1/ There’s no such thing as a bad reason to air this romantic-mythological masterpiece-monsterpiece, so it’s fine that the Met has done so repeatedly recently, sometimes (as here) in the glowing realistic Schenck prodn, sometimes in the high-tech crypto-trad Lepage prodn.
https://twitter.com/metopera/status/1367247929438732292
2/ I’m trying to figure out, tho, what makes it esp suitable for Women’s History Week. The Met’s promo copy suggests it has s’thing to do with Jessye Norman as Sieglinde. She was a woman all right, but so was Hildegard Behrens, who sings the primary heroine, Brünnhilde. And both
3/ roles have *always* been sung by women, bc DIE WALKÜRE’s world 1ère in 1870 was decades after the last barrier to women on the stage anywhere in Europe had fallen. Is it Mme. Norman’s *other* diversity card? But that was specifically celebrated, w this very performance among
4/ others, about a month ago. Is there anything notably feminist about WALKÜRE? Well, Sieglinde wants out from her forced marriage - but only when the chosen one, the one who can pull the sword from the tree, shows up. When Brünnhilde takes sides with Siegmund & Sieglinde
5/ against her father Wotan, maybe that’s feminist - except that it means doing what Wotan had earlier told her to do, as part of the patriarchal project of building up Team Valhalla. That Wotan has changed his mind is due in part to the traditional laws of marriage, and
6/ surely *that’s* patriarchal? I’m, no, those laws are safeguarded by the goddess Fricka. But Brünnhilde & Sieglinde put their heads together to make sure Sieglinde can later give birth to Siegfried, greatest of heroes, and surely *that’s*.... well, no, it means pain and death
7/ for Sieglinde, and Siegfried’s later decisive confrontation w Wotan is very much a dude-on-dude thing. (As we see in Act 3 of SIEGFRIED, Wotan tries futilely to stop Siegfried from climbing the mountain & claiming Brünnhilde, leading to opera’s greatest
8/ bout of mine’s-bigger’n-yours, in which Siegfried’s sword, long ago broken by Wotan’s spear but now re-forged, breaks Wotan’s spear.)
In short, neither in cast nor story is there any particular WHW/WHM hook in this DIE WALKÜRE. Maybe it’s just that @MetOpera has this great
In short, neither in cast nor story is there any particular WHW/WHM hook in this DIE WALKÜRE. Maybe it’s just that @MetOpera has this great
9/ vid from the Schenck prodn of THE RING on hand, and the folks loved it (to be fair, they like Lepage’s prodn too), so they’re just going to show it again, and I’m there for it.
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