Post taste: This is where we'd really like to start this week, but --

UPDATE: The usual thousand apologies, but the promised continuation of this "post tease" is now up for viewing:
"On the pleasures of getting lost in Götterdämmerung: revisiting the path to here, Part 1."

LIKE IT SAYS ABOVE, THIS IS WHERE WE'D LIKE TO START:


All clips: Bavarian State Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. (1989, live)

ONLY, FROM THERE WE'D NEED TO GO STRAIGHT BACK TO:



And if we're going back, maybe we should go back a bit farther?



by Ken

Come to think of it, once we get to that hoped-for starting point (pushing ahead from last week's post, "About the Nibelung I recently heard a rumor . . . ") we'll have to do an even farther-backwards jump, to get to this:

Whoever fears the tip of my spear
shall never pass through the fire!

with Robert Hale, bass-baritone

Come to think some more, once we did that first jump-back, wouldn't we also want to do this crucial jump-ahead?

Brünnhilde! Holy bride!
Wake up! Open your eyes!

with René Kollo, tenor

Which, if we continued, would take us to this famous orchestral setpiece:




WE'LL GET THIS ALL SORTED IN DUE TIME.
FOR NOW, IF THIS IS ALL TOO HYPOTHETICAL ---

You can click through to hear these clips properly identified.


OUR HYPOTHETICAL STARTING POINT IS THE BRIEF
ORCHESTRAL INTRODUCTION TO GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG

Götterdämmerung: Prologue: Orchestral introduction


All clips: Bavarian State Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. EMI, recorded live at the Bavarian State Opera, November 1989


FROM WHICH WE RETURNED TO THE MOMENT WHEN
SIEGFRIED AWAKENED THE SLEEPING BRÜNNHILDE

Siegfried: Act III, orchestral moment of awakening



Or, if we include the orchestral run-up to the awakening:




BACK IN THE GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG PROLOGUE, WHAT'S
ALL THIS ABOUT A RING OF FIRE AROUND BRÜNNHILDE?

Die Walküre: Act III, "Magic Fire Music" (end of the opera)

WOTAN: Whoever fears the tip of my spear
shall never pass through the fire!

with Robert Hale (bs-b), Wotan


THE GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG PROLOGUE INTRO LEADS
US MUSICALLY, NOT JUST BACK TO B'S AWAKENING --

but also ahead to the climactic event of the whole of The Ring. (We do all remember what Wagner originally called the project that evolved into The Ring, don't we?) Crucial fact: Just as Hagen had drugged Siegfried's drink during the great welcoming festivities of Act I, blocking all his memories of Brünnhilde, he has now re-drugged him, restoring those memories, with catastrophic results.

Götterdämmerung: Act III, With his memory restored, Siegfried's story-telling to his Gibichung hunting companions has taken a disastrous turn

SIEGFRIED: Brünnhilde! Holy bride!
Wake up! Open your eyes!

with René Kollo (t), Siegfried


NOW THERE'S NOTHING FOR THE SHOCKED GIBICHUNG
HUNTING PARTY TO DO BUT RETURN TO GIBICHUNG HQ

Götterdämmerung: Act III, "Siegfrieds Trauermarsch"
("Siegfried's Funeral Music")




COMING TO THIS SPACE LATER IN THE DAY SUNDAY

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