03/17/2021
Check out my performance as Flosshilde in San Francisco Opera's Der Ring des Nibelungen.
In the final hours of composer Richard Wagner’s life, he heard the music of the Rhinemaidens in his mind — those mythical water nymphs he conjured in this weekend’s free streaming special, “Das Rheingold."
The Rhinemaidens were creatures of Wagner’s creation, inspired by mermaids and sprites. They open and close the opera “Das Rheingold.” In the beginning, they guard the magical gold hidden in the depths of the River Rhine. By the end, they sing out curses as the gods prepare to fight for their stolen gold.
On February 12, 1883 — Wagner’s last evening alive — the composer had been reading the book “Undine,” a German version of the Little Mermaid story. He and his wife Cosima were holed up in the Palazzo Vendramin on Venice’s Grand Canal.
According to Cosima’s diaries, they had been passionately discussing the work when Wagner was inspired to take to the piano. There, he pecked out the music to the Rhinemaidens’ lament: the haunting, mournful song at the end of “Das Rheingold,” as the Rhinemaidens cry out for their missing gold.
"I feel loving towards them, these subservient creatures of the deep, with all their yearning,” Wagner said as he went to bed, the music of “Das Rheingold” still playing in his mind. The next day, he would be dead.
See “Das Rheingold” this weekend free for a limited time, starting Saturday at 10 a.m. Pacific: https://sfopera.com/opera-is-on/streaming/
(📸: Cory Weaver |Conductor: Donald Runnicles |Director: Francesca Zambello |Featuring: Lauren McNeese, Renée Tatum, Stacey Tappan)
