The Complete Opera Book Part 22

[Music]

All night _Hagen_ has watched by the bank of the river for the return of the men from the quest. It is daylight when _Siegfried_ returns, tells him of his success, and bids him prepare to receive _Gunther_ and _Brunnhilde_. On his finger he wears the ring--the ring made of Rhinegold, and cursed by _Alberich_--the same with which he pledged his troth to _Brunnhilde_, but which in the struggle of the night, and disguised by the Tarnhelmet as _Gunther_, he has torn from her finger--the very ring the possession of which _Hagen_ craves, and for which he is plotting. _Gutrune_ has joined them. _Siegfried_ leads her into the hall.

_Hagen_, placing an ox-horn to his lips, blows a loud call toward the four points of the compa.s.s, summoning the Gibichung va.s.sals to the festivities attending the double wedding--_Siegfried_ and _Gutrune_, _Gunther_ and _Brunnhilde_; and when the Gibichung brings his boat up to the bank, the sh.o.r.e is crowded with men who greet him boisterously, while _Brunnhilde_ stands there pale and with downcast eyes. But as _Siegfried_ leads _Gutrune_ forward to meet _Gunther_ and his bride, and _Gunther_ calls _Siegfried_ by name, _Brunnhilde_ starts, raises her eyes, stares at _Siegfried_ in amazement, drops _Gunther's_ hand, advances, as if by sudden impulse, a step toward the man who awakened her from her magic slumber on the rock, then recoils in horror, her eyes fixed upon him, while all look on in wonder. The Motive of Siegfried the Hero, the Sword Motive, and the Chords of the Hagen Motive emphasize with a tumultuous crash the dramatic significance of the situation. There is a sudden hush--_Brunnhilde_ astounded and dumb, _Siegfried_ unconscious of guilt quietly self-possessed, _Gunther_, _Gutrune_, and the va.s.sals silent with amazement--it is during this moment of tension that we hear the motive which expresses the thought uppermost in _Brunnhilde_, the thought which would find expression in a burst of frenzy were not her wrath held in check by her inability to quite grasp the meaning of the situation or to fathom the depth of the treachery of which she has been the victim.

This is the =Motive of Vengeance=:

[Music]

"What troubles Brunnhilde?" composedly asks _Siegfried_, from whom all memory of his first meeting with the rock maiden and his love for her have been effaced by the potion. Then, observing that she sways and is about to fall, he supports her with his arm.

"Siegfried knows me not!" she whispers faintly, as she looks up into his face.

"There stands your husband," is _Siegfried's_ reply, as he points to _Gunther_. The gesture discloses to _Brunnhilde's_ sight the ring upon his finger, the ring he gave her, and which to her horror _Gunther_, as she supposed, had wrested from her. In the flash of its precious metal she sees the whole significance of the wretched situation in which she finds herself, and discovers the intrigue, the trick, of which she has been the victim. She knows nothing, however, of the treachery _Hagen_ is plotting, or of the love-potion that has aroused in _Siegfried_ an uncontrollable pa.s.sion to possess _Gutrune_, has caused him to forget her, and led him to win her for _Gunther_. There at _Gutrune's_ side, and about to wed her, stands the man she loves.

To _Brunnhilde_, infuriated with jealousy, her pride wounded to the quick, _Siegfried_ appears simply to have betrayed her to _Gunther_ through infatuation for another woman.

"The ring," she cries out, "was taken from me by that man," pointing to _Gunther_. "How came it on your finger? Or, if it is not the ring"--again she addresses _Gunther_--"where is the one you tore from my hand?"

_Gunther_, knowing nothing about the ring, plainly is perplexed. "Ha,"

cries out _Brunnhilde_ in uncontrollable rage, "then it was Siegfried disguised as you and not you yourself who won it from me! Know then, Gunther, that you, too, have been betrayed by him. For this man who would wed your sister, and as part of the price bring me to you as bride, was wedded to me!"

In all but _Hagen_ and _Siegfried_, _Brunnhilde's_ words arouse consternation. _Hagen_, noting their effect on _Gunther_, from whom he craftily has concealed _Siegfried's_ true relation to _Brunnhilde_, sees in the episode an added opportunity to mould the Gibichung to his plan to do away with _Siegfried_. The latter, through the effect of the potion, is rendered wholly unconscious of the truth of what _Brunnhilde_ has said. He even has forgotten that he ever has parted with the ring, and, when the men, jealous of _Gunther's_ honour, crowd about him, and _Gunther_ and _Gutrune_ in intense excitement wait on his reply, he calmly proclaims that he found it among the dragon's treasure and never has parted with it. To the truth of this a.s.sertion, to a denial of all _Brunnhilde_ has accused him of, he announces himself ready to swear at the point of any spear which is offered for the oath, the strongest manner in which the a.s.severation can be made and, in the belief of the time, rendering his death certain at the point of that very spear should he swear falsely.

How eloquent the music of these exciting scenes!--Crashing chords of the Ring Motive followed by that of the Curse, as _Brunnhilde_ recognizes the ring on _Siegfried's_ finger, the Motive of Vengeance, the Walhalla Motive, as she invokes the G.o.ds to witness her humiliation, the touchingly pathetic Motive of Brunnhilde's Pleading, as she vainly strives to awaken fond memories in _Siegfried_; then again the Motive of Vengeance, as the oath is about to be taken, the Murder Motive and the Hagen Motive at the taking of the oath, for the spear is _Hagen's_; and in _Brunnhilde's_ a.s.severation, the Valkyr music coursing through the orchestra.

It is _Hagen_ who offers his weapon for the oath. "Guardian of honour, hallowed weapon," swears _Siegfried_, "where steel can pierce me, there pierce me; where death can be dealt me, there deal it me, if ever I was wed to Brunnhilde, if ever I have wronged Gutrune's brother."

At his words, _Brunnhilde_, livid with rage, strides into the circle of men, and thrusting _Siegfried's_ fingers away from the spearhead, lays her own upon it.

"Guardian of honour, hallowed weapon," she cries, "I dedicate your steel to his destruction. I bless your point that it may blight him.

For broken are all his oaths, and perjured now he proves himself."

_Siegfried_ shrugs his shoulders. To him _Brunnhilde's_ imprecations are but the ravings of an overwrought brain. "Gunther, look to your lady. Give the tameless mountain maid time to rest and recover," he calls out to Gutrune's brother. "And now, men, follow us to table, and make merry at our wedding feast!" Then with a laugh and in highest spirits, he throws his arm about _Gutrune_ and draws her after him into the hall, the va.s.sals and women following them.

But _Brunnhilde_, _Hagen_, and _Gunther_ remain behind; _Brunnhilde_ half stunned at sight of the man with whom she has exchanged troth, gaily leading another to marriage, as though his vows had been mere chaff; _Gunther_, suspicious that his honour wittingly has been betrayed by _Siegfried_, and that _Brunnhilde's_ words are true; _Hagen_, in whose hands _Gunther_ is like clay, waiting the opportunity to prompt both _Brunnhilde_ and his half-brother to vengeance.

"Coward," cries _Brunnhilde_ to _Gunther_, "to hide behind another in order to undo me! Has the race of the Gibichungs fallen so low in prowess?"

"Deceiver, and yet deceived! Betrayer, and yet myself betrayed," wails _Gunther_. "Hagen, wise one, have you no counsel?"

"No counsel," grimly answers _Hagen_, "save Siegfried's death."

"His death!"

"Aye, all these things demand his death."

"But, Gutrune, to whom I gave him, how would we stand with her if we so avenged ourselves?" For even in his injured pride _Gunther_ feels that he has had a share in what _Siegfried_ has done.

But _Hagen_ is prepared with a plan that will free _Gunther_ and himself of all accusation. "Tomorrow," he suggests, "we will go on a great hunt. As Siegfried boldly rushes ahead we will fell him from the rear, and give out that he was killed by a wild boar."

"So be it," exclaims _Brunnhilde_; "let his death atone for the shame he has wrought me. He has violated his oath; he shall die!"

At that moment as they turn toward the hall, he whose death they have decreed, a wreath of oak on his brow and leading _Gutrune_, whose hair is bedecked with flowers, steps out on the threshold as though wondering at their delay and urges them to enter. _Gunther_, taking _Brunnhilde_ by the hand, follows him in. _Hagen_ alone remains behind, and with a look of grim triumph watches them as they disappear within. And so, although the valley of the Rhine re-echoes with glad sounds, it is the Murder Motive that brings the act to a close.

Act III. How picturesque the _mise-en-scene_ of this act--a clearing in the forest primeval near a spot where the bank of the Rhine slopes toward the river. On the sh.o.r.e, above the stream, stands _Siegfried_.

Baffled in the pursuit of game, he is looking for _Gunther_, _Hagen_, and his other comrades of the hunt, in order to join them.

One of the loveliest scenes of the trilogy now ensues. The _Rhinedaughters_ swim up to the bank and, circling gracefully in the current of the river, endeavour to coax from him the ring of Rhinegold. It is an episode full of whimsical badinage and, if anything, more charming even than the opening of "Rhinegold."

_Siegfried_ refuses to give up the ring. The _Rhinedaughters_ swim off leaving him to his fate.

Here is the princ.i.p.al theme of their song in this scene:

[Music]

Distant hunting-horns are heard. _Gunther_, _Hagen_, and their attendants gradually a.s.semble and encamp themselves. _Hagen_ fills a drinking-horn and hands it to _Siegfried_ whom he persuades to relate the story of his life. This _Siegfried_ does in a wonderfully picturesque, musical, and dramatic story in which motives, often heard before, charm us anew.

In the course of his narrative he refreshes himself by a draught from the drinking-horn into which meanwhile _Hagen_ has pressed the juice of an herb. Through this the effect of the love-potion is so far counteracted that tender memories of _Brunnhilde_ well up within him and he tells with artless enthusiasm how he penetrated the circle of flame about the Valkyr, found _Brunnhilde_ slumbering there, awoke her with his kiss, and won her. _Gunther_ springs up aghast at this revelation. Now he knows that _Brunnhilde's_ accusation is true.

Two ravens fly overhead. As _Siegfried_ turns to look after them the Motive of the Curse resounds and _Hagen_ plunges his spear into the young hero's back. _Gunther_ and the va.s.sals throw themselves upon _Hagen_. The Siegfried Motive, cut short with a crashing chord, the two murderous chords of the Hagen Motive forming the ba.s.s--and _Siegfried_, who with a last effort has heaved his shield aloft to hurl it at _Hagen_, lets it fall, and, collapsing, drops upon it. So overpowered are the witnesses--even _Gunther_--by the suddenness and enormity of the crime that, after a few disjointed exclamations, they gather, bowed with grief, around _Siegfried_. _Hagen_, with stony indifference turns away and disappears over the height.

With the fall of the last scion of the Walsung race we hear a new motive, simple yet indescribably fraught with sorrow, the =Death Motive=.

[Music]

_Siegfried_, supported by two men, rises to a sitting posture, and with a strange rapture gleaming in his glance, intones his death-song.

It is an ecstatic greeting to _Brunnhilde_. "Brunnhilde!" he exclaims, "thy wakener comes to wake thee with his kiss." The ethereal harmonies of the Motive of Brunnhilde's Awakening, the Motive of Fate, the Siegfried Motive swelling into the Motive of Love's Greeting and dying away through the Motive of Love's Pa.s.sion to Siegfried's last whispered accents--"Brunnhilde beckons to me"--in the Motive of Fate--and _Siegfried_ sinks back in death.

Full of pathos though this episode be, it but brings us to the threshold of a scene of such overwhelming power that it may without exaggeration be singled out as the supreme musico-dramatic climax of all that Wagner wrought, indeed of all music. _Siegfried's_ last ecstatic greeting to his Valkyr bride has made us realize the blackness of the treachery which tore the young hero and _Brunnhilde_ asunder and led to his death; and now as we are bowed down with a grief too deep for utterance--like the grief with which a nation gathers at the grave of its n.o.blest hero--Wagner voices for us, in music of overwhelmingly tragic power, feelings which are beyond expression in human speech. This is not a "funeral march," as it is often absurdly called--it is the awful mystery of death itself expressed in music.

Motionless with grief the men gather around _Siegfried's_ corpse.

Night falls. The moon casts a pale, sad light over the scene. At the silent bidding of _Gunther_ the va.s.sals raise the body and bear it in solemn procession over the rocky height. Meanwhile with majestic solemnity the orchestra voices the funeral oration of the "world's greatest hero." One by one, but tragically interrupted by the Motive of Death, we hear the motives which tell the story of the Walsungs'

futile struggle with destiny--the Walsung Motive, the Motive of the Walsungs' Heroism, the Motive of Sympathy, and the Love Motive, the Sword Motive, the Siegfried Motive, and the Motive of Siegfried the Hero, around which the Death Motive swirls and crashes like a black, death-dealing, all-wrecking flood, forming an overwhelmingly powerful climax that dies away into the Brunnhilde Motive with which, as with a heart-broken sigh, the heroic dirge is brought to a close.

Meanwhile the scene has changed to the Hall of the Gibichungs as in the first act. _Gutrune_ is listening through the night for some sound which may announce the return of the hunt.

Men and women bearing torches precede in great agitation the funeral train. _Hagen_ grimly announces to _Gutrune_ that _Siegfried_ is dead.

Wild with grief she overwhelms _Gunther_ with violent accusations. He points to _Hagen_ whose sole reply is to demand the ring as spoil.

_Gunther_ refuses. _Hagen_ draws his sword and after a brief combat slays _Gunther_. He is about to s.n.a.t.c.h the ring from _Siegfried's_ finger, when the corpse's hand suddenly raises itself threateningly, and all--even _Hagen_--fall back in consternation.

_Brunnhilde_ advances solemnly from the back. While watching on the bank of the Rhine she has learned from the _Rhinedaughters_ the treachery of which she and _Siegfried_ have been the victims. Her mien is enn.o.bled by a look of tragic exaltation. To her the grief of _Gutrune_ is but the whining of a child. When the latter realizes that it was _Brunnhilde_ whom she caused _Siegfried_ to forget through the love-potion, she falls fainting over _Gunther's_ body. _Hagen_ leaning on his spear is lost in gloomy brooding.

_Brunnhilde_ turns solemnly to the men and women and bids them erect a funeral pyre. The orchestral harmonies shimmer with the Magic Fire Motive through which courses the Motive of the Ride of the Valkyrs.

Then, her countenance transfigured by love, she gazes upon her dead hero and apostrophizes his memory in the Motive of Love's Greeting.

From him she looks upward and in the Walhalla Motive and the Motive of Brunnhilde's Pleading pa.s.sionately inveighs against the injustice of the G.o.ds. The Curse Motive is followed by a wonderfully beautiful combination of the Walhalla Motive and the Motive of the G.o.ds' Stress at _Brunnhilde's_ words:

Rest thee! Rest thee! O, G.o.d!

For with the fading away of Walhalla, and the inauguration of the reign of human love in place of that of l.u.s.t and greed--a change to be wrought by the approaching expiation of _Brunnhilde_ for the crimes which began with the wresting of the Rhinegold from the _Rhinedaughters_--_Wotan's_ stress will be at an end. _Brunnhilde_, having told in the graceful, rippling Rhine music how she learned of _Hagen's_ treachery through the _Rhinedaughters_, places upon her finger the ring. Then turning toward the pyre upon which _Siegfried's_ body rests, she s.n.a.t.c.hes a huge firebrand from one of the men, and flings it upon the pyre, which kindles brightly. As the moment of her immolation approaches the Motive of Expiation begins to dominate the scene.