There now follow descriptive accounts of the stories and music of the four component parts of this work by Wagner—perhaps his greatest.
DAS RHEINGOLD
THE RHINEGOLD
Prologue in four scenes to the trilogy of music-dramas, "The Ring of the Nibelung," by Richard Wagner. "Des Rheingold" was produced, Munich, September 22, 1869. "The Ring of the Nibelung" was given complete for the first time in the Wagner Theatre, Bayreuth, in August, 1876. In the first American performance of "Das Rheingold," Metropolitan Opera House, New York, January 4, 1889, Fischer was Wotan, Alvary Loge, Moran-Oldern Fricka, and Katti Bettaque Freia.
Characters
| Wotan | } | Gods | Baritone-Bass |
| Donner | } | Baritone-Bass | |
| Froh | } | Tenor | |
| Loge | } | Tenor | |
| Fasolt | } | Giants | Baritone-Bass |
| Fafner | } | Bass | |
| Alberich | } | Nibelungs | Baritone-Bass |
| Mime | } | Tenor | |
| Fricka | } | Goddesses | Soprano |
| Freia | } | Soprano | |
| Erda | } | Mezzo-Soprano | |
| Woglinde | } | Rhinedaughters | Soprano |
| Wellgunde | } | Soprano | |
| Flosshilde | } | Mezzo-Soprano | |
Time—Legendary.
Place—The bed of the Rhine; a mountainous district near the Rhine; the subterranean caverns of Nibelheim.
In "The Rhinegold" we meet with supernatural beings of German mythology—the Rhinedaughters Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde, whose duty it is to guard the precious Rhinegold; Wotan, the chief of the gods; his spouse Fricka; Loge, the God of Fire (the diplomat of Walhalla); Freia, the Goddess of Youth and Beauty; her brothers Donner and Froh; Erda, the all-wise woman; the giants Fafner and Fasolt; Alberich and Mime of the race of Nibelungs, cunning, treacherous gnomes who dwell in the bowels of the earth.
The first scene of "Rhinegold" is laid in the Rhine, at the bottom of the river, where the Rhinedaughters guard the Rhinegold.