget
Brünnhilde and
fall in love with Gutrune.

Under its influence, Sigfrido will
get Brünnhilde for Gunther.

Gunther and Gutrune agree
enthusiastically with this plan.

Sigfrido appears at
Gibi-chung Hall.

He seeks to meet the lord, Gunther.

Gunther extends his hospitality to Sigfrido,
and Gutrune offers him
the love potion.

Unaware of the deception,
Siegfried toasts
Brünnhilde and their love.

*******************

Drinking the potion,
Sigfrido loses his
memory of Brünnhilde

and

falls in love with Gutrune
instead.

*******************

In his drugged state, Siegfried
offers to win a wife
for Gunther,
who tells him about
Brünnhilde and

the magic fire

which only a fearless person can cross.

They swear a blood-brotherhood and
they leave for Brünnhilde's rock.

Hagen holds the drinking horn
in which they mix their blood,
but he does NOT join in the oath.

Hagen is left on guard duty,

and gloats that his so-called masters are

unwittingly bringing the Ring to him

(Monologue: "Hagen's watch").

***********

Meanwhile, Brünnhilde is visited by
her sister, a Valkyrie,
Wal-traute.

Waltraute tells Brunilde that Wotan
returned from his wanderings with
his spear, "Gungnir", shattered.

Wotan is dismayed at losing his spear,
as it has all the treaties and bargains
he has made -- everything that gives him power
-- carved into its shaft.

Wotan ordered branches of the Ygg0drasil, the World tree,
to be piled around Val-halla.

Sent his magic Ravens to spy on the world and
bring him news.

And currently, Wotan waits in Val-halla for the end.

Wal-traute begs Brünnhilde to
return the ring to the Rhine Maidens,
since the Ring's curse is now
affecting their father, Wotan.

However, Brünnhilde refuses to
relinquish Siegfried's token of love, and
Wal-traute rides away in despair.

Siegfried arrives,
now disguised as Gunther,
by using the "Tarnhelm".

Sigfrido (disguised) claims Brünnhilde as his wife.

Though Brünnhilde resists violently,
Siegfried overpowers her,
snatching the Ring from her hand
and placing it on his own.

**********************************

Act 2

Hagen is waiting by the bank of the Rhine.

He is visited in his semi-waking sleep (he is sitting up, his eyes open, but he is motionless)
by his father,
Alberich.

On Alberich's urging,
Hagen swears to kill Sigfrido and
acquire the Ring.

Alberich exits as dawn breaks.

Siegfried arrives, via Tarnhelm-magic,
having resumed his natural form and
having left Brünnhilde on the boat,
with Gunther.

Hagen summons the
Gibich-ung vassals to
welcome Gunther and
his bride,
by sounding the war-alarm.

The vassals are surprised to learn
that the occasion is NOT a battle, but
their master's wedding and party.

Gunther leads in a downcast Brünnhilde,
who is astonished to see
Siegfried.

As she notices the Ring on Siegfried's hand,
Brunilde realizes that she has been betrayed --
that the man who conquered her was not Gunther, but
Siegfried in disguise.

Brunilde denounces Siegfried in front of
Gunther's vassals and
accuses Siegfried of having
seduced her himself.

Siegfried swears on Hagen's spear
that Brunilde's accusations are
false.

Brünnhilde seizes the tip of the
spear and swears that
they are true.

Once again, Hagen supervises
silently, as others take
oaths to his advantage.

But this time, since the oath is
sworn on a weapon, the understanding
is that
if the oath is proven false,
the weapon's owner should avenge it
by killing the perjurer with
that weapon.

Siegfried then leads Gutrune
and the by-standers off to the wedding feast.

They leave Brünnhilde, Hagen, and Gunther alone,
by the shore.

Deeply ashamed by Brünnhilde's outburst,
Gunther agrees to Hagen's suggestion
that

Siegfried must be slain

for Gunther's standing to be regained.

Brünnhilde, seeking revenge for Siegfried's
manifest treachery, joins the plot.

Brunilde tells Hagen that Siegfried
would be vulnerable to
a stab in the back.

************

Hagen and Gunther
decide to lure
Siegfried
on a hunting-trip and murder him.

Hagen, Gunther, and Brunilde sing
a trio in
which Brünnhilde
and Gunther vow in the
name of Wotan,
"the guardian of oaths", to kill
Siegfried, while
Hagen repeats his pledge to Alberich.

To acquire the Ring
and rule the world
through its power.

*******************

Act 3

In the woods by the bank of the Rhine,
the Maidens of the Rhine mourn the lost Rhine gold.

Sigfried happens by, separated
from the hunting party.

The maidens of the Rhyne urge Sigfrido
to return
the ring
and avoid its curse.

But, Sigfrido laughs at the maidens of the Rhine, and
he says that he prefers to die rather
than bargain for his life.

The maidens of the Rhine swim away.

They predict that Siegfried will die
but that his heir,
a lady, will treat
them more fairly.

Siegfried rejoins the hunters,
who include Gunther and Hagen.

While he is resting,
Sigfrido tells Gunther and Hagen about the
adventures of his youth.

Hagen gives Sigfrido another potion,
which ****restores***** his memory.

Sigfrid tells of discovering
the sleeping Brünnhilde and
awakening her with a kiss.

******************************************

Hagen stabs Sigfrido
in the back
with his spear.

****

The others look on
in horror, and Hagen
explains in three words:

"Meineid rächt sich!"

-- "Perjury avenges itself"

-- that, since Siegfried admitted loving Brünnhilde,
the oath he swore on Hagen's spear
was obviously false.

Therefore, it was Hagen's duty
to kill Sigfrido with the spear.

Hagen calmly walks away
into the wood.

*********************************

Siegfried recollects his
awakening of Brünnhilde
and he dies.

****

The corpse of Sigfrido is carried away in a
solemn funeral procession
(Siegfried's funeral march)
that forms the interlude
as the scene is changed and
recapitulates many of the themes
associated with Siegfried and the Walsungs.

Back in the
Gibich-ung Hall,
Gutrune awaits for the return of Sigfrido.

Hagen arrives ahead of the funeral party.

*********************

Gutrune is
___devastated___

when she sees Siegfried's corpse
brought in.

***********************

Gunther blames Siegfried's death on Hagen.

Hagen replies that Sigfrido had incurred the penalty
of his false oath,
and further, claims the Ring on
Siegfried's finger
by right of conquest.

When Gunther objects,
Hagen appeals to the vassals
to support his claim.

************************

Gunther draws his sword
but Hagen attacks.

Hagen easily kills his half-brother, Gunther.

************************

However, as Hagen moves
to take the Ring,
the hand of Sigfried
rises threateningly.

Hagen recoils in fear.

Brünnhilde makes her entrance
and takes charge of events
(the "Immolation" Scene).

Brünnhilde issues orders for a
huge funeral pyre to be
assembled by the Rhine.

Brunilde takes the ring
and tells the maidens of the Rhine to claim it
from her own ashes,
once the fire has cleansed the ring
of its curse.

Lighting the pyre with a fire-brand, Brunilde
sends Wotan's ravens home with
"anxiously longed-for tidings".

The ravens fly off.

After an apostrophe to Sigfrido,
Brünnhilde mounts her horse, "Grane",
and rides into the flames.

The fire flares up, and
the hall of the
Gibich-ungs catches fire
and collapses.

The Rhine overflows its banks,
quenching the fire,
and the maidens of the Rhine
swim in to
claim the Ring.

********************

Hagen tries to stop the maidens of the Rhine
but they drag him into
the depths and they drown him.

As the maidens of the Rhine
celebrate the return of the Ring
and its gold to the river,
a red glow is
seen in the sky.

As the people watch,
deeply moved, the interior of
Val-halla is finally seen,
with gods and heroes visible
as described by Wal-traute in Act 1.

Flames flare up
in the Hall of the Gods,
hiding it and them from sight completely.

As the gods are consumed
in the flames, the curtain falls.






-- Two extended orchestral selections—"Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey", an abridged excerpt from the Prologue without the singers; and "Siegfried's Funeral March", lifted uncut from act 3—are often presented outside the opera house, and are published separately from the lengthy work.

Early versions of these selections were approved by the composer himself.

These excerpts include specially composed endings so that the excerpt is better able to stand on its own as a complete composition.

Other notable excerpts include

Siegfried and Brünnhilde's duet (Prologue).
This is part of "Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey".

Hagen's Watch (Act 1)
Hagen summons the vassals and the Wedding March (Act 2)

Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene (Act 3) as a soprano solo with orchestra (Hagen's single line is omitted).

According to Albert Speer, the Berlin Philharmonic's last performance before their evacuation from Berlin at the end of World War II was of Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene at the end of the opera.[2]

RecordingsMain article: Götterdämmerung discography

ReferencesNotes


The opera is sometimes called in English

"Dusk of the Gods"

or

"Doom of the Gods".

However, "Twilight of the Gods" correctly translates the German title.

Dämmerung can also mean dawn as the term is used for both the rising and setting of the sun.

Also, Götterdämmerung is itself a translation of ragnarökkr, "Twilight of the Gods", as it is sometimes written in the Prose Edda.

In the older Poetic Edda only ragnarök, "Fate of the Gods", is mentioned. It has been proposed that ragnarökkr was either a misconception on Snorri Sturluson's behalf or, more likely, poetic license as a play between the words rök, "fate, doom", and rökkr, "darkness, twilight."

Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich, p. 463. The Macmillan Company. 1970

[edit] External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Götterdämmerung

Richard Wagner – Götterdämmerung. A gallery of historic postcards with motifs from Richard Wagner's operas.
Wagner Operas. A comprehensive website featuring photographs of productions, recordings, librettos, and sound files.
Vocal score of Götterdämmerung
Complete libretto in German
Libretto in German and English
[hide]v ·d ·eRichard Wagner

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