Fritz Reiner- Die Walkure Act II

This was $2.50. I meant to tie it to the Ring Cycle I saw at the Houston Grand Opera.  Over the last four years, the HGO has put all four operas the consist of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.  I am not sure I totally picked up on the cycle aspect of this when I saw the first opera.  However, by the end, I was more clear to me.  It was a pretty big production for the HGO and my experiences at the operas  have been documented on this blog.

Well, despite the fourth, Gotterdammerung, being my favorite, the second, Die Valkure is perhaps the best known.  It tells the story of the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde who give birth to the hero of the cycle, Siegfried.  At the same time, it shows the exile of Brunnhilde, who is later rescued by Siegfried who also falls in love with her despite technically being his aunt.  This fact never seems to escape me.  Wagner wrote these operas in reverse order but so he would have written this third.

For not being an expert on Wagner or opera, where you might ask, is the basis for the claim that Die Walkure is the best known of the cycle?  I am basing this on the strength of “The Flight Of the Valkeries” perhaps the most famous piece not only of this cycle but in all of opera.  Most people either know this from Bugs Bunny or Apocayplse Now. I also did not put two and two together but it was also used quite cleverly in The Blues Brothers. Note both clips have profanity as well as a disregard for proper physics.

 

Well, here is this piece from 1936 and conducted by Fritz Reiner.  Reiner was a Hungarian Jew who moved to the US in 1922.  He would reach the height of his career as the conductor for the Chicago Symphony orchestra in the 1950’s/60’s. At the time of his death (1963 at age 74), he was preparing the Met’s version of Gotterdamerung.

Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962), who plays Brunnhulde, was a Norwegian opera singer who ranks among the best voices in the 20th century.  Her performance as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde has become the stuff of legend.

Lotte Lehman (1888-1976) also appears on this record in the role of Sieglinde which is considered among her defining roles. She left her native Germany in the 30’s to emigrate to the US due to the fact that her step-children were Jewish.

 

The role of Wotan was handled by Friderich Schorr, an Austrian-Hungarian bass-baritone of Jewish decent, who became the Wagnerian bass-baritone of his generation. I point out the Jewish back grounds of these performers as a testament to the human spirit as at the same time of this recording while the Nazis were on the rise and Hitler was pushing the works and ideals of Wagner, the three of  best Wagnerian performers at the time (and of the century for that matter) were of had Jewish ties. Flagstad, on the other hand was widely criticized for returning to occupied Norway during the war years.

This album is the second Act which is noted for its prelude, a monolgue by Wotan, and Brunnhilde’s announcement of Siegmund’s death.  For sample, I went with that prologue followed by Wotan speaking with Brunnhilde and instructing her to protect Siegmund.  This piece does reference “Ride” pretty heavily.

Pretty good album.  Since it was three years since I seen this, I forgot a lot of the aspects about this work.  Overall, satisfactory.

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