Judging by my post title today, listening to Wagner has not decreased my high brow humour standards, but it has lead me to the second opera in the Ring series; Die Walkure by Richard Wagner, once again preformed in 1950 at La SCALA in Milan, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler. So feel free to sit back and make all fat women with horns jokes you'd like.
This record held the first act and the beginnings of the second, and from the drop of the needle you knew this was different from the prior opera. The strings, which played largely a supporting role to vocals and brass in Das Rheingold, received a larger role tonally, with brass being used for accent. The first side also introduced a solo violin, something that was completely (from what I can recall) absent from Das Rheingold; which for me, at least, is always a good sign. From reading the plot synopsis on the record insert, this is the love act, and it does show; not with tweeting birds and soft breezes (these are norse gods after all) but more through the playful interaction of accompaniment and voice.
The second side produced a teaser to the famed Ride of Valkyrie, which to me felt sadly out of place. The sounds of duh-da-da-duh-da just clashed with the musical ideas that surrounded its entrance. But perhaps it is because it interupted my new musical experince (I have never listened to the Ring cycle before) with 30 seconds of music I knew too well already. Or maybe it'll just play out better tomorrow as I continue and complete Die Walkure.
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