The Valkyrie by Wagner, Richard, From (2024/2024), Directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, Conductor Philippe Jordan, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, Germany

Wotan wants to secure power through his descendants. The twins Siegmund and Sieglinde seem to be the perfect choice. One day, fate brings them together. However, for Wotan’s wife Fricka, the sibling’s love is a thorn in her side, and even Wotan himself feels emotionally torn. When his favourite daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, revolts against him, he puts her to sleep, casting a circle of fire around her that only a fearless person can walk through. In this section, humans appear for the first time and Wagner restarts his story to some extent. The music takes on a new tone, too, reflecting the powerful feelings that are taking up more and more space with great expression and emphasis. Besides the intensive dialogue scenes, which Wagner develops with psychological depth, there are striking instrumental parts such as the »Walkürenritt« and the »Feuerzauber« which are undoubtedly some of the musical highlights of the »Ring« tetralogy and have an overwhelming effect. With the »Walküre« score, composed in the mid-1850s, Wagner reached new heights with his music, giving the orchestra remarkable communicative powers. Layers of meaning were thus developed and incorporated into the work. Not just the human duo, Siegmund and Sieglinde, arouse fellow suffering but the divine beings too, who think, feel and act just as humanly.