Fricka-Wotan 1 [files in preparation for our continued look at "Fricka vs. Wotan"]

SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO GO BACKWARDS TO GO FORWARD
(Can we make sense of Fricka and Wotan's final showdown in Die Walküre Act II without some experience of their clashes in Das Rheingold?)

Valhalla as painted in 1896 by scenic designer Max Brückner (who with
his younger brother Gottfried had designed for Wagner at Bayreuth)

WAGNER: Das Rheingold: scene change from Scene 1 (from Flosshilde, "Haltet den Räuber!") to Scene 2 (through Wotan, "Vollendet das ewige Werk!")

At the bottom of the Rhine: Previously in Scene 1, the Nibelung ALBERICH, frustrated in his romantic overtures to the three RHINEMAIDENS, has stolen the Rhinegold and retreated to the murkiest depths of the river, pursued by the MAIDENS.

FLOSSHILDE: Stop the robber!
WELLGUNDE: Save the gold!
WOGLINDE and WELLGUNDE: Help! Help!
THE THREE RHINEMAIDENS: Alas! Alas!
[The waters sink down with them, and from the lowest depths ALBERICH's mocking laughter is heard. The rocks vanish in thickest darkness; the whole stage is filled from top to bottom with black waving waters, which seem to go on falling for some time.]

Orchestral interlude

Scene 2: The waves are gradually transformed into clouds and then, as an increasingly bright dawn light passes behind them, into fine mist. When the mist has completely vanished aloft into clouds, and an --

Open space on the mountaintop becomes visible in the light of dawn. The daybreak illuminates with increasing brilliance a fortress with gleaming battlements standing on a rocky summit in the background. Between this and the foreground of the stage a deep valley is to be imagined, through which the Rhine flows. WOTAN and beside him FRICKA, both asleep, are lying on a flowery bank at one side. The fortress has become completely visible.

FRICKA [awakening, catches sight of the fortress and shrinks back, astonished]: Wotan, husband, awake!
WOTAN [still quietly dreaming]:
The sacred hall of delight
has gates and doors to guard me:
Man's honor, eternal might
stretch out to endless fame!
FRICKA [shakes him]:
Up, leave your dreams, delightful illusions!
Awake, husband, and reflect!
WOTAN [awakes and raises himself a little; his gaze is at once drawn by the sight of the fortress]:
The eternal work is completed!
On the mountaintop the gods' fortress
rears regally aloft, resplendent edifice!
Just as I saw in my dreams,
just as my wishes intended it,
strong and beautiful it stands on show;
majestic, marvelous building!

-- libretto by the composer, translation (mostly) by William Mann

[Scene 2 at 3:23] 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 in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, December 1967

[Scene 2 at 3:02] Oda Balsborg (s), Woglinde; Hetty Plümacher (ms), Wellgunde; Ira Malaniuk (ms), Flosshilde; (laughing) Gustav Neidlinger (bs-b), Alberich; Kirsten Flagstad (s), Fricka; George London (bs-b), Wotan; Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded in the Vienna Sofiensaal, Sept.-Oct. 1958

[Scene 2 at 2:54] Lucia Popp (s), Woglinde; Uta Priew (ms), Wellgunde; Hanna Schwarz (ms), Flosshilde; (laughing) Siegmund Nimsgern (b), Alberich; Yvonne Minton (ms), Fricka; Theo Adam (bs-b), Wotan; Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. Eurodisc, recorded in the Lukaskirche, Dec. 8-11, 1980
ANOTHER VERSION TK? (Pring-Bailey-Goodall? Ludwig-Morris-Levine?)
[Scene 2 at XXXX] XXXX (s), Woglinde; XXXX (ms), Wellgunde; XXXX (ms), Flosshilde; (laughing) XXXX (bs-b), Alberich; XXXX (s), Fricka; XXXX (bs-b), Wotan; XXXX, XXXX, cond. XXXX, recorded iXXXX


I love that our intrepid translator William Mann uses "fortress" as the term for what Valhalla is. Wagner's word is "Burg," most often rendered as "castle." But one of my German-English dictionaries indeed offers "castle, fortress, citadel," and while Wotan might take his pick among these options, there's no question that what Fricka sees -- as we would have learned if I hadn't so ruthlessly ended the clips here -- is pure "fortress."

Preview: Fricka vs. Wotan --The final confrontation*

*When we get to the main post, you'll see that we can maybe think of this as "Part 1a" of our Josephine Veasey remembrance.

Or: How Fricka & Wotan get from "Example 1" --

to "Example 2" --

Both clips: Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG (1966)

by Ken

In a moment we're going to hear fuller versions of the above "examples," and in multiple performances. First I should explain, though, that (ever so unusually!) we're encountering a mild detour. I thought we would be continuing with the remembrance, begun two weeks ago, of the fondly remembered English mezzo Josephine Veasey (tentatively labeled "Part 1?"), and I've been pondering some intereting repertory. What I should have realized is that the chances were never great that we might tiptoe past the great Fricka-Wotan scene of Act II of Die Walküre with just a polite wave. Sure enough, I got sucked in.

Some of it had to do with the curious moment in time we stumbled into with the Covent Garden Walküre we sampled, from late September 1965, in which Veasey sang Fricka with Georg Solti conducting, as he was weeks away from heading to Vienna to complete the Ring recording, the first ever, with Walküre, with Christa Ludwig as Fricka, even as Herbert von Karajan was preparing to being the second-ever Ring recording the following year with, of all things, Walküre -- and with, of all people, Josephine Veasey as Fricka both in Walküre and, the following year, Das Rheingold. Meanwhile, when Karajan actually launched Ring stage production, in 1967 at the brand-new Salzburg Easter Festival (engineered by guess-who), the Fricka of the broadcast was not Veasey but Ludwig, who was also Karajan's Fricka when he brought the Salzburg Walküre production to the Met that fall! So I've been rooting around among this material, trying to hear what there is to hear.

Some of this we're going to hear in this week's main post, currently in production -- along with some of the other material I've retrieved from the Sunday Classics Archive, I mentioned in last week's under-construction post. Plus, I actually wound up typing out an English text for the whole Fricka-Wotan scene, which again has entailed all manner of complications -- and opportunities.


FOR NOW LET'S JUST HEAR OUR ASSORTED TAKES
ON THAT FULLER VERSION OF EXAMPLES 1 AND 2

Raiding the archive for soundsof Fricka and Wotan from Die Walküre [Caution: Post under construction -- step carefully!]

Mark Delevan and Stephanie Blythe as Wotan and Fricka at the Met

[Ruby Washington/New York Times]

IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T FIGURED THIS OUT --
I haven't quite figured out yet just what to make of all this, or how to make it. But I reached the point, as often happens in the making of these posts, where I needed to be able to hear the audio clips that were piling up -- all having to do, obviously, with the great confrontation between Fricka and Wotan in Scene 1 of Act II of Die Walküre, which we stumbled into last week in Part 1 of a remembrance of the fine English mezzo-soprano Josephine Veasey. I should have known better than to think that I could get by with just a passing wave at this scene, which I've written about in one form or another, in one place or another, a heckuva lot over the many years I've been living with it.

One thing that happened since I put that post up was that I took a peek in the Sunday Classics Archive to see what was already stockpiled there, and hardly surprisingly found a bunch, some of which you can hear here (everything that's in place as of now except the performances of the complete Fricka-Wotan scene). Another thing that happened, while I was trying to focus in on Veasey's Fricka, which I've admired (on records only, I should specify) since the Karajan-DG Walküre was released. -- Ken

WAGNER: Die Walküre: Act II, Scene 1,
from the Fricka-Wotan scene:
from Fricka, "Wo in Bergen du dich birgst"
("Here in the mountains, where you hide")

On the rocky pass, as the raging FRICKA, after leaping from her chariot drawn by rams, nears WOTAN, she moderates her pace and approaches him in a dignified manner.

FRICKA: Here in the mountains, where you hide
in order to escape your wife's eye,
here in solitude
I seek you out,
that you may promise me help.
WOTAN: What it is that troubles Fricka
let her freely tell.
FRICKA: I have learned of Hunding's distress;
he called on me for vengeance:
the guardian of wedlock
heard him
and promised to punish
with severity the deed
of the shameless impious pair
who so boldly wronged the husband.

Irene Dalis (ms), Fricka; Otto Edelmann (bs-b), Wotan; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. Live performance, Dec. 23 1961

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

Christa Ludwig (ms), Fricka; James Morris (bs-b), Wotan; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine, cond. DG, recorded in Manhattan Center, April 1987

Yvonne Minton (ms), Fricka; Theo Adam (bs-b), Wotan; Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. Eurodisc-BMG, recorded in the Lukaskirche, Aug. 22-29, 1981

Josephine Veasey (1930-2022) [part 1?]

TUESDAY UPDATE: The Dido and Aeneas clip was too important to be left sounding so crummy. I swallowed hard and did what had to be done to upgrade it. I feel better. -- K
FOLLOW-UP UPDATE: The promised synopsis of the Walküre Act II Fricka-Wotan scene, time-cued to our audio clip, is in place, for better or worse (or both). -- K again

The fine London-born mezzo, retired since 1982, died Feb. 22 at 91.

Recit., Dido: Thy hand, Belinda. Darkness shades me;
on thy bosom let me rest.
More I would, but death invades me;
death is now a welcome guest.

Song: When I am laid in earth,
may my wrongs create
no trouble in thy breast.
When I am laid in earth, &c.
Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate. &c.
-- libretto by Nahum Tate, based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid

["When I am laid in earth" at 1:04]

Josephine Veasey (ms), Dido; John Constable, harpsichord; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Colin Davis, cond. Philips-Pentatone, recorded in Walthamstow Assembly Hall, Aug. 5-8, 1970
[TUESDAY UPDATE: The new clip sounds swell, I think. Phew! -- Ed.]

by Ken

If you've listened to the clip of the not-quite-conclusion (the chorus still has some obligatory moaning to do) of Purcell's amazingly concise opera Dido and Aeneas, I'm thinking there's not much chance you'll forget Josephine Veasey. With that generous midrange vocal weight (and the needed upward reach too), not something we necessarily expect in a Purcell Dido, she makes those "Remember me"s pretty unforgettable.

The thing is, for anyone who had significant experience of her singing, there wasn't much chance she was going to be forgotten, thanks to the generous aural documentation of her fine 30-year career -- her significant body of commercial recordings supplemented by an array of good-quality live-performance material. She's never been out of my "listening rotation." As it happens, I'd just recently been resampling with undiminished pleasure her Béatrice in the first-ever recording of Berlioz's opera Béatrice et Bénédict. (Don't worry. Though we've heard the clip of Béatrice's heart-rending -- but ultimately inspiring -- Act II monologue before, we're going to be hearing it again momentarily.)


SOME COMMEMORATIVE ROADS NOT TAKEN

I hope the Dido excerpt isn't too "on the nose" for a "remembrance" piece, though I like to think she wouldn't mind being remembered for such classy piece of singing. Initially, as I thought about this piece, I expected it to open with a taste of her Fricka, specifically the Walküre Fricka. As longtime readers may recall, I'm a big fan of her Fricka, and we've heard samples of the very different Rheingold and Walküre roles, one of the unalloyed casting successes of the Karajan-DG Ring cycle. Again, don't worry, we're still going to hear that -- and not from the Karajan recording. In fact, we're going to hear a complete performance of the great Fricka-Wotan scene of Act II of Die Walküre, with the conductor most responsible for grooming her as a legit Wagnerian.

Alternatively, we could have opened with a different Wagner excerpt, if only for the sheer beauty of the singing, though with Veasey, at least in my hearing experience, "characterfulness" was never a separate thing from vocal production.

Josephine Veasey (ms), Brangäne; BBC Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis, cond. Recorded for broadcast, 1969