In almost every writing on the Ring, Siegfried is often referred to as the most difficult to sit through, the least interesting, the least likeable or the simply lacking the appeal of the other three operas. Or, it is referenced as the turning point where Wagner’s style so obviously changed having taken a break in the Ring to write Tristan and Meistersinger.
Yet, on closer examination, it is perhaps the greatest of the Ring operas rather than the least. I admit the first act – which we cut in our performance – does go on a little long with only three voices singing for the duration. I also admit that in the course of that first act, one doesn’t find much in any of the characters to actually like. But, once the 2nd act gets going, the action moves swiftly with a great deal of energy. But for me, it is the 3rd act that brings the work to the heights of theatrical brilliance. Right from the opening notes, one sense something happening on an almost cosmic level. The orchestra rushes with some of the most exciting music ever written. Wotan’s entrance (more accurately The Wanderer) is one of opera’s great moments. He arrives like a storm. His first sounds are powerful. One can just see him standing against the wind as he sings with the force of destiny. But, here is the voice of somebody torn between accepting destiny and yet still wanting to do whatever it takes to thwart what he knows will lead to his own destruction.
He calls forth Erda. I have heard too many dismiss this scene as being unnecessary to the plot and delaying the real confrontation between father and grandson that is to follow. This dismissal, however, I think is too easy to do and in doing so, one misses one of the greatest confrontational scenes in all opera. Here are the real protagonists of the entire ring: Wotan, the God who sets everything in motion, the very human god who does wish for the best yet hungers for the power and the sense of being in control; Erda, the seemingly passive earth goddess, mother to the Valkyries and the Norns, possessor of all the world’s knowledge. Their music is brilliantly composed. Their every utterance ripples with the force not of destiny, but of the human experience. Power must pass from generation to generation. The world order must be destroyed on some level in order to regenerate. Wotan’s days are over. One senses that Erda realizes that even Wotan’s plans for the future are based on falsehood and wrongness. Siegfried may be the hero untouched by Wotan’s direct actions, but his very existence is the result of actions that remain part of Wotan’s larger scheme. Erda realizes that even the coupling of the world’s greatest heroic male with the world’s greatest heroic female will not produce what Wotan wishes, if for no reason other than that Brunnhilde is in fact Siegfried’s aunt on one level but on a more damning level, her father is his grandfather!
Still, Wotan stands against the forces of destiny. Erda leaves and Wotan sings a monologue in which the musical energy reaches ever greater peaks and the entire opening 30 minutes is in fact the penultimate pivotal point of the saga with only Wotan’s confrontation with Siegfried left to tear the old order asunder and prepare for the love that won’t last to come.
Before relegating Siegfried to the bottom of the operatic heap or to also-ran of the Ring, it should be listened to more closely. Before dismissing the opening scene of the 3rd act, one should experience it more fully. One then realizes that it is in fact one of the greatest scenes not only in opera, but in any form of Western theater.