Wagner: No.4
The Berlin State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Carl Muck:
Overture, The Flying Dutchman
Elizabeth Ohms (soprano), Senta,Theodore Scheidl (baritone), Dutchman, with Orchestra conducted by Julius Prüwer:
Versank ich jetzt in wunderbares Traumen (Lost am I in wonderful dreams) (The Flying Dutchman)
The Philadelphia Symphony Orchesitra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski:
Prelude, Act III, Die Meistersinger
Margarete Baumer (soprano), Brünnhilde, Reimer Minten (tenor), Siegfried, with Orchestra of The Berlin State Opera House:
Final Duet, Act III, Siegfried, Heil die Sonne (Sun, I hail thee !)
Since being imprisoned within a ring of flame by Wotan, her father, in the last act of The Valkyrie, Brünnhilde has lain in a deep sleep waiting for the hero above all heroes who should defy the flames and release her from her enforced bondage. The last scene of the opera, Siegfried, concerns Siegfried's finding of Brünnhilde on her rock, her awakening, their rapturous greeting, and the musically magnificent duet, so eloquent of the majesty of the god-descended creatures who sing together of their love.
To descend, however, to the human side of this lovely operatic episode, listeners who know also Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, written to celebrate the birth of his own son, Siegfried, will recognise in that most exquisite work themes that figure in this love duet and are taken from it to symbolise a father's joy and pride in his newly-born child.