Götterdämmerung: Waltraute’s Narration

Program notes

About the Work

This is one of the great dramatic scenes for mezzo-soprano in all of Wagner, a tense, urgent monologue from Act I of Götterdämmerung. Brünnhilde, now living as a mortal woman, is visited on her mountain-top by her sister, the Valkyrie Waltraute, who has secretly left Valhalla in desperation. In a long, impassioned narration, Waltraute describes the terrible state of the gods: Wotan, their father, sits in Valhalla in despair, having gathered the heroes around him and surrounded the hall with the wood of the felled World Ash Tree, awaiting the end of the gods. The only hope, Waltraute pleads, is for Brünnhilde to return the cursed ring (Siegfried’s love-pledge) to the Rhinemaidens, lifting the curse. But Brünnhilde, treasuring the ring as the token of Siegfried’s love, refuses, and Waltraute flies off into the storm in despair. The scene sets in motion the tragedy’s final descent.

What to Listen For

This is a scene of mounting tension and dread. Listen for Waltraute’s growing urgency and fear as she paints her vivid picture of the gods’ doom; Wagner gives her music great dramatic sweep, ranging from hushed, awe-struck description to anguished pleading. Listen especially for the orchestra, which functions almost like a second narrator: a web of leitmotifs conjures Valhalla, Wotan’s spear, the World Ash Tree, the gods’ twilight and the all-important ring and curse motifs, so that the orchestra ‘shows’ what Waltraute describes. Listen for the contrast between Waltraute’s desperation and Brünnhilde’s unyielding refusal, and for the way the music darkens toward the inevitable catastrophe. The mezzo-soprano (here Elizabeth DeShong, as Waltraute) carries this gripping monologue, a tour de force of Wagnerian narrative singing.