Die Walkure

Book excerpt: It started as a single idea, under the working title of Siegfried's Death, and ended as an epic four-opera cycle, "Der Ring des Nibelungen." Inspired by the great Nordic and Germanic sagas, Richard Wagner created a unique statement of the interplay between love and power — a struggle he movingly expressed through recurrent motifs of yearning and loss. Die Walküre, the second opera in the series, remains the most popular and frequently performed of the mighty Ring Cycle works. From its gripping opening — in which the hero finds himself weaponless in the house of his enemy — to its heartrending finale — a father' s final farewell to his favorite daughter — generations of listeners have thrilled and swooned to this story and its magical music. First performed as part of the complete Ring Cycle in 1876, at the grand opening of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, Die Walküre boasts one of opera's best-known passages, the exhilarating "Ride of the Walküre." This vocal score of the complete opera, with lyrics in both German and English, features a piano reduction of the orchestral part and is ideal for study, rehearsal, and concert performances.