A Note from the Director

The Victory of Man Over and Against Nature

Young Siegfried-born to be a hero, the first human of wolfish and divine descent-has lost his father Siegmund after conception, and his mother Sieglinde after birth. The dwarf Mime, brother of Alberich, was both father and mother to Siegfried at the same time, raising him to fight Fafner, the dragon who owns the ring, magic helmet and hoard of gold. But Mime cannot forge the sword Siegfried needs, and cannot repair Siegmund's sword Notung, which had been destroyed by Wotan.

The scene depicts the condition of waiting:

Dwarf-brother Mime awaits Siegfried's maturation.

Grandson of Wotan, Siegfried awaits the sword.

God Wotan awaits Siegfried's victory.

Dwarf-brother Alberich awaits Mime and Siegfried.

No longer divine, Brünnhilde awaits Siegfried.

The dragon waits.

The stage is a running track for all of the ring-lusting figures, a spatial model of human time made of horizontal lines with time-measuring, flowing verticals, portraying mortality. Mime finds out from Wotan that Notung can only be recreated by Siegfried. Siegfried destroys the old time structure and forges perspective time, which is aimed against nature and toward the victory of man(kind).

With the help of the sword Notung, Siegfried performs the great penetration:

into the heart of the dragon,

into the loathed foster-father Mime,

into the circle of fire around Brünnhilde through the destruction of Wotan's power-spear,

and into the woman.

Wotan tells Erda-the mother of his child Brünnhilde who has been banished into the circle of fire-about Siegfried. Together with Brünnhilde, he is supposed to absolve the old order of the divine for a world of freedom and love. But Siegfried cannot comprehend this message. And thus he becomes the destroyer of God, Nature, Life and Love.

-By Achim Freyer. Translation by Sarah Baitzel