It was an effective theatrical effect, but it made little sense with the realistic and humanized lecture that had been offered to this point here was Schwarz not only contradicting Wagner, but also himself. The realism that had been present during the preceding operas was completely broken in the second scene of Act two where the set is just three white big walls and the Gibichungs are represented as a group of people wearing dark cloaks and masks who enter the stage under dense smoke. The director had the gruesome but absurd idea of having Brünnhilde sing the last part of her scene with the severed head of Grane, who was her butler or assistant in this production instead of her horse it felt like I was watching “Salome.” As Brünnhilde lies holding the head against her chest besides Siegfried’s body, it seemed that what she yearns for is both her husband and her butler, adding to the confusion of what the production was aiming for. The kid is kidnapped by Siegfried-as-Gunther after having been blindfold and tied to a chair, maybe to avoid seeing how Siegfried/Gunther tries to strangle Brünnhilde with a scarf after having hit her head against a wall repeatedly.įor the final scene, the kid falls dead in front of the three Rhinmaidens at the very top of the set (which is an empty swimming pool) while Brünnhilde sings her Immolation scene in the middle of the stage besides Siegfried’s dead body. I got the impression the she was Brünnhilde and Siegfried’s daughter from the way they interacted with each other (of course this is just mere speculation because there is nothing in the text to support this theory). The Rheingold / Ring goes back to being a small child, this time, a blond girl. More Incoherenceīut despite these “saving graces,” the rest of the performance was just more nonsense full of inconsistencies. With “Götterdämmerung,” any chance of Valentin Schwarz giving an understandable meaning to his production went nowhere.įor the first time in the tetralogy, Schwarz presented paranormal elements like the three Norns (represented as three faceless woman wearing sparkling costumes and makeup) or the transformation, thanks to the magic helmet, of Siegfried into Gunther for the last scene of Act one.
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