The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner

Author:Richard Wagner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241305867
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2018-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

The Rhinegold

(Preliminary Evening)

PRELUDE AND SCENE ONE

In the depths of the Rhine

Greenish twilight, getting lighter towards the top, darker towards the bottom. Surging waters fill the upper space, flowing restlessly from right to left. Deeper down, the floods evaporate into a damp mist, constantly thinning out so that a space the height of a man, from the floor up, seems to be entirely free of the water that floats instead over the nocturnal river bed like moving slivers of cloud. Everywhere steep rocky reefs rear up out of the depths, bordering the stage and defining its space; the entire bottom of the river is fractured by a maze of jagged edges, making it nowhere completely flat and suggesting deeper ravines on all sides stretching out into a chain of darkness. – The curtain remains closed when the orchestra starts playing.

The curtain is raised here [bar 126].

Deep water currents at full force

With graceful swimming movements at the centre of the stage picture, one of the Rhinedaughters circles a reef, its slender pinnacle towering upwards into a denser flood of water and brighter dawning light.

WOGLINDE

Weia! Waga!

Swell up, you waters,

in waves to our cradle!

Wagalaweia!

Wallala weiala weia!

Wellgunde’s voice from above

WELLGUNDE

Woglinde, you’re on watch alone?

She dives down out of the water onto the reef.

WOGLINDE

With Wellgunde there’d be two of us.

WELLGUNDE

Let’s see how awake you are!

She tries to catch Woglinde.

WOGLINDE swimming out of her reach

Safe from you!

They tease and playfully try to lure each other into a trap.

Flosshilde’s voice from above

FLOSSHILDE

Heiala 10weia!

You sisters are wild!

WELLGUNDE

Flosshilde, swim!

Woglinde’s getting away:

help me catch the slippery thing!

Flosshilde dives down and intervenes in her sisters’ games.

FLOSSHILDE

You’re careless with

the gold’s slumber!

Better to watch

the bed where it rests,

or you’ll both rue the fun and games!

Screaming with laughter, the two separate: Flosshilde tries to snatch first one, then the other; they elude her and eventually unite to chase Flosshilde together. In this formation they dive like fish quickly from reef to reef, joking and laughing. – Meanwhile, Alberich, clambering on one of the reefs, has emerged from a murky chasm in the abyss. Still surrounded by darkness, he stops to look at the Rhinedaughters’ games, liking what he sees more and more.

ALBERICH with a raw dryness of tone*

Hey! You 20sprites there!

The girls stop playing their games as soon as they hear Alberich’s voice.

How lovable you look,

you quarrelsome people!

Out of Nibelheim’s night

I’ll gladly approach,

if you’ll get closer to me!

WOGLINDE

Hey! Who’s there?

WELLGUNDE

It’s dim and it’s calling!

FLOSSHILDE

Well, look who’s eavesdropping on us!

They dive deeper down and see the Nibelung.

WOGLINDE and WELLGUNDE

Ugh! What filth!

FLOSSHILDE quickly diving upwards

Protect 30the gold!

The other two follow her, and all three fall into line quickly around the reef in the middle.

Father warned

of an enemy like this.

ALBERICH

You up there!

WOGLINDE, WELLGUNDE, FLOSSHILDE

You down there, what’s up?

ALBERICH

Am I a spoilsport

just standing here, quietly marvelling?

If you dive down here,

the Nibelung will be glad to play

and raise hell with you.

WOGLINDE

He wants to 40play with us?

WELLGUNDE

Is he serious?

ALBERICH

In the gleaming light you look

so fair and lovely!

How my arms would love

to embrace one of those slim shapes,

should she obligingly slip down

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