Act I
As a storm rages,
Siegmund, pursued by enemies, stumbles exhausted into an unfamiliar house.
Sieglinde finds him lying by the hearth, and the two feel an immediate
attraction. But they are soon interrupted by Sieglinde’s husband, Hunding, who
asks the stranger who he is. Calling himself “Woeful,” Siegmund tells of a
disaster-filled life (“Friedmund darf ich nicht heissen”), only to learn that
Hunding is a kinsman of his foes. Hunding, before retiring, tells his guest
they will fight to the death in the morning.
Left alone, Siegmund
calls on his father, Wälse, for the sword he once promised him. Sieglinde
reappears, having given Hunding a sleeping potion. She tells of her wedding, at
which a one-eyed stranger thrust into a tree a sword that has since resisted
every effort to pull it out (“Der Männer Sippe”). Sieglinde confesses her
unhappiness to Siegmund. He embraces her and vows to free her from her forced
marriage to Hunding. As moonlight floods the room, Siegmund compares their
feeling to the marriage of love and spring (“Winterstürme wichen dem
Wonnemond”). Sieglinde hails him as “Spring” (“Du bist der Lenz”) but asks if
his father was really “Wolf,” as he said earlier. When Siegmund gives his
father’s name as Wälse instead, Sieglinde recognizes him as Siegmund, her twin
brother. He pulls the sword from the tree and claims Sieglinde as his bride,
rejoicing in the union of the Wälsungs.
Act II
High in the mountains,
Wotan, leader of the gods, tells his warrior daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde,
that she must defend his mortal son Siegmund in his upcoming battle with
Hunding. Leaving joyfully to do his bidding (“Hojotoho!”), the Valkyrie passes
Fricka, Wotan’s wife and the goddess of marriage. Fricka insists that Wotan
must defend Hunding’s marriage rights against Siegmund. She ignores his
argument that Siegmund could save the gods by winning back the Ring from the
dragon Fafner. When Wotan realizes he is caught in his own trap—his power will
leave him if he does not enforce the law—he agrees to his wife’s demands. After
Fricka has left in triumph, the frustrated god tells the returning Brünnhilde
about the theft of the Rhinegold and Alberich’s curse on it (“Als junger
Liebe”). Brünnhilde is shocked to hear her father, his plans in ruins, order
her to fight for Hunding. Then, alone in the darkness, she withdraws as
Siegmund and Sieglinde approach.
Siegmund comforts his
distraught bride and watches over her when she falls asleep. Brünnhilde appears
to him as if in a vision, telling him he will soon go to Valhalla (“Siegmund!
Sieh auf mich!”). He tells her he will not leave Sieglinde and threatens to
kill himself and his bride if his sword has no power against Hunding.
Brünnhilde, moved, decides to defy Wotan and help him. She vanishes. Siegmund
bids farewell to Sieglinde when he hears the approaching Hunding’s challenge.
When Siegmund is about to win, however, Wotan appears and shatters his sword,
leaving him to be killed by Hunding. Brünnhilde escapes with Sieglinde and the
broken sword. Wotan contemptuously fells Hunding with a wave of his hand and
leaves to punish Brünnhilde for her disobedience.
Act III
On the Valkyries’ Rock,
Brünnhilde’s eight warrior sisters—who have gathered there briefly, bearing
slain heroes to Valhalla—are surprised to see her enter with Sieglinde. When
they hear she is fleeing Wotan’s wrath, they are afraid to hide her. Sieglinde
is numb with despair until Brünnhilde tells her she bears Siegmund’s child.
Eager to be saved, she receives the pieces of the sword from Brünnhilde and
thanks her rescuer, then rushes off into the forest to hide from Wotan. When
the god appears, he sentences Brünnhilde to become a mortal woman, silencing
her sisters’ objections by threatening to do the same to them. Left alone with
her father, Brünnhilde pleads that in disobeying his orders she was really
doing what he wished (“War es so schmählich”). Wotan will not give in: she must
lie in sleep, a prize for any man who finds her. But as his anger abates she
asks the favor of being surrounded in sleep by a wall of fire that only the
bravest hero can pierce. Both sense this hero must be the child that Sieglinde
will bear. Sadly renouncing his daughter (“Leb’ wohl”), Wotan kisses
Brünnhilde’s eyes with sleep and mortality before summoning Loge, the god of fire,
to encircle the rock. As flames spring up, the departing Wotan invokes a spell
forbidding the rock to anyone who fears his spear (Fire Music).
