About the work
Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second of the four music dramas of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, told here in 30 scenes of about 80 seconds, ten to an act.
Wagner composed it between 1854 and 1856. It was first performed in Munich on 26 June 1870, at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater, and with the whole cycle at the first Bayreuth Festival in August 1876.
The twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, children of Wotan, find each other in Hunding's hut, and Siegmund draws the sword Nothung from the ash tree. Wotan's wife Fricka demands that Siegmund die, and Wotan orders his daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, to let him fall. She disobeys, and Wotan's punishment is to put her to sleep on a rock surrounded by magic fire, to be woken only by a hero who does not know fear. The third act opens with the Ride of the Valkyries.
Each scene plays Wagner's own notes: an excerpt of the score from the Wagner Ring Dataset (Weiß, Arifi-Müller, Krause, Zalkow, Klauk, Kleinertz and Müller; a piano reduction of the full score, CC BY 3.0), timed to the bar positions of a recorded performance, most often Georg Solti's with the Vienna Philharmonic, and played on sampled orchestral instruments. Nothing is sung: each character has a colour and an instrument, and the lights follow the notes, with the thunder, hoofbeats, clashes and fire a staged production would add. The scenes pick the most dramatic passages of each act; it is an entertaining staging, not a complete performance.
In November 2026 the four operas play on the house on the Ring nights, one opera a night in turn, at an early and a late show; the times are on Live.
The stage
From the street the porch is the back of the scene.
- Act I, Hunding's hut. The whole roof is the room. The hearth glows on Left; the door is the free end of Right (the storm, and later spring, come in through it). The great ash tree grows at the middle of Porch Front, its branches over the porch, with the sword Nothung buried in the trunk to the hilt (a gold glint).
- Act II, a wild rocky pass. Brünnhilde's lookout is the top of the porch; the lovers come in from the free end of Right; the fight is on the porch.
- Act III, the Valkyries' rock. The porch is the rock, its summit the middle of Porch Front (where Brünnhilde will sleep); the wings and Side are the storm clouds the Valkyries ride through. At the end Loge's fire rings the porch and then the whole house.
Subjects never begin on Side (enter from the free end of Right, pop up on a front run, rise out of the porch). Every run stays lit.
Who is who
| character | colour | voice |
|---|---|---|
| Siegmund | Wälsung blue #30a8ff | horns, cellos (low) |
| Sieglinde | hearth amber #ffa860 | cellos, oboe |
| Hunding | blood red #8a0020 in black | tubas, trombones, timpani |
| Wotan | deep blue #1a3cff, spear #c8d8ff | trombones, tubas |
| Fricka | rose silver #ff9ad0 | violas, oboe |
| Brünnhilde | silver white #f4f8ff, gold glints #ffd060 | horns, trumpet |
| the Valkyries | Gerhilde #ff4040, Ortlinde #ff9a20, Waltraute #f0e040, Schwertleite #40e070, Helmwige #40d0ff, Siegrune #6060ff, Grimgerde #c050ff, Rossweisse #ff60c0, over storm cloud #2a3448 | horns, trumpets, trombones; trilling winds and strings |
| Nothung | white steel #e8f8ff, gold hilt #ffcc40 | trumpet |
| the ash tree | trunk #5a3010, leaves #50b030 | |
| the hearth | #ff6a10 | |
| the storm | grey blue #5a6a8a, lightning white | low strings |
| spring and moonlight | green #80ff60, moon #c8dcff | violins, harp |
| fate / death | indigo #2a1a5a, pale #a0b0c0 | Wagner tubas (tubas, horns) |
| the magic sleep | soft violet #7a6aff | woodwinds |
| Loge's fire | #ff5000 to #ffb020, red #ff2000 | piccolo, violins, harp, glockenspiel |