WK21 · Show · Die Walküre
The Eight Sisters
All eight Valkyries together at last, galloping across the whole house in formation, crossing and calling to each other over the storm. Then they gather on their rock and see their sister Brünnhilde riding toward them, carrying a woman.
1:28 · with a spoken intro
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Die Walküre
WK01StormIntro1:20Die Walküre begins in a storm. Rain lashes the house, lightning crawls along the roof, and the low strings drive the storm on until Wotan's spear cuts through it; then it passes, and a fire glows in a hut built round a great ash tree.WK02The StrangerIntro1:18A stranger bursts in out of the storm, soaked and unarmed, and staggers across the house toward the fire. He passes under a great ash tree without noticing it, and collapses at the hearth.WK03A Drink of WaterIntro1:26A woman finds the stranger by her fire. She runs for water, and when their eyes meet the music knows something they do not. He tries to leave; she begs him to stay.WK04HundingIntro1:20The master of the house comes home: Hunding, heavy and dark, with the tubas treading under every step. He welcomes the guest because the law says he must, and then he notices how much the stranger looks like his wife.WK05WehwaltIntro1:29The stranger tells his story: a wolf for a father, a home burned, a mother killed, a twin sister lost, a life on the run. He calls himself Woeful, and the woman by the fire listens to every word.WK06The ChallengeIntro1:24Hunding realises his guest is the very man his kinsmen were hunting. Tonight the law protects him; at dawn they fight. His wife mixes his night drink with something extra, and on her way out she looks hard at one spot in the trunk of the old ash tree.WK07Wälse! Wälse!Intro1:27Alone by the dying fire, Siegmund remembers the sword his father promised him and cries out his father's name, twice, with everything he has. Then the embers flare, and something in the old ash tree flashes gold.WK08The Sword in the TreeIntro1:26Sieglinde tells of her wedding feast, when a stranger in grey with one eye hidden under his hat drove a sword into the ash tree up to the hilt. Every man in the hall tried to pull it out, and every one of them failed.WK09WinterstürmeIntro1:24The door of the hut swings open by itself and moonlight and spring pour in across the whole house. Siegmund sings his love song, Sieglinde answers, and the two of them find each other at last.WK10Nothung!Intro1:29Sieglinde knows him at last and names him Siegmund. He takes hold of the sword in the tree, names it Nothung, and pulls it out in a blaze of white steel. Then the two of them run out into the spring night together.WK11Hojotoho!Intro1:19Act Two begins high in the mountains. Wotan calls for his favourite daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, and she arrives with her famous war cry. Then she spots someone coming, and decides to leave her father to it.WK12Fricka's DemandIntro1:19Fricka, goddess of marriage, arrives in her chariot pulled by rams, and she wants Siegmund dead. Watch their colours fight over the house until Wotan, bound by his own laws, gives in.WK13Wotan's ConfessionIntro1:28Wotan tells Brünnhilde everything: the stolen gold, the Ring and its curse, Erda's warning, the heroes gathered to defend Valhalla, and the free hero he needs but cannot make. His memories fill the house, and then he wants only one thing: the end.WK14The OrderIntro1:25Wotan gives the order: Brünnhilde must fight for Hunding, and Siegmund must die. When she pushes back, his fury breaks over the whole house like a storm, and he storms away and leaves her alone.WK15In FlightIntro1:28Siegmund and Sieglinde run for their lives. She is wild with guilt and terror, hears Hunding's horns and his hounds coming, sees Siegmund dead, and faints in his arms.WK16The Annunciation of DeathIntro1:21Brünnhilde appears to Siegmund, and only a man who is about to die can see her. Slowly and gravely she tells him that tomorrow he will fall, and go with her to Valhalla.WK17Brünnhilde RelentsIntro1:25Siegmund will not go to Valhalla without Sieglinde, and he would rather kill them both than leave her behind. Moved by his love, Brünnhilde breaks her father's order and promises him victory.WK18The FightIntro1:23In a storm on the mountain pass, Siegmund calls on his sword and Hunding answers out of the thunder, and the two men rush at each other and fight on the heights.WK19Siegmund FallsIntro1:27Brünnhilde shields Siegmund in the fight, until Wotan appears in the storm and Siegmund's sword shatters on his spear. Hunding kills the disarmed hero, Brünnhilde gallops away with Sieglinde and the pieces of the sword, and Wotan rides after her in a fury.WK20Ride of the ValkyriesIntro1:20The Valkyries, the eight warrior daughters of Wotan, come galloping one by one through the storm clouds to their mountain rock, each in her own colour, each carrying a fallen hero over her saddle, to the real Ride of the Valkyries.WK21The Eight SistersIntro1:28All eight Valkyries together at last, galloping across the whole house in formation, crossing and calling to each other over the storm. Then they gather on their rock and see their sister Brünnhilde riding toward them, carrying a woman.WK22O hehrstes Wunder!Intro1:24Sieglinde wants to die, until Brünnhilde tells her she is carrying Siegmund's child, the greatest hero in the world. Her cry of joy turns the whole house to gold, and she flees into the forest with the pieces of his father's sword.WK23Wotan's WrathIntro1:22Wotan comes in a storm that swallows the whole house. The terrified Valkyries hide Brünnhilde in the middle of a huddle on their rock, and every time their father calls for her, the thunder cracks.WK24The SentenceIntro1:29Brünnhilde steps out to face her father, and Wotan pronounces her sentence: she is no longer a Valkyrie. Her sisters cry out against it, until he threatens them with the same fate, and they flee in terror as the storm dies away into evening.WK25Was It So Shameful?Intro1:24Alone on the rock with her angry father, Brünnhilde pleads her case. She tells him what she saw in Siegmund's heart, and slowly his hard blue light begins to soften.WK26A Wall of FireIntro1:24Brünnhilde makes one last request: if she must sleep on the mountain, let a wall of fire guard her, so that only a true hero can ever reach her. As she sings of it, the fire leaps up around the whole house.WK27Wotan's FarewellIntro1:24Wotan takes his daughter in his arms for the last time and says goodbye. His deep blue folds around her silver and the whole house glows with the two of them: the great farewell, the heart of the whole opera.WK28The Kiss of SleepIntro1:29Wotan kisses his daughter's eyes, and her godhood leaves her. Her bright silver fades to a sleeping violet, he lays her down on the summit of the rock and covers her with her shield.WK29Loge, Come!Intro1:27Wotan strikes the rock three times with his spear and calls on Loge, the god of fire. The rock answers: flames burst out and begin to race along the porch around his sleeping daughter.WK30Magic FireIntro1:30Fire rings the rock and then the whole house, and over it the music of sleep shimmers while Wotan swears that no one who fears his spear will ever pass. He looks back once, walks out through the flames, and leaves his daughter sleeping in a ring of fire.WK31IntermissionIntermission5:00The house becomes a stormy night, deep blue with drifting clouds, and the magic fire closes in from both wings toward the porch over five minutes, flickering as it comes, until it meets in the middle and the opera begins again.
For your own show
Short, bright pieces meant to be watched. The FSEQ (v2, zstd, 40 fps) plays in Falcon Player on a house with the same layout; see About for how it is made.