The Met: Live in HD - Wagner's Die Walküre - Guild Hall
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The Met: Live in HD
Wagner's Die Walküre

Christine Goerke as Brünnhilde in Wagner's "Die Walküre." Photo: Richard Termine / Met Opera

Event Category:
Saturday, March 30
12PM - 5:30PM
$22 ($20 Members); $15 Students

Eligible for Student Rush Tickets

Tickets for all 2018-19 Met Opera screenings will be on sale for Guild Hall Members on Monday, July 16 through the Box Office only – visit us in person or call us at 631-324-4050 between 11am and 5pm through Labor Day.
 
Beginning Wednesday, July 18 at midnight, tickets will be on sale to the general public and will be available for purchase online as well as the link below.
 
Tickets available at GuildHall.org; Reception desk during Museum hours or by calling 631-324-0806; Box Office 2 hours prior to curtain at 631-324-4050; Theatermania.com; or 1-866-811-4111
158 Main Street
East Hampton, NY 11937 United States
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Overview

12:00 p.m. ET / Approx. runtime: 5:20 [2 Intermissions]

Philippe Jordan; Christine Goerke (Brünnhilde), Eva-Maria Westbroek (Sieglinde), Jamie Barton (Fricka), Stuart Skelton (Siegmund), Greer Grimsley (Wotan), Günther Groissböck (Hunding)

ACT I

Pursued by enemies during a storm, Siegmund stumbles exhausted into an unfamiliar house. Sieglinde finds him lying by the hearth, and the two feel an immediate attraction. They are interrupted by Sieglinde’s husband, Hunding, who asks the stranger who he is. Calling himself “Woeful,” Siegmund tells of a disaster-filled life, only to learn that Hunding is a kinsman of his enemies. Hunding tells his guest they will fight to the death in the morning.

Alone, Siegmund calls on his father, Wälse, for the sword he once promised him. Sieglinde reappears, having given Hunding a sleeping potion. She tells of her wedding, at which a one-eyed stranger thrust into a tree a sword that has since resisted every effort to pull it out (“Der Männer Sippe”). Sieglinde confesses her unhappiness to Siegmund. He embraces her and promises to free her from her forced marriage to Hunding. As moonlight floods the room, Siegmund compares their feelings to the marriage of love and spring (“Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond”). Sieglinde addresses him as “Spring” but asks if his father was really “Wolf,” as he said earlier. When Siegmund gives his father’s name as Wälse instead, Sieglinde recognizes him as her twin brother. Siegmund pulls the sword from the tree and claims Sieglinde as his bride, rejoicing in the union of the Wälsungs.

ACT II

High in the mountains, Wotan, leader of the gods, tells his warrior daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, that she must defend his mortal son Siegmund in his upcoming battle with Hunding. She leaves joyfully to do what he has asked, as Fricka, Wotan’s wife and the goddess of marriage, appears. Fricka insists that Wotan must defend Hunding’s marriage rights against Siegmund. She ignores his argument that Siegmund could save the gods by winning back the Nibelung Alberich’s all-powerful ring from the dragon Fafner. When Wotan realizes he is caught in his own trap—he will lose his power if he does not enforce the law—he submits to his wife’s demands. After Fricka has left, the frustrated god tells the returning Brünnhilde about the theft of the Rhinegold and Alberich’s curse on it (“Als junger Liebe Lust mir verblich”). Brünnhilde is shocked to hear her father, his plans in ruins, order her to fight for Hunding.

Siegmund comforts his fearful bride and watches over her when she falls asleep. Brünnhilde appears to him as if in a vision, telling him he will soon die and go to Valhalla (“Siegmund! Sieh auf mich!”). He replies that he will not leave Sieglinde and threatens to kill himself and his bride if his sword has no power against Hunding. Moved by his steadfastness, Brünnhilde decides to defy Wotan and help Siegmund. Siegmund bids farewell to Sieglinde when he hears the approaching Hunding’s challenge. The two men fight and Siegmund is about to be victorious, when Wotan appears and shatters his sword, leaving him to be killed by Hunding. Brünnhilde escapes with Sieglinde and the broken sword. Wotan contemptuously kills Hunding with a wave of his hand and leaves to punish Brünnhilde for her disobedience.

ACT III

Brünnhilde’s eight warrior sisters—who have gathered on their mountaintop bearing slain heroes to Valhalla. They are surprised to see Brünnhilde arrive with a woman, Sieglinde. When they hear she is fleeing Wotan’s wrath, they are afraid to hide her. Sieglinde is numb with despair until Brünnhilde tells her she bears Siegmund’s child. Now eager to be saved, she takes the pieces of the sword from Brünnhilde, thanks her, and rushes off into the forest to hide from Wotan. When the god appears, he sentences Brünnhilde to become a mortal woman, silencing her sisters’ objections by threatening to do the same to them. Left alone with her father, Brünnhilde pleads that in disobeying his orders she was really doing what he wished. Wotan will not give in: she must lie in sleep, a prize for any man who finds her. She asks to be surrounded in sleep by a wall of fire that only the bravest hero can pierce. Both sense this hero must be the child that Sieglinde will bear. Sadly renouncing his daughter (“Leb’ wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind”), Wotan kisses Brünnhilde’s eyes with sleep and mortality before summoning Loge, the god of fire, to encircle the rock. As flames spring up, the departing Wotan invokes a spell defying anyone who fears his spear to brave the flames.

Event Sponsors

The simulcasts at Guild Hall are made possible in part through the generosity of: 
Grand Tier: The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming, 
Ann Cestone in memory of her sister Gloria, Phyllis Davis, Louise Phanstiel, The East Hampton Star 
Dress Circle: Norma Giorgetti in memory of Mary-Anne Szabaga, Barbara Horgan, Patti Kenner, Judy and Alex Laughlin, Jim Potter, Maryam Seley, Anita Sheldon, Norbert Weissberg in memory of Dr. Josef Weissberg 
Balcony Circle: Susan L. Blair, Maureen Bluedorn Frederic Cammann, Diane and Bill Dreher, Harriet Edwards, Ernest C. Leatherwood, Jr., Joan and Robert Osborne, Irene and Sidney Silverman, Veronica Stephens, Mary Stone, Sandra Thorn, Peter Van Hattum in memory of Harold K. Simmons, Anese Young, Jeannette and H. Peter Kriendler Charitable Trust  
Family Circle (*Gold): Julia Winston Adams, Paulette and Sanford Balsam, Carolyn and Gioacchino Balducci*, Gabrielle Bamberger*, Joanne Canary, Bonnie and Bob Cooperman*, Ann and George Davis*, James A. Fox*, Dr. and Mrs. Paul Garson, Francine Gluckman, Burton Greenhouse, Phyllis Kessler, Marsha Kranes, Robert F. Luckey*, Joan and Walter Marter, Marjorie A. Ogilvie, Carolyn Preische, Marcia Previti and Peter Gumpel *, David Rey, Connie and Larry Randolph, Beverly and Jerome Siegel, Nancy and Maurice Skurnik, Patricia and Andrew Steffan*, Jane Wood* 
Donations made to Guild Hall’s Met Opera Broadcast series in memory of Andy JacobyanskyNorman Abell, Monika and Bill Akin, Barbara Alexander, Linda and Kenneth Brown, Thomas Buehler and Rosemarie Schiller, Nancy and Paul Buscemi, Robert Chaloner and Oscar Mandes, Ellen and Charles Collins, Jane and Bruce Collins, Carol and Tom Deane, Maria Dolecka, East Hampton Healthcare Foundation, Peter Gamby and Julie Small-Gamby, Eva and Walter Looss, Ellen and Arnie Jacobs, Carol Elaine Peterson and Richard Kahn, Elaine Peterson and Richard Kahn, Lynn and Alan Kaplan, Judy and Alex Laughlin, Suse and Peter Lowenstein, Linda and Lawrence Miller, Claire and Peter Odell, Mary Ann and Robert Stanutz, Susan and Gil Steckowski, Laura Stein and Eugene Wolsk, Florence Stone, the Symer-Rafferty Family, Patricia and Michael Tuths, and Joseph Wood   
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