Wagner's "Die Walkure"

The Pocket University entry for Sept 15th is a short passage from "Die Walkure" by Richard Wagner.  Today's reading is the first section of Act III of the opera, the scene where Wotan, the Warfather, pursues and catches the Valkyrie Brunnhilde, who has disobeyed him and saved the pregnant Sieglinde.

In this scene, Brunnhilde tries to enlist the aid of her sister valkyries to save Sieglinde from Wotan.  Wotan has been manipulated into commanding the end of the Walsung line, including Siegmund (slain in battle by Hunding), and his bride Sieglinde.  It turns out Sieglinde is carrying Siegmund's child.  This reading selection closes with Wotan commanding the other Valkyries to leave he and Brunnhilde.  Wotan then announces he will make Brunnhilde mortal and put her to sleep, to be claimed by any mortal who finds her.  There is more to this scene, but that's the reading for today.

I mentioned yesterday I would try and find some music by Mendelssohn and Wagner at the local used book store.  I did in fact find a decent selection of each.  I got a glimpse of Mendelssohn the man from yesterday's readings of 3 letters by Mendelssohn, and listened to several tracks of his Scottish and Irish symphonies today.

More importantly for today's reading selection, I picked up a 4-CD recording of Wagner's Die Walkure (Act III includes "The Ride of the Valkyries") and took a listen to a few tracks of that opera.  The German is unintelligible to me, but the music does convey the mood and the action, as should be expected.  According to the Wikipedia entry for Ride of the Valkyries, Wagner composed the leitmotif for the opera in July of 1851, and completed the opera in 1856.  Most everyone should probably recognize the melody from today's section of the opera.  The MP3 for this theme is available from numerous online sources, including this example at one of my very favorite web resources, Project Gutenberg.  Follow the link and enjoy a refreshing listen.

This Pocket University plan combines the 15th and 16th of September as one entry.  I'm not terribly sure what thats about, as the selection is quite short, running only 25 pages of not terribly dense text.  I might have to switch to the Harvard Classics plan for tomorrow.  It's a selection from Holinshed's Chronicles, a record of Old English punishments.


Comments are welcome, though moderated.