Relayed from the National Museum of Wales

National Orchestra of Wales

Wagner's music-drama, Tristan and Isolde, is a tragedy of soul-sick love in which every glimmer of passion is darkened by foreboding. The musical theme in which Wagner symbolizes such love occurs at the beginning of the Prelude, pursues its unfolding through page after page of glowing tone up to its climax, and throbs dolorously in the concluding strains that precede the rise of the curtain.
The orchestral piece made from the first and last music of the Opera then passes without a break to the song which the dying Isolde sings over the body of her lover. Their union in death is typified by a soaring melodic phrase that floats ecstatically over the rich web of orchestral sound as if carrying the two oppressed souls upward to whatever peace awaits them.
Nowhere did Wagner achieve a more vivid, or some would say a more luscious, expression of deep human emotions than in these two pieces.
The Entry of the Gods into Valhalla is the conclusion of The Rhinegold, the work which forms the Prologue to the great Ring series of music-dramas.
The Ring was made from gold stolen from the Rhine Maidens by a dwarf, and from him secured by the cunning of Wotan, King of the Gods. The evil consequences of those thefts are shown in this first opera of the tetralogy.
The Ring carries with it a curse, which has already begun to act.
Two giants who have built Valhalla, the new home for the Gods, insisted upon receiving the Ring as part payment. No sooner have they done so than they quarrel over the spoil, and one kills the other.
Clouds have gathered, symbolizing both the horror of the tragedy and the gloom of the Gods at being compelled to give up their gold.
The orchestral form of the Finale now begins. The clouds are dispersed by Donner, the Thunder God, who smites a rock with his hammer.
Valhalla, the mighty citadel, is seen glorious upon a lofty summit. A rainbow stretches across the Rhine, and the Gods solemnly move across it to their new home (which is so soon to be destroyed when their power is eclipsed).
As they pass from sight we hear the sweet, sad song of the Rhine Maidens, lamenting their lost gold.

(to 14.00)