The troubles of Fricka and Wotan, part 2: He's always out making a big deal -- big deal!

from Scene 2 of Das Rheingold

FRICKA: A splendid dwelling, beautifully appointed,
might tempt you to tarry here and rest.
But you in building an abode
thought only of defenses and battlements.

Yvonne Minton (ms), Fricka; Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. Eurodisc-BMG, recorded Dec. 8-11, 1980

Mignon Dunn (ms), Fricka; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Sixten Ehrling, cond. Live performance, Feb. 15, 1975

from Scene 4 of Das Rheingold

WOTAN [turning solemnly to FRICKA]:
Follow me, wife:
in Valhalla dwell with me.

Friedrich Schorr (b), Wotan; Berlin State Opera Orchestra, Leo Blech, cond. EMI, recorded June 17, 1927

Ferdinand Frantz (bs-b), Wotan; Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Rudolf Moralt, cond. Broadcast performance, 1948

by Ken

In the "The troubles of Fricka and Wotan, part 1: A tease for this week's post, spotlighting those troubles" (a follow-up to last week's "Yes, we're going to do a bit more Rheingold business, but first we have to solve a Mystery Baritone conundrum"), we heard a bunch of performances of the above snatches from the second and fourth of the four scenes of Das Rheingold, the first two installments in what I think of as a triptych of "Scenes from a Marriage" embedded in Wagner's Ring cycle: the Fricka-Wotan confrontations that reach their blow-out climax in Act II of Die Walküre.

I really tried to present both Fricka and Wotan at their human best, even if, in one of the two cases, that "best" exists mostly in the character's own head. As I mentioned in the "tease," I also tried hard to keep those moments just that, moments, but I promised that we would hear fuller, more contextual versions, and we will. First, however --

SHOULDN'T WE BACKTRACK TO ESTABLISH MORE
CLEARLY HOW WE GOT TO THIS POINT IN SCENE 2?

Yes, I think we should, and by amazing coincidence I happen to have the audio for it ready to roll!

Okay, so this would be, um, the Rhinemaidens swimming
in, er, the Rhine at the Met, 2010 (photo by Ken Howard)

We're back in Scene 1, set in the River Rhine itself, as the greedy and currently extremely horny Nibelung (the Nibelungs being gnomelike creatures who live in Nibelheim, in the bowels of the earth) Alberich -- the title character, it's worth remembering, of Wagner's tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung -- thinks he's engaged in flirtatious foreplay with the three Rhinemaidens, only to make the rude and painful discovery that they've been playing with him, ridiculing him, having a jolly frolic at his expense. Unfortunately for them, about this time the Rhinegold, which they're charged with guarding, awakens and spreads its golden glow through the murk of the river depths, and they nonchalantly (they're by nature pretty nonchalant, our Rhinemaidens) reveal its secret to the intruder: that from the Rhinegold an all-powerful ring, a ring that would give its wearer mastery of the world, can be forged, but only by someone who has renounced love. And, after all, how likely is it that someone would be so foolhardy as to do that?

In hindsight (I think we can all see where this is going) we can say that an excellent candidate might be someone who is: (1) sexually frustrated and provoked beyond the limits of human endurance, and (2) intimately familiar with and highly skilled in the Art of Payback.
This is where our clip, which will take us -- not just scenically but, more important, musically, in one of those astounding musicalized scene changes at which Wagner was so brilliant -- from the depths of the Rhine to the mountaintop perch of the gods. The clip also brackets the worlds of the two central figures of the Ring cycle: Alberich himself, aka Schwarz-Alberich, or Dark Alberich, and the chief god Wotan, aka Licht-Alberich, or Light Alberich.

Continuation of Scene 1: At the bottom of the Rhine,
from Alberich, "Der Welt Erbe"

Everywhere are steep points of rock jutting up from the depths and enclosing the whole stage; all the ground is broken up into a wild confusion of jagged pieces, so that there is no level place, while on all sides darkness indicates other, deeper fissures. The Nibelung ALBERICH has been trying desperately to win the attention of one or another of the three RHINEMAIDENS, who teased him mercilessly until a glow of light revealed the Rhinegold, which is guarded by the RHINEMAIDENS, who in turn revealed to ALBERICH that a ring fashioned from this gold would give the bearer limitless powers, but that this can only be done by someone who renounces the possibility of love, an eventuality they clearly think most unlikely. They don't seem to register, or take due notice of, how powerfully their little story has seized his attention.

As our clip begins, the laughing RHINEMAIDENS swim to and fro in the light. ALBERICH has his eyes fixed on the gold, having listened well to the sisters' hasty chatter.

[Time cues refer to the Janowski-Eurodisc recording.]

ALBERICH: The world's wealth
I could win for my own through you?
If I cannot force love,
then through cunning I can attain my desire?
[terribly loud] Just mock on!
The Nibelung nears your toy! [Raging, he springs to the middle rock and clambers with irritable haste to its summit.]
THE THREE RHINEMAIDENS [separating, screaming, and swimming upwards on different sides]: Heia! heia! heia jahei!
Save yourselves! The gnome has gone crazy!
The water spumes wherever he springs:
love drives him mad. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
ALBERICH [with a last spring reaching the summit]:
Are you still not afraid?
Then woo in the dark, watery brood!
[He stretches his hand out toward the gold.]
I will put out your light, wrench the gold from the rock,
forge the ring of revenge; then hear me, flood, so I curse love!
[He tears the gold from the rock with terrible force and plunges with it hastily into the depth, where he quickly disappears. Thick darkness falls suddenly on the scene. The RHINEMAIDENS dive down after the thief.
FLOSSHILDE: Stop the thief!
WELLGUNDE: Save the gold!
THE THREE RHINEMAIDENS: Help! Help! Woe!
The water sinks down with them.
[1:30] From the lowest depth ALBERICH's shrill mocking laughter is heard. The rocks disappear in thickest darkness. The whole stage is from top to bottom filled with black water waves, which for some time seem to sink downwards.
[2:45] The waves have gradually changed into clouds, which little by little become lighter, and at length disperse into a fine mist.
[3:21] As the mist disappears upwards in little clouds, an open space on a mountain height becomes visible in the twilight. WOTAN and beside him FRICKA, both asleep, are lying at the side on a flowery bank.

[4:04] Scene 2: An open space on a mountain height.
WOTAN and FRICKA asleep

The dawning day lights up with growing brightness a castle with glittering pinnacles, which stands on the top of a cliff in the background. Between this cliff and the foreground a deep valley through which the Rhine flows is supposed.
[4:53] The castle has become quite visible. FRICKA awakens: her gaze falls on the castle.
[5:13] FRICKA: Wotan, husband, wake up!
WOTAN [dreaming]: The sacred hall of my joy
is guarded for me by gate and door.
Man's honor, eternal might
extend to endless fame.
FRICKA [shakes him: Up! Leave dreams' deightful deceit!
Rouse yourself, husband, and reflect!
[5:56] WOTAN: Completed, the eternal work!
On the mountain peak stands the gods' stronghold,
superbly soars the resplendent building.
As in my dreams I desired it, as my will directed,
strong and fair it stands on show: sublime, superb structure!

-- sung text translated (mostly) by Lionel Salter,
stage directions (mostly) by Frederick Jameson

Siegmund Nimsgern (b), Alberich; Lucia Popp (s), Woglinde; Uta Priew (ms), Wellgunde; Hanna Schwarz (ms), Flosshilde; Yvonne Minton (ms), Fricka; Theo Adam (bs-b), Wotan; Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. Eurodisc-BMG, recorded Dec. 8-11, 1980

Otakar Kraus (b), Alberich; Ingeborg Felderer (s), Woglinde; Elisabeth Steiner (ms), Wellgunde; Elisabeth Schärtel (ms), Flosshilde; Regina Resnik (s), Fricka; Jerome Hines (bs), Wotan; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Rudolf Kempe, cond. Live performance, July 26, 1951

Gustav Neidlinger (b), Alberich; Oda Balsborg (s), Woglinde; Hetty Plümacher (ms), Wellgunde; Ira Malaniuk (ms), Flosshilde; Kirsten Flagstad (s), Fricka; George London (bs-b), Wotan; Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded Sept.-Oct. 1958

Zoltán Kélémen (b), Alberich; Helen Donath (s), Woglinde; Edda Moser (s), Wellgunde; Anna Reynolds (ms), Flosshilde; Josephine Veasey (ms), Fricka; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Wotan; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded December 1967

Ekkehard Wlaschiha (bs-b), Alberich; Julie Kaufmann (s), Woglinde; Angela Maria Blasi (s), Wellgunde; Birgit Calm (ms), Flosshilde; Marjana Lipovšek (ms), Fricka; Robert Hale (bs-b), Wotan; Bavarian State Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawalllisch, cond. EMI, recorded live at the Bavarian State Opera, November 1989

Günter von Kannen (bs-b), Alberich; Heide Leidland (s), Woglinde; Annette Küttenbaum (ms), Wellgunde; Jane Turner (ms), Flosshilde; Linda Finnie (ms), Fricka; John Tomlinson (bs), Wotan; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Teldec, recorded live, June-July 1991

NOTE: The order of these performances, apart from the placement of the Minton-Eurodisc-BMG in the lead spot, is strictly chronological, which actually provides an interesting mix and lots of interesting juxtapositions. At some point I want to reorder them, however, and I expect I'm going to want to add some notes explaining why these performances were selected and what I think is worth hearing in them. For now, though, I just don't know how or when this is going to happen.

SO, WE'RE ON THE MOUNTAINTOP WITH OUR POWER
COUPLE -- WITH VALHALLA VISIBLE IN THE DISTANCE

Fricka (Sarah Connolly), Wotan (Bryn Terfel), and Freia (Ann
Petersen) at Covent Garden, 2012 (photo by Clive Barda)

And no sooner is Fricka's husband awake than she begins to pick away at him. It's the nature of that picking which we need to talk about. For now, though, let's just pick up where we left off, as Fricka wakes Wotan from his dreamy reveries of Valhalla.

But maybe first we should heed last week's watchwords and "REMEMBER THE CRAMS!" You remember, Kay and Hubie Cram? From the 1961 Broadway musical Do Re Mi, with those amazing songs by Jule Styne (music) and Betty Comden and Adolph Green (lyrics).

Kay (the great Nancy Walker): the woman who has spent their 10 years together, just like tonight, when they're supposed to be celebrating their 10th anniversary, "Waiting, waiting" -- "Hubie's late again!" Kay, who believes that "All a woman wants is that her man should have a job," and "All a woman wants is that her man is not a slob," who is certain of this much --

I know he isn't working late at the office,
because he hasn't got an office.
I know he isn't being kept overtime at the store,
because he hasn't got a store.
I know he's out somewhere making a big deal.
Big deal!

And Hubie (the great Phil Silvers): the "dreamer" and "schemer" who "should be a biggie with a roll of cash," who believes "a woman should egg her man on to bigger things, better things," and believes above all that --

All I need is an angle, an angle, an angle,
and some timing, timing.
All I need is an angle, an angle, an angle,
it's the angles and the timing that count.

Let's just do another quick listen:

STYNE, COMDEN and GREEN: Do Re Mi, Act I:

"Waiting, waiting" (Kay Cram)


"Take a job" (Kay and Hubie Cram)

Nancy Walker and Phil Silvers (Kay and Hubie Cram), vocals; OBC recording, Lehman Engel, cond. RCA, recorded Jan. 8, 1961

I think it's worth keeping all this in mind -- Fricka waiting and waiting while Wotan is out somewhere making a big deal -- as we listen to the pair squabble about Wotan's shiny new toy, his fortress/castle Valhalla. There are two giant issues:

• On the relationship level, the very different things Valhalla represents to them. The German "Burg," which I translated last week as "fortress" but this week as "castle," encompasses both, but to Fricka and Wotan they're very different things. What Fricka wants is a home to share with her husband, and why shouldn't their home be a castle? But she knows that to her husband Valhalla is indeed a fortress, a mighty one for a mighty god -- and one in which, if experience is any guide (and she's pretty sure it is), he will spend as little time as he can get away with.

• On the immediate, practical, closing-in-on-them level, the price Wotan has contracted to pay the Giants Fasolt and Fafner for building the Burg, which is nothing less than Fricka's sister Freia, the goddess of beauty, whose godly portfolio includes tending a garden that produces golden apples which enable the gods to remain eternally young. And the clock is ticking on this, because it's just a matter of time before Fasolt and Fafner appear to claim the agreed-upon payment, which is engraved on the spear that is both the source and symbol of Wotan's power.

So let's continue with the scene, again from the exact point we left off earlier. Obviously a critical function that needs to be performed here is exposition: cluing the audience in to what the heck is going on. But Wagner's musical setting provides abundant opportunities for the singers (and the conductor) to show us what this all means to each of our protagonists.

Continuation of Scene 2, from Fricka, "Nur Wonne schafft dir"
FRICKA: Do you only delight in what I dread?
If the castle fills you with joy, it fills me with fear for Freia.
Reckless man, recall the price to be paid.
The castle is finished, the pledge falls due;
have you forgotten what you promised to pay?
WOTAN: I know well what was demanded
by those who built that castle for me.
By a contract I tamed their insolent race
into bilding me this sublime abode,
which now stands -- thanks to their strength.
As to the price, don't worry about it.
FRICKA: O laughing, outrageous heedlessness!
Loveless lightheartedness!
Had I known of your contract
I would have prevented the fraud;
but you men firmly kept the women away
so that, deaf and silent to us,
you could deal alone with the Giants.
Thus shamelessly you brazenly bartered
Freia, my lovely sister
and rejoiced at the base bargain.
What do you harsh men hold sacred
and valuable when you thirst for power?
WOTAN: Was Fricka truly free from like thirst
when she herself begged me for the building?
FRICKA: Concern over my consort's constancy
makes me ponder sadly how to keep him by me
when he is drawn to roam away:
a splendid dwelling, beautifully appointed,
might tempt you to tarry here and rest.
But you in building an abode
thought only of defenses and battlements.
They would increase your dominion and power;
only to arouse storms of unrest
did this towering castle arise.
WOTAN: Though you wished, wife, to keep me contained,
you must grant me as a god that even confined in the castle
I must win the outside world over to myself.
All who live love roaming and variety;
I cannot relinquish this sport.
FRICKA: Loveless, most wretched man!
For the idle toys of might and dominion
would you, in blasphemous scorn,
stake love and a woman's worth?
WOTAN: So as to win you for my wife,
I sacrificed one of my eyes to woo you.
How stupid is your scolding now?
I prize women even more than pleases you!
And I will not yield our good Freia;
in truth, I never had any such intention.

-- sung text translated (mostly) by Lionel Salter,
stage directions (mostly) by Frederick Jameson

Yvonne Minton (ms), Fricka; Theo Adam (bs-b), Wotan; Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. Eurodisc-BMG, recorded Dec. 8-11, 1980

Regina Resnik (s), Fricka; Jerome Hines (bs), Wotan; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Rudolf Kempe, cond. Live performance, July 26, 1951

Kirsten Flagstad (s), Fricka; George London (bs-b), Wotan; Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded Sept.-Oct. 1958

Josephine Veasey (ms), Fricka; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b); Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded December 1967

Marjana Lipovšek (ms), Fricka; Robert Hale (bs-b), Wotan; Bavarian State Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawalllisch, cond. EMI, recorded live at the Bavarian State Opera, November 1989

Linda Finnie (ms), Fricka; John Tomlinson (bs), Wotan; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Teldec, recorded live, June-July 1991

NOTE: The performances should be in the same order as we had for the earlier portion of this chunk of the opera: the Eurodisc-BMG first and the others following in chronological order. As I noted with that earlier sequence, I may at some point choose to juggle them, and perhaps add/or subtract performances, and/or add notes on the performances. Actually, I'd love to do all that; I just can't guess how or when this might happen.

STILL TO COME

Well, it looks like this is as far as we're going to get this week -- a pretty decent chunk, I think, but it still leaves much to pin down about Das Rheingold and why Yvonne Minton's Rheingold Fricka matters so much to me, and then we've still got to make the leap to the Fricka-Wotan scene of Die Walküre.

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