Wagner in Italia

Speranza


We know that analyses of “the Ring” are frequently given over the radio by some great expert for the edification of other great experts, but these are usually so esoteric as to leave the average person as befogged as before…and in fact I think tends to discourage him from going altogether.

So I would like to tell you about it as from the point of view of one average Italian opera-goer to another.

Now, the first thing is that every PERSON (and EVENT) in the cycle "L'anello del nibelungo" has what is grandly called a “leitmotif.”

Now you don’t need to worry about that, it merely means a “signature tune.”

The scene opens in the River Rhine.

_IN_ it.

If it were in New York, it would be like the Hudson. If it were in Rome, it would be the Tiber. If it were in London it would be the Thames. Note how most countries NEED a river. With the Germanic, the river symbology may be more important than the 'sea' symbology.

And swimming around there are the three Rhinemaidens -- a sort of aquatic Andrews Sisters. In Italian, it is "daughters", rather than 'maidens' of the Rhine.

Or sometimes they’re called “nixies.”

Mairsie-nix and doesie-nix and little nixie-divie.

And they sing their signature tune, which is as follows:

Weia! Waga!
Woge, du Welle, walle zur Wiege!
wagala weia! wallala, weiala weia!

I won’t translate it, because it doesn’t mean anything.

The Rhine maidens are looking after A LUMP of MAGIC gold.

And the magic of this gold consists of the fact that anybody who will renounce love and make a RING out of this gold will become "Master of the Universe".

This is the gimmick.

Now, up from underneath the river, as it might be, let’s say, the Holland Tunnel, comes a little dwarf called Alberich.

And here he is.

Garstig glatter glitsch’riger Glimmer!
wie gleit’ ich aus!
Mit Händen un Füssen nicht fasse noch halt’
ich das schlecke Geschlüpfer! Feuchtes Nass füllt mir die Nase…”

Well, you can see he’s excessively unattractive.

He makes a pass at the Rhine maidens, who think he’s perfectly dreadful, and so they’re not very nice to him.

They tell him:

Pfui! du haariger, höckriger Geck! Schwarzes, schweiliges Schwefelgezwerg!”

So he thinks,

“Well, I’m not going to get any love anyhow, I can see that, so I may as well RENOUNCE it, and take this lump of gold, make the Ring, and become Master of the Universe.

So Alberich takes it back to the Holland Tunnel with him.

And here he is making the Ring.

No steel strikes here! Well, that’s him.

Well, now, UP here, as it might be on top of the Empire State Building, you find Wotan, the head god.

And he’s a crashing bore, too.

Well, he and his wife, Mrs Fricka Wotan, have had a castle built for them called

Val-halla

by a couple of GIANTS called "Fasolt" and "Fafner".

Well, of course the giants want to be paid for building this castle, and part of the giants builders union scale consists of this MAGIC RING that Alberich’s made.

So, Wotan goes all the way down from where he is to Alberich and takes the Ring away from him.

Well, of course Alberich is simply furious.

So Alberich puts a terrible curse on the Ring.

That’s the wrong curse, isn’t it! I’m sorry—here.

But Wotan takes no notice, he takes the ring up and gives it to the giant, "Fasolt".

Well right away the giant "Fafner" kills the giant "Fasolt" to get the Ring for himself.

So, Wotan knows that the CURSE IS working.

And this worries him, so he goes down to ground level to consult an old fortune-teller friend of his called My Friend ERDA.

Erda is a green-faced torso that pops out of the ground—at least we think she’s a torso, that’s all anyone’s ever seen of her.

And Erda says to Wotan, she says:

“Weiche, Wotan, weiche!”

Which means

“Be careful, Wotan, be careful.”

She then bears him *eight* daughters, including Brunilda.

These daughters are the "Valkyries", headed by Brünnhilde.

Aand they are the NOISIEST women!

Heiaha! Heiaha! Hojotoho! Hojotoho! Heiaha! Wo—”
Well, that is the end of Part 1.

THE VALKYRIES

In Part 2 you find Wotan wandering about on the earth, and he has a couple of illegitimage children by a mortal --

SIEGmund and SIEGlinde --

whilst disguised under the singularly appropriate name of "Wolf".

These children become separated at birth, and Sieglinde marries a funny sort of a man called "Hunding".

He plays the Wagner tuba.

He plays it very well.

He also has an ash tree with a sword stuck in it growing through his living room floor.

Well, one day who should turn up but "SIEGmund", and he falls madly in love with Sieglinde, regardless of the facts:

a) that she’s married to Hunding, which is immoral, and

b) that she’s his own sister, which is illegal.

************
But that’s the beauty of Grand Opera:

You can do anything so long as you sing it.

And after having given Hunding a Mickey Finn so that they won’t wake him up, they certainly do sing it!:

Du bist der Lenz nach dem ich verlangte in frostigen Winters Frist.

Well, when they’ve got that off their chests, Siegmund pulls out the sword that’s stuck in the tree that grows in the house that Jack—that HUNDING—built, and they run away together.

Well, of course when Hunding comes to he’s very annoyed, and he chases after them, and there’s a tremendous battle that everybody gets mixed up in.

There’s Hunding dead.

There’s SIEGmund dead.

Mr & Mrs Wotan have an argument.

And Wotan’s furious with Brünnhilde.

Wotan is mad at Brünnhilde, because Wotan told Brunilda she was NOT to side with Siegmund -- and she DID.

So, as a PUNISHMENT, Wotan puts Brunilda on a rock and he surrounds her with impenetrable fire.

And that’s the end of Part 2.

Second Day: SIGFRIDO.

Well, Part 3 is devoted to the growing-up of Sigfrido, the child of Sigmundo and Siglinda, and he’s very young, and he’s very handsome, and he’s very strong, and he’s very brave, and he’s very stupid.

He’s a regular Little Abner type.

There’s not too much you need to know about this opera except that Wotan comes down and plays Twenty Questions with him -- and Sigfrido gets the Ring.

D’y’remember the Ring?

Well, Sigfrido gets the Ring by killing the giant Fafner, who’s turned into a dragon in this opera (don’t ask me why).

Well, then a little bird tells him, and he finds Brünnhilde on the fire-surrounded rock.

Well, now he’s never seen a woman before. So, he doesn’t know what she is. But he soon finds out…and they go in for some very competitive singing—the type of thing “anything you can sing I can sing louder.”

And…

Sie ist mir ewig ist mir immer Erb’ und Eigen, Ein;

Er ist mir ewig, ist mir immer, Erb’ und—”

Oh, it’s terrific. I think probably she wins.

Well, THEN they _fall in love_, and he gives her the Ring.

Brunilda is Sigfrido's aunt, by the way.

But nonetheless, they are in love, and everything’s very happy and you’d think that would be the end of it wouldn’t you.

No fear.

Göttedaemmerung.

Well, now in the beginning of Part 4 you have the three Norns, or Fates, and they are _also_ daughters of My Friend Erda the Green-Faced Torso, and therefore presumably they are also Sigfrido’s aunts.

But this bunch of aunts are just as droopy as the first lot were noisy.

You remember the Valkyrie aunts, they go

Heiaha! Heiaha! Hojotoho

Well, that.

Well, this lot are just the opposite:

Dämmert der Tag schon auf? Hinab! Zur Mutter! Hinab!”

Well this dreary lot of aunts, if they don’t tell this whole story right over again from the beginning.

So, actually you can miss out Parts 1, 2, and 3, and come in at the beginning of Göttedammerung, and you’ll be just as far ahead.

Well, meanwhile Sigfrido’s _tired of love_ on the rocks with Brünnhilde.

And Brünnhilde’s gone completely to pieces.

You remember her signature tune used to be:

Hojotoho! Hojotoho! Heiaha! Heiaha!”

Well NOW it’s changed to this:

La, la-la-la-la la la la la la la….”

So, love has certainly taken the ginger out of HER.

Well, then Siegfried goes off on his travels and he meets three people:

Gunther and Gutrune Gibich-ung and their half-brother Hagen -- whose mother was a Gibich…but whose father was Alberich the dwarf.

D’y’remember Alberich?

So Hagen greets Sigfried like this:

Heil, Seigfried! theurer Held!

Now, do you recognize that tune?

That’s the SAME MUSIC as Alberich’s curse!

And sure enough there’s dirty work afoot.

Because Hagen gives Sigfried a magic love potion that makes him forget all about Brünnhilde and fall in love with Gutrune Gibich…who by the way is the only woman that Siegfried has ever come across who hasn’t been his aunt.

I’m not making this up, you know!

Well, so, when Brünnhilde finds out about this, of course naturally she’s frightfully annoyed and she plots with Hagen to kill Siegfried.

And Hagen kills him.

Well, of course as soon as he’s dead she’s sorry…

I know you men are going to say “so like a woman,” and….

And so she is sorry, and she builds a funeral pyre, and she puts Siegfried on it.

And she gets on her horse, and she gallops on the funeral pyre too, and she lights it, and they burn up.

Well that sets Valhalla alight, and IT burns up.

Well then Wotan and all the gods burn up.

And the whole works catches fire, and it ALL burns up.

It’s all burnt.

Well, then the River Rhine overflows its banks.

D’y’remember the Rhine?

And the waters come in over the ashes.

And who d’you think turns up next?

The Rhinemaidens. So they take their lump of gold, I mean the Ring, which is of course their lump of gold, and they put it back where it came from.

And after sitting through this whole operation, what do you hear?

You hear: YOU’RE EXACTLY WHERE YOU STARTED TWENTY HOURS AGO!

---