Der rings des Nibelungen

I went to see "Siegfried" from Wagner's Rings last night at the Seattle Opera, thanks to another teacher who had an extra ticket. I had a great time. Here's the basic plot of Siegfried:

Our hero, Siegfried, the son of the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde (yuck), and grandson of Wotan, king of the gods, was raised by Mime, a dwarf, and the brother of Alberich,who forged the Ring of Power. Siegfried repairs his father's old sword and runs off to kill the hand-operated dragon, Fafner, who used to be a giant. Fafner has the golden ring , which Mime wants, and only Siegfried can get. Lots of singing ensues. Oh, and Wotan pops in and out as "Wanderer."

Fafner dies quickly, so does Mime, and, on the advice of a little bird, Siegfried runs off to the top of a mountain to rescue his true love, whom he has never met. Wotan has an interlude with Erda, the earth goddess, and mother of his daughter Brunnhilde, who is the girl on top of the mountain that Siegfried has gone to rescue. The scorecard is somewhat muddled at this point but that makes Brunnhilde Siegfried's...aunt. Yes, his aunt on both sides because, as I said before, his parents were twins.

Brunnhilde is a former Valkerie with a major identity crisis who saved Siegfried's mother Sieglinde and tried to protect Siegfried's father Siegmund, so she is somewhat partial to Siegfried from the start. They kiss, they sing, they walk around, they sing, they declare their undying love, they sing, and they take their bows.

This is where the whole thing broke down for me, I will admit. It's one thing to rescue your true love on a mountaintop, but it's quite another if that true love is your somewhat...erm...substantial double aunt. A picture is worth a thousand words:



Our young lovers.

But the singing was lovely, and the sets were marvelous, and everyone came away from the opera house feeling quite satisfied, myself included.