<<  -- 3 --  Robert Anderson    SINISTER POWER

We are told that power corrupts, and Wotan is at once enmeshed in underhand dealings over payment to the giants for the castle. Committed by runes engraved on the spear, he is frankly at a loss how to reward the giants without surrender of the promised Freia. His only resource is the fickle Loge, maddeningly slow in coming forward. His eventual arrival appears to save the situation. He has wandered the world, observed the rape of the gold and Alberich's forging of the almighty ring [listen -- DVD1 track 10 'Endlich Loge!', 0:00-1:26]. Graham Clark looks the part, but when under vocal strain resorts to a Barcelona bark. He advises descent to Nibelheim and theft of the ring, of which the sinister power is constantly felt by the wretched Mime, toiling perforce for his now ruthless brother, Alberich [listen -- DVD2 track 4 'Nibelheim hier', 4:06-5:11].

[watch and listen to a sequence from 'Gezahlt hab' ich' using this link or the player below -- needs an Apple Quicktime plugin -- high speed connection preferred].

Alberich as toad (or banana) has been captured by the gods and dragged up the escalator. Robbed by brute force of this ring as large as a highly ornamental bracelet, Alberich curses its possessor [listen -- DVD2 track 10 'Bin ich nun frei?', 8:17-9:22]. Hardly has he been cursed when Wotan is further warned off the ring by an Erda whose wisdom may be as old as the hills, but whose person is youthful and attractive enough to tempt Wotan towards siring an energetic clutch of Valkyries [listen -- DVD2 track 13 'Weiche, Wotan, weiche!', 2:20-3:21]. The plot is sufficiently ravelled for the entry to Valhalla to have only ambiguous significance. I have seen it staged as a tug-of-war led by a struggling Wotan, as an elegant minuet of hollow formality; on this occasion it is a slow-motion square-dance designed to raise divine spirits already much depressed. There are no doubts, however, in the Donner of Wolfgang Rauch, who makes a magisterial job of constructing the rainbow bridge [listen -- DVD2 track 15 'Schwüles Gedünst', 0:00-1:30].

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