Die Walkure

Richard Wagner wrote Die Walküre as the second of four parts of the powerful musical theatre epic, Der Ring des Nibelungen, which is based on the Medieval Nibelungenlied and old Norse god sagas. Wotan, the highest god, has fathered twins with a mortal woman – Siegmund and Sieglinde. These two in turn have a child, in which Wotan sees his dominion consolidated. His wife Fricka defies his plans and, as protector of the traditional marriage rites, demands Siegmund’s death. Wotan reluctantly agrees, although it will cause a split with his favourite daughter.

After beginning with Das Rheingold, in which he showed how the gods find their way back to their original power, director Tobias Kratzer and his team now focus on the meaning of “having no shelter”, and indeed, “both in the concrete sense (Siegmund, who with no house or home must flee) and in the metaphorical sense (Wotan, who increasingly feels more alone and lost in the expanses of eternity and cosmic fear)” (Tobias Kratzer). The piece, says Kratzer, asks the question as to whether, “love could be the solution to this dilemma?” And whether, “having no shelter can be ‘remedied’ or at least temporarily forgotten by love”, or perhaps it is the greatest of all self-deceptions.