Brünnhilde enters and tells everyone how she promised Siegfried her love. Gutrune curses Hagen and falls onto her brother’s dead body. Brünnhilde orders a funeral pyre (a fire) to be prepared. She sings to Wotan that Siegfried is now at peace in death and that she understands more now. She takes the ring and promises to return it to the Rhine Maidens. She lights the fire which flares up and she rides on her horse Grane into the flames. The whole building catches fire, the Rhine overflows. Hagen jumps into the water trying to get the ring from the Rhine Maidens who drown him. The flood dies down and Valhalla (the gods’ palace) is lit up by the fire. The gods and the heroes die in the flames. The Twilight of the Gods has now happened.
The music of this long opera is extremely cleverly linked so that musical ideas flow into one another and combine to comment on the drama. Many of the themes have been heard in the other three operas. It is a very exhausting opera to sing, especially for Brünnhilde. There are usually two long intervals during a performance. The orchestra is very large and includes eight harps.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen ("The Ring of the Nibelung" (Alberich)) is a cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner.
The story of each opera can be found in the separate articles.
Sometimes it is known as a “tetralogy” meaning: four works that belong together.
Wagner took the story of the operas from a book called the "Nibelungenlied" (the "Nibelung Song") which was written in the 12th century by a German poet. We do not know the name of the poet. The story is about the ancient gods from German mythology.
Wagner made a lot of changes to the story in order to make it suitable for his four operas. Wagner’s story tells of a hoard of gold which is being guarded by the Rhinemaidens. The dwarf Alberich steals the gold and uses some of it to make a ring which makes the owner powerful over all the world. When Wotan, the chief god, steals it from him, Alberich puts a curse on the ring. The ring will bring death to whoever has it. The ring goes through the hands of several characters, all of whom die in the end.
Alberich belongs to a race of dwarfs called the “Nibelungs”. The word “Nibelungen” in the title of the cycle: "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (“The Ring of the Nibelung”), refers to Alberich (it is singular, not plural).
The story of Wagner’s Ring cycle sounds quite fantastic and strange, like a fairy tale. Although the characters seems very different from real people, the story tells us all about basic human emotions. It is a story about greed, love, lust, intrigue etc. This is what makes it so powerful.
Wagner’s music matches each character and situation beautifully. It develops continuously: there are no breaks in the music during the acts. Wagner used what he called leitmotifs (leading motives). These are tunes or chords or little musical phrases which are linked to particular people in the opera. In this way he can hint at things very cleverly in the music. For example: there is a leitmotiv for the curse. Whenever we hear this curse motive we know that the curse of the ring is working.
Wagner spent about twenty years writing the Ring cycle. He started in the 1850s when he was living in Switzerland. He wrote all the libretto (the words) himself, as he always did for his operas. By 1857 he had finished the first two operas and two thirds of "Siegfried". It was many years later that he finally finished "Siegfried" and wrote the final opera as well.
Wagner wanted to have the Ring cycle performed in a special opera house which would be built in the way he wanted. He needed a lot of money for his ideas, and he was very lucky to find someone who adored his music and was happy to give him a lot of money. This was King Ludwig II of Bavaria (sometimes called the “mad king of Bavaria” because he did become insane). Wagner told the King that the Ring cycle would be performed in Munich which was the capital city of Bavaria. Later, when it seemed impossible to build a new opera house there, Wagner broke his promise and built his opera house in Bayreuth instead. The King did not seem to mind and still gave him lots of money for the project as well as a nice house to live in. "Das Rheingold" was first performed in Munich in 1869 and "Die Walküre" in 1870. The whole Ring cycle was first performed in 1876 in the new opera house called the "Festspielhaus" in Bayreuth.
Väki
In Finnish mythology, Väki means races of Haltijas (Finnish elves) and their magical powers. Different things in nature had their own väki guarding them. For example, Väki of water lived in and protected water. Väki is the name of both the magical power and Haltijas. Väki could sometimes be seen. They looked like little man-like creatures. Sometimes Väki went inside people and made people ill. Väki makes people ill if they behave badly in their kingdom. For example, if someone shouted in a forest without reason then the Väki of forest may make then ill. Shaman could heal these illnesses by telling the väki to leave the person and go back to its original place.
The other version of väki refers to the realm of the dead. Väki was the anonymous pack of dead people. Once they (väki) had been our beloved ones, relatives etc. but after spending some time in the afterlife they had been become unknown masses of dead creatures without any personal markings.
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland was a mountainous area of Czechoslovakia. The name comes from the Sudetes, a mountain range, but it was also used for other places in Bohemia in which mostly-German people lived. They wanted their homes to be part of Germany, not Czechoslovakia. Nazi Germany took Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in 1938, which contributed to the start of World War II.
1375
1375 was a year in the 14th century.
Coral (color)
Coral is a reddish or pinkish shade of orange. The color is named after the sea animal also called corals.
The first written use of "coral" as a color name in English was in 1513.
Crimson
Crimson is reddish magenta color between red and rose on the color wheel. You can make it by combining a strong, bright deep red with a little blue. It is originally the color of the dye produced from the dried bodies of a scale insect, "Kermes vermilio".
The word "crimson" has been in written use in the English since 1400,
Rose (color)
Rose is the color halfway between red and magenta on the color wheel. It represents the color of the rose flower.
The first recorded use of "rose" as a color name in English was in 1382.
Maroon (color)
Maroon is a dark red color.
The word "maroon" comes from the French word "marron" which means "chestnut".
The first recorded use of "maroon" as a color name in English was in 1789.
Ochre
Ochre or Ocher is a golden-yellow or light yellowish brown colour. The word is from the Greek "ochros", meaning "yellow". Ochre is natural earth pigment containing hydrated iron oxide.
The use of ochre is particularly intensive: it is not unusual to find a layer of the cave floor impregnated with a purplish red to a depth of eight inches. The size of these ochre deposits raises a problem not yet solved. The colouring is so intense that practically all the loose ground seems to consist of ochre. One can imagine that the Aurignacians regularly painted their bodies red, dyed their animal skins, coated their weapons, and sprinkled the ground of their dwellings, and that a paste of ochre was used for decorative purposes in every phase of their domestic life. We must assume no less, if we are to account for the veritable mines of ochre on which some of them lived.
Teal (color)
Teal is a deep blue-green color; a dark cyan.
"Teal" gets its name from the colored area around the eyes of the common teal, a member of the duck family.
The first written use of "Teal" as a color name in English was in 1917.
Navy blue
Lime (color)