>>7
The First Act of The Walkyrie also contains a dozen other beauties: the sudden lyrical "Wintersonne wiche dem Wonnemond", of course - a Lied blooming forth out of all the Sprechgesang. But most of all the finale, which is actually physically terrifying in a good production. It's only in the finale that we realize that we are dealing with something that is genuinely forbidden, transgressive, horrible and obscene - something that creates a genuine painful ambivalence in us: the incestuous love between a brother and a sister. And the climactic "So blühe denn Wälsungenblut!" is an exclamation, screamed out over the whirling storm of the entire huge orchestra, that has left me, at least, literally physically shaking at performance after performance. You go out into the intermission thinking "What the FUCK is going to BECOME of these two? How in GOD's name will they survive?" even when you know what will, and that they won't.