Die Walk Re

It started as a single idea, under the working title of Siegfried's Death, and ended as an epic four-opera cycle, "Der Ring des Nibelungen." Inspired by the great Nordic and Germanic sagas, Richard Wagner created a unique statement of the interplay between love and power — a struggle he movingly expressed through recurrent motifs of yearning and loss. Die Walküre, the second opera in the series, remains the most popular and frequently performed of the mighty Ring Cycle works. From its gripping opening — in which the hero finds himself weaponless in the house of his enemy — to its heartrending finale — a father' s final farewell to his favorite daughter — generations of listeners have thrilled and swooned to this story and its magical music. First performed as part of the complete Ring Cycle in 1876, at the grand opening of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, Die Walküre boasts one of opera's best-known passages, the exhilarating "Ride of the Walküre." This vocal score of the complete opera, with lyrics in both German and English, features a piano reduction of the orchestral part and is ideal for study, rehearsal, and concert performances.

Things like this are written only for people who have good powers of endurance (so really for nobody!)', wrote Wagner about Die Walkuere. Yet, as Geoffrey Skelton points out, the opera has enjoyed a separate popularity and existence from the Ring Cycle. George Gillespie shows just how the string of mythical events was converted into a drama remarkable for its concentrated excitement and fine construction. Barry Millington introduces the web of motifs in the complex score. The English version, with Elizabeth Forbes's translation of the verses that Wagner did not eventually set to music but retained as footnotes to his published version, is by acclaimed translator Andrew Porter.Contents: A Conflict of Power and Love, Geoffrey Skelton; Chronology of the Composition of 'The Valkyrie'; An Introduction to the Music of 'The Valkyrie', Barry Millington; New Myths for Old, George Gillespie; Translating 'The Ring', Andrew Porter; Die Walkuere: Poem by Richard Wagner; The Valkyrie: English translation by Andrew Porter

The Walkyrs, or Walkyra, in Northern Mythology, were the maiden-messengers of Odin. They selected those warriors who were destined to fall in battle, and waited on them after their arrival in Walhalla, presenting them the drink of gods, mead, to quaff.

A companion volume offering essays, surveys and summaries to inform and enlighten.

Chapitre 6, p. 175-207, consacré à Adolphe Appia.