Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, (English: The Ring of the Nibelung). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on June 26, 1870, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on August 14, 1876.
The story of Die Walküre is based on the Norse mythology told in the Volsunga Saga and the Poetic Edda. In this version the Volsung twins Sieglinde and Siegmund, separated in childhood, meet and fall in love. This union angers the gods who demand that Siegmund must die. Sieglinde and the couple's unborn child are saved by the defiant actions of Wotan's daughter, the title character, Valkyrie Brünnhilde, who as a result faces the gods' retribution.
In accordance with this scheme Wagner preceded Siegfried's Death (later Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) with the story of Siegfried's youth, Young Siegfried, later renamed Siegfried. This was in turn preceded by Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), dealing with Siegfried's origins, the whole tetralogy being fronted by a prologue, Das Rheingold. Because Wagner prepared his texts in reverse chronological sequence, Die Walküre was the third of the dramas to be conceived and written, but appears second in the tetralogy.
Cast:
Siegmund - James King
Sieglinde - Regine Crespin
Hunding - Gottlob Frick
Wotan - Hans Hotter
Brunnhilde - Birgit Nilsson
7 noisy Valkyire sisters
Sir George solti - conductor
Vienna Philharmonic
DECCA - 1966