Die Walkure
Cassandra Willhite
MUS 101
Ms. O’Connell
October 23, 2014
The Opera Die Walküre
In act one, the opera starts with a storm. The young man Siegmund is out in the storm and comes to a house. The house belongs to Hunding who lives there with his wife Sieglinde. Siegmund and Sieglinde are twins who were separated as children, so neither of them knows who the other one is. Their father is Wotan, the chief god, but they don’t know this either. Their mother was a mortal (an ordinary person, not a goddess) or perhaps a she-wolf, which is how the goddess Fricka refers to her. Sieglinde lets Siegmund into the house and gives him a drink of mead. They start to fall in love. Hunding arrives and asks Siegmund who he is. Siegmund says that his name ought to be Woeful because he has had an unhappy life. When he was small he came home once and found his house burned down, his mother murdered and his twin sister had been abducted. He then remembers that some years later he went to help a young lady who had been forced to marry a cruel man. He had killed some of the man’s friends. Hunding realizes that he himself was this man. He says to Siegmund that he can sleep in his house tonight because this is a law of hospitality, but in the morning they will fight. Sieglinde goes to prepare a drink for her husband. She puts a drug in it which will make Hunding sleep deeply. Siegmund meanwhile is thinking about something his father had promised him. He had told him that he would thrust a magic sword called “Nothung” into a tree. No one would get that sword until, one day, when Siegmund found himself in great difficulty, he would be able to pull it from the tree and use it. Sieglinde enters and tells Siegmund a story about how, on the day she was forced to marry Hunding, an old man had come into the house and thrust a sword into the ash tree in the middle of the room. They start to realize that they are brother and sister, but it does not stop them from falling in love and they sing
MUS 101
Ms. O’Connell
October 23, 2014
The Opera Die Walküre
In act one, the opera starts with a storm. The young man Siegmund is out in the storm and comes to a house. The house belongs to Hunding who lives there with his wife Sieglinde. Siegmund and Sieglinde are twins who were separated as children, so neither of them knows who the other one is. Their father is Wotan, the chief god, but they don’t know this either. Their mother was a mortal (an ordinary person, not a goddess) or perhaps a she-wolf, which is how the goddess Fricka refers to her. Sieglinde lets Siegmund into the house and gives him a drink of mead. They start to fall in love. Hunding arrives and asks Siegmund who he is. Siegmund says that his name ought to be Woeful because he has had an unhappy life. When he was small he came home once and found his house burned down, his mother murdered and his twin sister had been abducted. He then remembers that some years later he went to help a young lady who had been forced to marry a cruel man. He had killed some of the man’s friends. Hunding realizes that he himself was this man. He says to Siegmund that he can sleep in his house tonight because this is a law of hospitality, but in the morning they will fight. Sieglinde goes to prepare a drink for her husband. She puts a drug in it which will make Hunding sleep deeply. Siegmund meanwhile is thinking about something his father had promised him. He had told him that he would thrust a magic sword called “Nothung” into a tree. No one would get that sword until, one day, when Siegmund found himself in great difficulty, he would be able to pull it from the tree and use it. Sieglinde enters and tells Siegmund a story about how, on the day she was forced to marry Hunding, an old man had come into the house and thrust a sword into the ash tree in the middle of the room. They start to realize that they are brother and sister, but it does not stop them from falling in love and they sing