This is the last opera in Wagner's monumental trilogy, Der Ring Des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelungs ). The entire cycle is an allegory. It tells the story of power struggles between the Nibelungs, who are dwarfs, the Giants, who are giants, and the Gods, who are Wagner's personal reworking of characters found in Norse mythology.
It's not easy to be brief about the Ring. To understand the plot of Götterdämmerung, you need a summary of the other two operas. And to understand those you need a bit of background. Which is why Wagner wrote Das Rheingold as a prologue.
So. Rheingold. Alberich, a dwarf, steals a lot of gold from the bottom of the river Rhine, where it's guarded by the Rhinemaidens. With some of it he makes a ring and becomes master of the world. Wotan, ruler of the gods, employs Fasolt and Fafner, a couple of giants, to build Valhalla. Being short of cash, he offers them Freia, goddess of youth, by way of payment. Loge, the fire god, then suggests tricking Alberich and nabbing the ring and the Rheingold. So Wotan does that, planning to pay the giants with the gold and keep the Ring. Thereby becoming master of the world himself.
Alberich curses the Ring. Exceeding their estimate on the building work, the giants demand the gold, the Ring and a magic helmet, called Tarnhelm. Wotan reluctantly agrees. Things get nasty. Fafner kills Fasolt and pockets the lot.
Now that it's built, Valhalla has to be defended. Wotan begets nine warrior daughters, called the Valkyries. Their job is to bring dead heroes to Valhalla, where they're revived and put on guard duty. That completes the prologue.
Die Walk├╝re. The gods stay cursed unless the Ring goes back to the Rhinemaidens. So Wotan has to have human children. ( Seems like a leap of logic - but there it is. ) So he's descended to earth and begotten Siegmund (son) and Sieglinde (daughter). She's married Hunding, who has a deep voice. Her brother's wandered about.
The opera opens as Siegmund meets Sieglinde in Hunding's hut. But he doesn't know she's his sister. She shows him a sword. It's called Nothung and Wotan's left it embedded in a treetrunk. Only a hero can withdraw it. Siegmund withdraws it. They elope. Wotan's on the husband's side. Br├╝nnhilde, Wotan's favourite Valkyrie daughter, roots for Siegmund.
Siegmund fights Hunding using Nothung. Wotan intervenes. Nothung's smashed up. Siegmund's dead. Br├╝nnhilde, being a goddess, knows Sieglinde's pregnant. She gathers the fragments of sword and entrusts them to Sieglinde for Siegmund's unborn son, the hero Siegfried. ( Read that again slowly. )
Wotan casts Br├╝nnhilde into a magic sleep, surrounded by magic flames. He didn't approve of her siding with Siegmund.
Siegfried: The opera begins with Wotan disguised as a Wanderer. ( Large cloak, floppy hat, eye patch. ) Sieglinde has died giving birth to Siegfried. The boy has been brought up in a cave by Mime, brother of the original dwarf, Alberich. By a remarkable coincidence, the next-door cave is inhabited by Fafner, the fratricidal giant. He's turned himself into a dragon and is sitting on the treasure. Mime plans to reconstruct Nothung ( the sword - remember ? ). Then, when Siegfried grows up, he can be sent out to kill Fafner. And get the Ring. So Mime will be master of the world.
The Wanderer ( that's Wotan ) prophesies that only a hero will forge the new sword. Siegfried does it and sets out, with Mime, to kill Fafner. Little does he know that Mime plans to kill him afterwards.
Big fight. Lots of blood. Siegfried kills Fafner.
Dragon's blood is magic. Siegfried licks it off his finger and hears birds talking. One, who's a soprano, warns him about Mime. She also mentions Br├╝nnhilde, asleep on her burning mountain.
Siegfried kills Mime, nabs the Ring and the helmet and finds Br├╝nnhilde. This time Nothung smashes Wotan's spear. The hero gets the Valkyrie.
We've reached Götterdämmerung. This begins with a prophecy of the end of the gods. Siegfried gives Brünnhilde the Ring. He then goes off and leaves her. He finds the Hall of the Gibichungs, second generation of the Alberich family. Here live Hagen, Alberich's son, Gunther, his half-brother and Gutrune, his half-sister.
Hagen drugs Siegfried. Who immediately forgets his own relationship with Br├╝nnhilde and decides that she's the very wife for Gunther. He also agrees to marry Gutrune. This is Hagen's cunning way of getting the Ring for himself. Thus becoming master of the world.
Back on the burning mountain, Br├╝nnhilde's sister Waltraute begs her to return the Ring to the Rhinemaidens. Br├╝nnhilde refuses.
Now it gets complicated. Siegfried (who's drugged) turns up wearing the magic helmet, in which he is disguised as Gunther. He rushes through the fire, snatches the Ring, drags Br├╝nnhilde off to be Gunther's bride. And all the time, of course, the poor thing doesn't recognise him.
There's going to be a double wedding. The real Gunther leads on Br├╝nnhilde. Because he's still drugged, Siegfried doesn't know her. She sees the Ring on his finger and accuses him of treachery. Failing to notice his funny pupils, she plots with Gunther and Hagen to kill him.
In the last act, Siegfried is having a rest on the banks of the Rhine. The Rhinemaidens plead for the return of the Ring. Hagen and Gunther arrive with some huntsmen. Hagen gives Siegfried another drug. This one restores his memory. He sings of his love for Br├╝nnhilde. Hagen spears him in the back.
Siegfried's body is carried to Gibichung Hall. In a row over the Ring, Hagen kills Gunther. When Hagen tries to grab the Ring Siegfried's dead hand rises into the air. Br├╝nnhilde orders a funeral pyre for Siegfried. Then she puts on the Ring, gets on a horse and plunges into the flames to join him.
There follows a production challenge. The Hall collapses. The Rhine overflows. Hagen fails to snatch the Ring from Br├╝nnhilde on her horse. He's dragged into the rising waters. Valhalla rises in flames, usually upstage centre.
A new era of love dawns with the destruction of the kingdom of the gods.
It all takes about twenty hours and a lot of stamina.
