"About the Nibelung I recently heard a rumor . . . "

TUESDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Progress is made. We've got the Götterdämmerung Prologue-to-Act I texts in place, and the cleaning up and filling in of the post text has begun.

It all started with Alberich (here, Eric Owens at the Met) and his discovery of the superpower he could enjoy if he managed to get hold of the Rhinegold and shape it into a ring.

by Ken

FIRST, A FEW EXPLANATORY NOTES

(in case you're wondering what the heck this is you're looking at!)

Explanatory Note No. 1: Last week we met the character who for me is one of the most engrossing not just in opera but in any theatrical or for that matter any fictional medium: Hagen, one of the final trio of characters Wagner presents to us in The Ring of the Nibelung, in the company of his half-siblings Gunther and Gutrune. We meet them chatting in their home, the Hall of the Gibichungs, as the curtain rises on Act I of the final installment of The Ring, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) -- following, that is, the 40-minute-or-so Prologue, which together will form one of Wagner's super-acts, clocking in at not a whole lot less than two hours.

I pointed out that we were not meeting Hagen at the point of his actual presentation to the audience, though I promised we'd eventually get back to that. Instead we met him at a stunningly personal moment: as he is left alone to sit watch over the hall while Gunther heads off on a mad adventure with their recently arrived guest Siegfried -- a scheme of Hagen's devising, aimed at bringing within his reach the much-sought-after superpower-giving Ring of the Nibelung.


JUST TO REFRESH OUR MEMORIES --

Götterdämmerung: Act I, Gunther, "Du, Hagen! Bewache die Halle!" . . . Hagen's Watch

The Hall of the Gibichungs on the Rhine. This is quite open at the back. The background presents an open shore as far as the river; rocky heights border the shore. At one side are thrones for GUNTHER and GUTRUNE, with a table in front of them, with provision for seating.

As our excerpt begins, SIEGFRIED and GUNTHER, having taken an oath of blood brotherhood (from which HAGEN abstained, saying that his impure blood would spoil their drink), are ready to leave for their journey to BRÜNNHILDE's mountaintop. SIEGFRIED has already headed for the riverbank to prepare his boat.

GUNTHER: You, Hagen, keep watch o'er the palace.
[He follows SIEGFRIED to the shore. SIEGFRIED and GUNTHER, after they have laid their arms in the boat, put up the sail and make all ready for departure; HAGEN takes up his spear and shield. GUTRUNE appears at the door of her room just as SIEGFRIED pushes off the boat, which floats at once into midstream.]
GUTRUNE: So fast! Where have they gone to?
HAGEN [while he slowly seats himself in front of the hall, with shield and spear]:
They've sailed -- Brünnhilde they'll find.
GUTRUNE: Siegfried?
HAGEN: See, see his haste!
He's eager to win you!
GUTRUNE: Siegfried -- mine!
[She returns to her room in excitement. SIEGFRIED has seized an oar and with its strokes he drives the boat down the stream so that it is quickly lost to view.]
HAGEN [sits motionless, leaning his back against the doorpost of the hall]:
I sit here and wait, watching the house.
guarding the hall from the foe.
Gibich's son is borne by the wind,
away to his wooing he's gone.
His ship is steered by his fearless friend,
who'll brave the the fire in his place:
and he will bring his bride to the Rhine;
with her, he brings me the Ring!
You sons of freedom, joyful companions,
marrily sail on your way!
Though you may scorn me, you'll serve me soon,
the Nibelung's son.
[A curtain, attached to the front of the hall, closes and cuts off the stage from the audience.]

-- singing translation by Andrew Porter,

used in our English-language recording

[in English] [Hagen's Watch: 2:08-6:42; "You sons of freedom" at 5:40] Aage Haugland (bs), Hagen; with Norman Welsby (b), Gunther; Margaret Curphey (s), Gutrune; English National Opera Orchestra, Reginald Goodall, cond. EMI-Chandos, recorded live, December 1977

[Hagen's Watch: 1:51-6:03; "Ihr freien Söhne" at 5:10] Gottlob Frick (bs), Hagen; with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Gunther; Claire Watson (s), Gutrune; Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded May-Nov. 1964

[Hagen's Watch: 1:51-5:59; "Ihr freien Söhne" at 5:01] Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Hagen; with Thomas Stewart (b), Gunther; Gundula Janowitz (s), Gutrune; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded Oct. 1969-Jan. 1970

Gerd Nienstedt (bs-b), Hagen; RAI Rome Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Broadcast performance, recorded 1968

Bengt Rundgren (bs), Hagen; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Rafael Kubelik, cond. Live performance, Mar. 23, 1974

What I didn't point out is that Hagen comes naturally by his interest in the Ring of the Nibelung. He was in fact literally born to it. As Wagner leaves it to us to puzzle out with abundant textual and musical cues, the Nibelung in The Ring of the Nibelung is his father, Alberich, the actual shaper of the Ring out of the Rhinegold, and Alberich went to great lengths to secure the birth of a son who would pursue his own goal of recapturing the property stolen from him by the leader of the gods, Wotan.

Explanatory Note No. 2:

I also pointed out last week that in addition to our actual meetup with Hagen -- toward which the whole of The Ring seems to me pointed -- we actually have previous knowledge of Hagen, or perhaps pre-knowledge, considering that not only did he not yet have a name, he very likely hadn't been born at the time we first heard about his existence, as Wotan explained to his Valkyrie daughter Brünnhilde in his agonized ruminations in Act II of Die Walküre. And that's our first order of business this week.

Explanatory Note No. 2: What you're looking at isn't really a post but more of a work-in-progress. In fact, if you happened to drop in earlier this morning, you may have seen -- and I hope heard -- a bunch of clips of the same excerpt, the moment when Wotan shares with Brünnhilde the chilling news of Alberich's procreating. Since most of those clips were ready, I thought I'd post them. I also posted them for a crazy technical reason: Thanks to the radical changes made recently by my bloghost, which I've tried my darnedest not to whine too much about, I no longer have any way of seeing let alone hearing embedded audio clips without actually publishing a post, meaning I can't even check them to make sure they work, and can't listen to them as a group of clips. Which is another reason I went ahead and threw those clips up.

We have a lot more to do, but for now here are these Walküre Act II clips. I'm still expecting both to amplify this post and probably to add to it something more like a regular post.

It's all still pretty cloudy, but I think what's in place as of now, 10:40 Sunday morning, may be of some value -- and will make it easier for me to continue

The Valkyrie: Act II, Wotan, "Fahre denn hin"
(in our translation: "Fade from my sight")

Fade from my sight, honor and fame,
glorious godhead's glittering shame!
And fall in ruins, all I have raised!
I leave all my work; but one thing I desire:
that ending, the ending!
[He pauses in thought.]
And to that ending works Alberich!
Now I grasp all the secret sense
that filled the words of the Wala [i.e., Erda]:
"When the fearful foe of love gains in hatred a son,
the gods may know their doom is near."
From Nibelheim the tidings have come
that the dwarf has forced a woman;
his gold bought her embrace;
and she will bear Alberich's son;
the seed of spite stirs in her womb;
this wonder befell the loveless Nibelung;
while I, who loved so truly,
my free son I never could win.
[Rising up in bitter wrath]
I give you my blessing, Nibelung son!
Let all that irks me be yours to inherit;
in Walhall's glorious halls
achieve your unhallowed desires.

-- singing translation by Andrew Porter,

used in the English National Opera performance

NOTE: The portion of text that appears in color is cut from EMI's hybrid 1935/1938 recording of Act II for which the young Hans Hotter, who hadn't yet sung the role, was pressed into servce as Wotan.

[in English] Norman Bailey (b), Wotan; English National Opera Orchestra, Reginald Goodall, cond. EMI-Chandos, recorded live, December 1977

Simon Estes (bs-b), Wotan; Staatskapelle Berlin, Heinz Fricke, cond. Philips, recorded April 1984

Thomas Stewart (b), Wotan; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded Aug.-Sept. and Dec. 1966

James Morris (bs-b), Wotan; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine, cond. DG, recorded April 1987

I couldn't make as good a case last week as I might have wished for the Goodall-English National Opera Twilight of the Gods, which even beyond the problematic casting of Aage Haugland as Hagen doesn't feel as surely controlled or confidently (however gradually) forward-moving as the other installments in Goodall's Ring cycle. My recollection is that he was reuniting with most of what had been "his" cast, and they don't seem to have come together again as assuredly -- beyond which, we mustn't forget what a massive undertaking Götterdämmerung is in its own right. Happily, the ENO Valkyrie seemed and still seems to me a near-unequivocal triumph, not least because Norman Bailey sings such a beautiful and eloquent Wotan, a commanding and genuinely first-rate achievement.

Perhaps more controversially, I'm a fan of Simon Estes as a Wagnerian. I enjoyed his Walküre in the theater, which I thought make an enormous impact, and I'm glad he got to record even as much as this 24 minutes' worth of the Act II scene for an attractive Philips Wagner compendium CD (which also included Wotan's Farewell, the Flying Dutchman's monologue, and Amfortas's Lament from Parsifal), with nice support from Eva Maria Bandschuh singing Brünnhilde's response lines and solid conducting by Heinz Fricke. It's a shame they didn't start the Walküre Act II scene early enough to include the huge outpouring of self-flagellation in which Wotan declares himself the unhappiest man in the world, which I remember being overwhelming.

Thomas Stewart was still fairly new to Wotan when Herbert von Karajan cast him for the first installment of his Ring cycle recording, which like most of Karajan's opera recordings of those years was made the year before his projected stage production, so that the pre-release tape could be used in all sorts of preparatory and rehearsal activty, so Stewart didn't even have the benefit of the experience he would eventually gain from that run of performances. He went on to sing aall three Wotans all over the world for a long period of time, and even at this early stage he offers a full, fully and beautifully voiced account

James Morris's assumption of Wotan was all the more welcome at a time when the demand of adequate Heldenbaritonen soaring as every opera house in the world seemed to be tackling operas that, outside Germany at least, had long been left to the biggest-time houses, and for a while it was a happy marriage of singer and role(s). Our little excerpt sounds quite fine, even though by this time some of the sheen of the voice was dulling and it was becoming clear that he wasn't likely to grow into a more interesting Wotan.

On the Group I-Group II border -- and over the other side

Donald McIntyre (bs-b), Wotan; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Sixten Ehrling, cond. Live performance, Mar. 1, 1975

Theo Adam (bs-b), Wotan; Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. Eurodisc, recorded Aug. 22-29, 1981

With all good will toward a pair of intelligent and serious, well-meaning singers, Donald McIntyre's and Theo Adam's Wotans are not performances I return to eagerly. There's just so much drab-toned intoning one can endure with equanimity. That said, in our little excerpt from the Met's 1975 broadcast Ring cycle, as if to prove me wrong, McIntyre sounds pretty darned solid! If his Wotan had more consistently sounded like this -- in, for example, the audio and video recordings of the Boulez-Chéreau Bayreuth Ring cycle -- we might have cause for celebration. For me the real ear-opener among McIntyre's recordings is his gorgeously eloquent Gurnemanz in Goodall's EMI Parsifal. Perhaps significantly, it's a bass role. While the overall range isn't that different from that of the Wagner "lower baritone roles" (which is to say not Wolfram von Eschenbach or Kurwenal but, in addition to Wotan, the Dutchman, Hans Sachs, and maybe Amfortas), the differences in where the writing most consistently lies can make a significant difference. It's easy to understand as well why Theo Adam was hired so often to sing Wotan (and Sachs, and the Dutchman). Again we have a conscientious singer with evident understanding of these roles, who could be counted on to get through them. In performances of his from the '50s there are more frequent instances of some pleasing lyricism (check out his 1954 Bayreuth King Heinrich in Lohengrin -- again, interestingly, a bass rather than baritone role). I even recall enjoying a '60s Met Meistersinger broadcast.

The you-win-some, you-lose-some case of Hans Hotter's Wotan


[cut marked by blank at 1:02-06] Hans Hotter (bs-b), Wotan; Berlin State Opera Orchestra, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, cond. EMI, recorded Nov. 19-20, 1938

Hans Hotter (bs-b), Wotan; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Clemens Krauss, cond. Live performance, Aug. 9, 1953

Hans Hotter (bs-b), Wotan; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Joseph Keilberth, cond. Testament, recorded live by Decca, July 25, 1955 (released 2006)

Hans Hotter (bs-b), Wotan; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Hans Knappertsbusch, cond. Live performance, Aug. 14, 1956

Hans Hotter (bs-b), Wotan; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Rudolf Kempe, cond. Live performance, Sept. 27, 1957

Hans Hotter (bs-b), Wotan; Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded Oct.-Nov. 1965

There's a general feeling of regret that no commercial recordings of Hotter as Wotan were made until the Solti-Decca Siegfried (1962) and Walküre (1965). Now, of course, we've got about a zillion performances of all three Wotans from broadcast sources and the much-delayed release by Testament of the Ring that Peter Andry produced for Decca at the 1955 Bayreuth Festival (like that summer's Flying Dutchman recording, in stereo), and I hear murmurings in these performances Hotter sounded fresher or younger or someehow better than in the sadly belated Decca studio Walküre and Siegfried.

I've strung together these bits to suggest that this isn't what I hear, and I can't help thinking there's some confusion here with talk that such enthusiasts may have heard "younger" Hotter sounding better than "sadly older" Hotter. It's true that there was a "yonger" Hans H we can listen to with wonder and delight, but that's not the Hotter of the '50s but of the late '30s and (mostly) early '40s, when in place of the characteristically mashed, nasal sound we know from his later self, he produced streams of resonant, beautiful sound. Which is why I pointedly led off with the eviscerated 1938 chunk, despite the disfiguration. When our Hans was tapped to sing what would remain of Wotan for EMI's cursèd 1935-38 Walküre Act II, he hadn't even sung the role yet, but we can hear that if ever anyone was destined to sing the role, here he is.

As often happens in life, this kind of worked out, but not the way one might have hoped. These '50s Wotans are clearly the work of a thoughtful, conscientious performer, but I don't find much pleasure in listening to them. I don't know if it's some vocal concentration he brought to bear working under studio conditions with Solti and the Decca team, or maybe, seemingly contrarily, a measure of relaxation from not having to fill an opera house, I'll take those performances any day.


AFTER ALL THIS PUTTERING ABOUT, LET'S FINALLY
HEAR HOW HAGEN MAKES HIS FIRST APPEARANCE

Well, we need perhaps one more bit of prefatory ground-laying. You may recall that last week we listened to the famous excerpt "Siegfried's Rhine Journey," mostly in combination with the "Dawn" that earlier in the Prologue bridged the sound-world gap between the opening Norn Scene, as the three Norns spin their web of fate, and the exultant post-dawn duet of Brünnhilde and Siegfried, still in the throes of ecstasy from having discovered each other. One conductor was brave enough to give us the unadorned "Rhine Journey," picking up after the climactic ecstasies of the duet. It'll only take a few minutes, so let's listen again. You'll understand why in a moment.

Götterdämmerung: Prologue: "Siegfried's Rhine Journey"


Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Oct.-Nov. 1961

The reason we needed to rehear the "Rhine Journey" is that it takes us up to the exact point where we're going to begin our Hagen meetup, which is to say the beginning of Act I proper. Don't worry, we're going to hear this scene in fuller context. (We like context here.) But for now, let's just get the Act I curtain up.

Götterdämmerung: Act I opening through entrance of Siegfried

The Hall of the Gibichungs on the Rhine. This is open at the back, and a stretch of shore can be seen leading down to the river. GUNTHER and GUTRUNE are seated on a throne to one side, before which is a table with drinking vessels. HAGEN sits in front of the table.

GUNTHER: Now hearken, Hagen, tell me, hero:
Is my standing on the Rhine worthy of the fame of the Gibichungs?
HAGEN: You, the true-born, I esteem and envy;
she who bore us brothers, Grimhild' taught me your worth.
GUNTHER: I envy you, you need not envy me!
As the first-born I inherited, but wisdome came to you alone;
dissension between half-brothers was never better overcome.
I speak but in praise of your counsel when I ask you of my fame.
HAGEN: Then I must chide my counsel,
since your fame is still poor;
but I know of rarer goods that the Gibichung has not yet won.
GUNTHER: If you keep them a secret, I will chide you too.
HAGEN: In the ripe strength of summer I see the house of Gibich,
you, Gunther, still unmarried, you, Gutrun', without a husband.
GUNTHER: Whom would you have me wed,
so that it would profit our renown?
HAGEN: I know of a woman, the noblest in the world;
on towering rocks is her abode, fire surrounds her home.
He alone who breaks through the fire may be Brünnhilde's suitor.
GUNTHER: Would my courage stand the test?
HAGEN: It is decreed for a still stronger man.
GUNTHER: Who is the most combat-ready man?
HAGEN: Siegfried, scion of the Volsungs, he is the strongest hero.
A twin pair, overwhelmed by love,
Siegmund and Sieglinde begat the bravest of sons;
he who waxed strongest in the forest,
him would I have as Gutrune's husband.
GUTRUNE: What deed wrought he so bravely
that he is named the lordliest hero?
HAGEN: At Neidhöhle [cave of envy] the Nibelung hoard
was guarded by a giant dragon:
Siegfried closed his grisly jaws.
slew him with his conquering sword;
that prodigious deed first won him his hero's fame.
GUNTHER: I have heard of this Nibelung hoard;
does it not hold a most rare treasure?
HAGEN: If a man knew how to use it,
the world would bow before him.
GUNTHER: And Siegfried fought and won it?
HAGEN: The Nibelungs are subject to him.
GUNTHER: And Brünnhilde he alone can win?
HAGEN: For no one else will the flames withdraw.
GUNTHER [angrily]: Why do you wake doubt and disccord?
Would you make me long for that which I can never attain?
HAGEN [mysteriously]: But if Siegfried brought
the bride home to you,
then would not Brünnhilde be yours?
GUNTHER: How could I compel the happy man
to woo the bride for me?
HAGEN: Your request would compel him
if Gutrune bound him first.
GUTRUNE: O mocking, malicious Hagen!
How should I hold Siegfried?
If he is the lordliest hero in the world,
then the world's loveliest woman must have won him long ago.
HAGEN [darkly, to GUTRUNE]:
Remember the drink in the chest; trust me, who brought it here;
it will bind in love to you the hero that you long for.
If Siegfried came here and drank of the fragrant draught,
he would straightaway forget that he'd seen a woman before you,
that a woman had ever come near him.
Now say: What do you think of Hagen's counsel?
GUNTHER: Praise be to Grimhild', who gave us this brother!
GUTRUNE: If only I could see Siegfried!
GUNTHER: How can we find him?
[A horn is heard from far off, left.]
HAGEN: As he goes hunting merrily after great deeds,
the world to him is like a narrow wood;
in his unwearying quest he may come
to Gibich's house on the Rhine.
GUNTHER: Gladly would I bid him welcome.
I hear the sound of a horn from the Rhine.
HAGEN [running to the Rhine's edge and shouting back to GUNTHER]: On a boat, hero and horse:
he's the one who's blowing the horn so gaily.
A leisurely stroke, as with an idle hand,
drives the boat quickly against the stream;
the lusty strength displayed in that oar's long stroke
must be his alone, who slew the dragon.
It is surely none other than Siegfried!
GUNTHER: Is he passing by?
HAGEN: Hoiho! Whither bound, gay hero?

-- translation (mostly) by G. M. Holland

William Dooley (b), Gunther; Bengt Rundgren (bs), Hagen; Nell Rankin (s), Gutrune; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Rafael Kubelik, cond. Live performance, Mar. 23, 1974

Hermann Uhde (bs-b), Gunther; Ludwig Weber (bs), Hagen; Martha Mödl (s), Gutrune; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Hans Knappertsbusch, cond. Testament, recorded live by Decca, Aug. 4, 1951 (released 1999)

Thomas Tipton (b), Gunther; Gerd Nienstedt (bs), Hagen; Leonore Kirschstein (s), Gutrune; RAI Rome Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Concert performance recorded live, 1968

Hans Günter Nöcker (b), Gunther; Matti Salminen (bs), Hagen; Norma Sharp (s), Gutrune; Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. Eurodisc, recorded Jan., Mar., and Apr. 1983

I think these swell performances speak well enough for themselves. I've taken care to stock them with quality Hagens, and didn't notice till the dust settled that I'd wound up giving you not once but twice Martha Mödl as Gutrune, a role for which her particular qualities (say, vocal power and stamina) aren't much called for, and lots of sopranos have done enjoyable work. And in our more contextual performances still to come, we're even going to hear her as Brünnhilde (where those "particular qualities" are very much called on). Oh well!


I KEEP REFERRING TO THE BRÜNNHILDE-SIEGFRIED
DUET. NOW WE'RE GOING TO HEAR A LITTLE OF IT!

We'll pick up at the point where both Brünnhilde's and Siegfried's excitement overflows, then hear how it plunges us right in the "Rhine Journey," as Brünnhilde sends her young hero off to experience his new adventures. While Siegfried travels at the mere speed of his hardy boat, we're going to make the trip to Gibichheim via the magic of stagecraft, and beat our young hero there.

Götterdämmerung: Prologue: end of Brünnhilde-Siegfied duet, from "O heiliger Götter," through "Siegfried's Rhine Journey" on into Act I -- up to the arrival of Siegfried

BRÜNNHILDE: O holy gods! Race divine!
Feast your eyes on the dedicated pair!
Parted -- who shall divide us?
Divided -- we never can part!
SIEGFRIED: Hail to you, Brünnhilde, glittering star!
BRÜNNHILDE: Hail to you, Siegfried, conquering light!
SIEGFRIED: Hail, shining light!
BRÜNNHILDE: Hail, shining love!
SIEGFRIED [overlapping]: Hail, shining star!
BRÜNNHILDE [overlapping]: Hail, conquering light!
SIEGFRIED: Hail, Brünnhild'!
BRÜNNHILDE and SIEGFRIED: Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!
[SIEGFRIED leads the horse over the edge of the rock. BRÜNNHILDE follows him.]

"Siegfried's Rhine Journey"
[Each of the following pieces of stage action is keyed to a moment or passage in roughly the first two minutes.]

• SIEGFRIED disappears with the horse down by the projecting rock so that he is no longer visible to the audience. BRÜNNHILDE stands thus suddenly alone at the edge of the slope and follows SIEGFRIED with her eyes as he descends.
• BRÜNNHILDE's demeanor shows that SIEGFRIED now vanishes from her sight.
• SIEGFRIED's horn is heard from below. BRÜNNHILDE listens. She steps farther out on the slope.
• BRÜNNHILDE again catches sight of SIEGFRIED in the valley; she greets him with a gesture of delight. Her joyful smiles seem a reflection of the gay demeanor of the departing hero.
• The curtain falls quickly.

During the last four bars of the "Rhine Journey" the curtain is raised again.

Act I

See above for the setting and ensuing action.

Birgit Nilsson (s), Brünnhilde; Wolfgang Windgassen (t), Siegfried; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Gunther; Gottlob Frick (bs), Hagen; Claire Watson (s), Gutrune; Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded May-Nov. 1964

Helga Dernesch (s), Brünnhilde; Helge Brilioth (t), Siegfried; Thomas Stewart (b), Gunther; Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Hagen; Gundula Janowitz (s), Gutrune; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded Oct. and Dec. 1969 and Jan. 1970

Martha Mödl (s), Brünnhilde; Ludwig Suthaus (t), Siegfried; Alfred Poell (b), Gunther; Josef Greindl (bs), Hagen; Sena Jurinac (s), Gutrune; RAI Rome Symphony Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. EMI, live broadcast recording, Nov. 20, 1953

We go out on a note of strength. I've already waxed rapturous over the Solti-Decca and Karajan-DG Götterdämmerung recordings, and for me they continue to live up to expectations, if not more. The singers aren't on the level of most of Solti's and Karajan's, but they're vocally capable and serious artists, the kind of singer that Furtwängler was happy to work with.

In particular, Furtwängler clearly liked working with Josef Greindl, and for all my carping about the basic quality of Greindl's voice, which kind of launched this whole many-weeks-long path of inquiry, I have to say that here with Furtwängler he gives us a really fine Hagen. Oh, I'd still rather have Ridderbusch or Frick, or for that matter Rundgren or Nienstedt. Nevertheless, I think Greindl gives us a powerful image of this character who embodies several distinct strains of the dark side of human persondom.

Speaking of which, we've really only laid the groundwork for considering Hagen -- we have more work ahead.

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