WAGNER - Die Walküre
Die Walküre follows Das Rheingold in The Ring. Its three acts can be considered as three long love-duets. The first act tells of a brother and sister separated in childhood; he has spent his life fighting while she has been forced into a loveless marriage. Without weapons and wounded, Siegmund seeks shelter and is tended by Sieglinde, and an attraction grows between them. Sieglinde’s husband agrees to fulfil the laws of hospitality but demands that they fight on the next day. Siegmund is able to draw the sword from the tree (it had been left there by Wotan) and he and Sieglinde realise that although brother and sister they are to be lovers. They flee. In the second act, Wotan’s wife Fricka, as goddess of marriage, demands that Siegmund be killed and Wotan is obliged to go against his own plans and instruct his Valkyrie daughter Brünnhilde to tell Siegmund of his forthcoming death. In a great scene she starts resolved to do her duty but Siegmund’s devotion to Sieglinde forces a change of mind such that she will protect him. In the fight Wotan intervenes, Siegmund is killed and Sieglinde is rescued by Brünnhilde. Wotan furiously follows after her. In the third act Brünnhilde tells her sister Valkyries of the events and seeks their protection while the pregnant Sieglinde flees. Wotan dismisses the Valkyries and although his fury gradually subsides Brünnhilde cannot escape punishment for her disobedience: she is placed asleep on a rock which Wotan surrounds with fire.

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