Friday, June 24, 2011

Götterdämmerung

This is the final installment of Wagner's Ring Cycle. The final Immolation Scene has already been Legoed, so this is a scene from Act One. Siegfried arrives in Gibichung Hall to meet Gunther (who I imagine is surrounded by hunting dogs). Gunther's sister Gutrune, who as Anna Russell points out is the only woman that Siegfried ever meets who is not his aunt, prepares a fateful love potion.





Read more about this opera here.

Listen to the recording here.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Siegfried

In this third installment of The Ring Cycle, Siegfried, the son of Siegmund and Sieglinde, forges himself a sword in Mime's workshop, which is in a cave in a forest. Siegfried has broken every sword that Mime has tried to forge him, but this sword, Nothung, will be different.



You can read more about this opera here.

You can listen to the beautiful recording here.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)

In this second installment of Wagner's Ring, we meet the ill-fated sister/brother/lover duo Siegmund and Sieglinde. They meet each other, fall in love, realize they are twins, and do it anyway. In this scene, Sieglinde (who, most inconveniently, lives in a house with a tree growing in the middle of it) tells Siegmund how she longs for a hero to come pull the sword out of the tree and rescue her from her husband, who is currently in a drugged sleep. Scandalous!




You can read more about the opera here.

You can listen to the recording here.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Das Rheingold

Each of the four Fridays in June, Sean is playing us one opera of the Ring Cycle. Das Rheingold is first. I have Lego'ed the first scene already (See October 23, 2009). Below is the third scene of the opera, in the underground workshop where Alberich oversees the other dwarves as they create the ring and helmet out of the magical Rheingold.


This is of course the magic helmet of Elmer Fudd fame.

You can read more about the opera here. You can listen to the recording here.