Siegfried

The plot of this opera is set 20 years after the events of Die Walküre.

Sieglinde escaped from Wotan with the help of Brünnhilde, and found refuge in a cave in the forest. There she found Mime, brother of Alberich (who features in the first installment of this series Das Rheingold. Sieglinde gave birth to her brother’s child, and named him Siegfried, as Brünnhilde requested. She died during childbirth, leaving Mime to bring up Siegfried and protect the remnants of his father’s sword, Nothung.

Act One

Working at the forge, Mime is desperately trying to render the shards of Nothung into a useable weapon for Siegfried (‘Zwangvolle Plage! Müh ohne Zweck!’). He has made Siegfried swords before, and put everything he knows about forging into his work, only to have Siegfried return them to him in pieces. Now, he struggles with the remnants of Nothung, which will not bend to his skill. He is certain that, once Nothung is repaired, nothing can stand in its way, and Siegfried will be able to