At the end of Wagner's Die Walküre, Wotan punishes his favorite daughter for disobeying him. Brünnhilde disobeyed because she showed compassion, and although he is furious, he also knows that she acted on the deepest part of what he himself wanted. Wotan's punishment is terrible. He takes away her immortality, puts her into a supernatural sleep on a mountaintop, and leaves her there to be claimed by the first man who finds and awakens her. But Brünnhilde begs him for one last

I am about halfway through Die Walküre. This was a very busy week, and I am only now coming up for air. For me, the two most powerful scenes so far in the Ring cycle are when Wotan takes the ring from Alberich in Scene 4 of Das Rheingold, and the argument between Wotan and Fricka in Act II, Scene 1 of Die Walküre. I should note a discovery I made while writing that sentence is that Das Rheingold is not divided into acts. I hadn't noticed that before. Wagner wrote it as a cont

For those familiar with Norse mythology, but unfamiliar with the work of Richard Wagner, there will probably be an eyebrow-arching moment while watching the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Robert Lepage production of Das Rheingold when Richard Croft as Loge the god of fire strides onto the stage. Loki wasn’t a god of fire. The effect is pretty cool. The fiery aura or “dancing nimbus” around Richard Croft is principally an interactive projection effect, not ordinary stage lighting.