Rhinemaidens

Main article: Der Ring des Nibelungen

The three Rhinemaidens at play in the waters of the Rhine. Illustration from Stories of the Wagner Opera by H. A. Guerber, 1905.

The Rhinemaidens are the three water-nymphs (Rheintöchter or Rhine daughters) who appear in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Their individual names are Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde, although they are generally considered as a single unit, and act together accordingly. Of all the 34 characters in the Ring cycle, they are the only ones who do not originate in the Scandinavian Eddas. Other legends and myths on which Wagner drew, notably the Nibelungenlied, include stories involving water-sprites (nixies) or mermaids, and it is likely that he created his Rhinemaidens from these sources. The key concepts associated with them in the Ring operas—their flawed guardianship of the Rhine gold, and the condition (renunciation of love) through which the gold could be stolen from them and transformed into a means of world power—are wholly Wagner's own invention, and are the elements that initiate and propel the entire drama.

The Rhinemaidens are the first and the last characters to be seen in the operas, appearing both in the opening scene of Das Rheingold, and in the final climactic spectacle of Götterdämmerung when they rise from the Rhine waters to reclaim the ring from Brünnhilde’s ashes. They have been described as the drama’s "most seductive but most elusive characters", and in one analysis as representatives of "seduction by infantile fantasy". They have been ascribed moral innocence, yet display a range of sophisticated emotions, including some far from innocent. They have no relationship to any of the other characters, and no indication is given as to how they came into being, beyond occasional references to an unspecified "father".

The various musical themes associated with the Rhinemaidens are regarded as among the most lyrical in the whole Ring cycle, bringing to it rare instances of comparative relaxation and charm. It is reported that Wagner played their famous lament at the piano on the night before he died, in Venice.

Origins

Water-sprites (German: Nixen) occur in many European myths and legends, often but not invariably in a form of disguised malevolence. Wagner drew widely from such legends when compiling his Ring narrative, and the most likely origin of his Rhinemaidens is in the German Nibelungenlied. In one part of the Nibelungenlied narrative Hagen and Gunther encounter certain "wise women" (thereafter described as water-sprites), bathing and refreshing themselves in the waters of the Danube. Hagen creeps softly towards them, but is seen, whereupon the sprites retreat and mock him from a distance. Hagen then steals their clothes. To obtain the return of these, one of the sprites, Hadeburg, promises falsely that Hagen and Gunther will find honour and glory when they enter Etzel's kingdom. After the clothes are returned another sprite, Sigelinde (a name Wagner would adapt for use elsewhere), tells Hagen that her sister has lied; if they go to Etzel’s land, they will die there.

Alberich steals the gold: Das Rheingold, Scene I – part of a series of Ring illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

This story, itself unrelated to the Ring drama, is echoed by Wagner both in the opening Das Rheingold scene and in the first scene in Act III of Götterdämmerung. Wagner first adapted the story for use in his early libretto of Siegfried's Death (which eventually became Götterdämmerung), introducing three un-named water-maids (Wasserjungfrauen), and locating them in the Rhine, where they warn Siegfried of his impending death. Later these water-maids became Rhinemaidens (Rheintöchter), and were given individual names: Flosshilde, Wellgunde and "Bronnlinde". Later still, as Wagner continued working his reverse chronology from Siegfried's death, he arrived at what he determined was the initial act of the drama—Alberich's theft of the Rhine gold. Believing that a simple abduction of the unguarded gold would lack dramatic force, he made the Rhinemaidens the guardians of the gold, and introduced the "renunciation of love" condition. Bronnlinde became Woglinde, probably to avoid confusion with Brünnhilde.

Wagner may also have been influenced by the Rhine-based German legend of Lorelei, the lovelorn young maiden who drowns herself in the river and becomes a siren, luring fishermen on to the rocks by her singing. Further possible sources lie in Greek mythology and literature. The Hesperides myth has three maidens guarding the golden apples of Arcadia, a scenario clearly reminiscent of the core Rheingold themes of guardianship and gold. Wagner was an enthusiastic reader of Aeschylus, including his Prometheus Bound which has a chorus of Oceanids or water nymphs. One author, Rudolph Sabor, sees a link between the Oceanids' treatment of Prometheus and the Rhinemaidens' initially tolerant treatment of Alberich. Just as in Greek myth the Oceanids are the daughters of the titan sea god Oceanus, in Norse myth—specifically the Poetic Edda—the jötunn (giant) sea god Aegir has nine daughters. The name of one of these means "wave" (Welle in German) and is a possible source for Wellgunde's name.

The opera story does not reveal where the Rhinemaidens come from, or whether they have any connection to other characters. Whereas most of the characters in the cycle are inter-related, through birth, marriage or sometimes both, the Rhinemaidens are seemingly independent. The identity of the father who entrusted them with their guardianship of the gold is not given in the text. Some have suggested that he may be a "Supreme Being", father of Wotan, all the gods and all creation. Others take the German Rheintöchter literally and say that they are the daughters of the River Rhine. Whatever is surmised, the Rhinemaidens are in a different category from Wotan and the other gods, who are destroyed by fire at the end of Götterdämmerung, while the maidens swim happily away in the Rhine, bearing their recovered treasure.

Nature and attributes

The Rhinemaidens lament the loss of the gold as, far above, the gods cross the rainbow bridge into Valhalla. Das Rheingold, Scene IV (Arthur Rackham)

The Rhinemaidens act essentially as a unity, with a composite yet elusive personality. Apart from Flosshilde’s implied seniority, demonstrated by occasional light rebukes and illustrated in the opera by awarding the role to a contralto or mezzo, their characters are undifferentiated. In The Perfect Wagnerite, his 1886 analysis of the Ring drama as political allegory, George Bernard Shaw describes the Rhinemaidens as "thoughtless, elemental, only half real things, very much like modern young ladies". The attributes most apparent initially are charm and playfulness, combined with a natural innocence; their joy in the gold they guard derives from its beauty alone, even though they know its latent power. However, this veneer of child-like simplicity is misleading, and the picture proves to be more complex. Aside from proving themselves irresponsible as guardians, they are also provocative, sarcastic and cruel in their interaction with Alberich. When the demi-god Loge reports that the Rhinemaidens need Wotan's help to regain the gold, Fricka, goddess of marriage, calls them a "watery brood" (Wassergezücht) and complains about the many men they have lured away with their "treacherous bathing". They are beguiling and flirtatious with Siegfried, but finally wise in the undisclosed counsel which they give to Brünnhilde. One author sees the Rhinemaidens as blending the "good hearted nature" of the Oceanids and the "austerity" (including the willingness to drown people) of the daughters of Aegir.

The first lines sung by Woglinde in the Ring are dominated by wordless vocalisations. Weia! Waga! ... Wagala weia! Wallala weiala weia! This attracted comment both at the 1869 premiere of Rheingold and the 1876 premiere of the entire Ring, with Wagner's work being dismissed as "Wigalaweia-Musik". In a letter to Nietzsche dated 12 June 1872, Wagner explained that he had derived Weiawaga from old German and that it was related to Weihwasser, meaning holy water. Other words were intended as parallels to those found in nursery lullabies. Thus the whole was meant to represent the childish nature of the Rhinemaidens and the holiness of Nature.

Their sorrow in the loss of the gold is deep and heartfelt. As the gods are crossing the rainbow bridge into Valhalla at the end of Das Rheingold, Loge ironically suggests that, in the absence of the gold, the maidens should "bask in the gods’ new-found radiance". The maidens' lament then becomes a stern reproof: "Tender and true are only the depths", they sing; "False and cowardly is all that rejoices up there". In the final Götterdämmerung scene they show ruthlessness as, having recovered the ring, they drag the hapless Hagen down into the waters of the Rhine.

They are the only prominent characters seen definitely alive at the end of the drama; the fates of a few others are ambiguous, but most have certainly perished. Despite the relative brevity of their roles in the context of the four-opera cycle, they are key figures, whose actions in provoking Alberich to the theft of the gold are responsible for all that follows. The fact that only its return to their care, in the waters of the Rhine, will lift the curse from the ring provides a unifying "thematic consistency" to Wagner’s complex story.

Role in the Ring Operas

Summaries drawn from Wagner's libretti as translated into English by William Mann, 1964

Das Rheingold, Scene 1

Alberich tries to reach the Rhinemaidens (Arthur Rackham)

As the musical prelude climaxes, Woglinde and Wellgunde are seen at play in the depths of the Rhine. Flosshilde joins them after a gentle reminder of their responsibilities as guardians of the gold. They are observed by the Nibelung dwarf Alberich who calls out to them: "I'd like to draw near if you would be kind to me". The wary Flosshilde cries: "Guard the gold! Father warned us of such a foe". When Alberich begins his rough wooing the maidens relax: "Now I laugh at my fears, our enemy is in love", says Flosshilde, and a cruel teasing game ensues. First, Woglinde pretends to respond to the dwarf's advances but swims away as he tries to embrace her. Then Wellgunde takes over, and Alberich's hopes rise until her sharp retort: "Ugh, you hairy hunchbacked clown!" Flosshilde pretends to chastise her sisters for their cruelty and feigns her own courtship, by which Alberich is quite taken in until she suddenly tears away to join the others in a mocking song. Tormented with lust, Alberich furiously chases the maidens over the rocks, slipping and sliding as they elude him, before he sinks down in impotent rage. At this point the mood changes: as a sudden brightness penetrates the depths, a magical golden light reveals, for the first time, the Rhinegold on its rock. The maidens sing their ecstatic greeting to the gold, which rouses Alberich's curiosity. In response to his question Woglinde and Wellgunde reveal the gold's secret: measureless power would be his who could forge a ring from it. Flosshilde scolds them for giving this secret away, but her concerns are dismissed—only someone who has forsworn love can obtain the gold, and Alberich is clearly so besotted as to present no danger. But their confidence is misplaced; in his humiliation Alberich decides that world mastery is more desirable than love. As the maidens continue to jeer his antics he scrambles up the rock and, uttering a curse on love, seizes the gold and disappears, leaving the Rhinemaidens in the darkness, bewailing their loss.

Das Rheingold, Scene 4

As Wotan, Fricka and the other gods start to cross the rainbow bridge leading to Valhalla, they hear a melancholy song from the depths of the Rhine—the maidens, mourning the loss of the gold. Embarrassed and irritated, Wotan tells Loge to silence the maidens, but as the gods continue across the bridge the sweet lament rises again, now with bitter words of reproach to the gods for their heartlessness, until their song is drowned out by the thunderous ostinato of the Entry of the Gods.

Götterdämmerung, Act 3 Scene 1

Siegfried encounters the Rhinemaidens. Oil on canvas by Albert Pinkham Ryder, c. 1875–91

Much time and many generations have passed. In a remote wooded valley where the Rhine flows, the ageless Rhinemaidens continue to mourn for the gold, pleading with the "Sun-woman" to send them a champion who will give them back the gold. Siegfried's horn is heard, and he soon appears, having lost his way whilst hunting. The maidens greet him with their old playfulness and offer to help him, for the price of the ring on his finger. After a flirtatious exchange Siegfried offers, facetiously, to give them the ring, but their mood becomes solemn as they warn him he will be killed that very day unless he delivers the ring to them. Siegfried, however, will not submit to threats, and declares: "By threatening my life and limb, even if it weren't worth as much as a finger you won't get the ring from me!" The maidens are scornful of his folly: "Farewell, Siegfried. A proud woman will today become your heir, scoundrel! She'll give us a better hearing". Siegfried is not aware that it is to Brünnhilde that they refer. They swim off, leaving a puzzled Siegfried to ponder their words and to admit to himself that he could happily have seduced any one of them.

Götterdämmerung, Act 3 Scene 3

In her final soliloquy, Brünnhilde thanks the Rhinemaidens for their "good advice". We can presume that they have told her the full story of Siegfried's ensnarement and betrayal, and that only the return of the ring to the waters of the Rhine can lift its curse. Brünnhilde sings: "What you desire I will give you: from my ashes take it to yourselves. The fire...will cleanse the curse from the ring". She exhorts the Rhinemaidens to "carefully guard it" in future, then leaps into the flames of Siegfried's pyre. As the Rhine overflows its banks the Rhinemaidens appear, making for the ring. Hagen, who covets the ring, shouts to them "Get back from the ring!" {Zurück vom Ring!), the last words of the drama. He is seized by Woglinde and Wellgunde and dragged into the Rhine's depths, as Flosshilde grabs the ring, holds it aloft, and joins her sisters "swimming in circles on the calm waters of the Rhine which is gradually returning to its bed".

Rhinemaidens' music

The music associated with the Rhinemaidens has been portrayed by Wagner commentator James Holman as "some of the seminal music in the Ring"; other descriptions have noted its relative charm and relaxation. Its impact is immediate because the first music heard as the curtain rises on Das Rheingold is Woglinde's signature "Weia! Waga!" melody, which influences many themes and motives throughout the Ring cycle. Broadly, the Rhinemaidens' music falls under four main headings, all sharing melodic characteristics redolent of the river and the maidens themselves.

• Woglinde's song to the Rhine: "Weia! Waga! Woge, du Welle,..." (Das Rheingold, Scene 1): The song begins with a two-note falling step (F followed by E flat), a figure which recurs in many musical motives throughout the Ring. The melody itself is reprised during Fricka's denunciation of the Rhinemaidens in Das Rheingold, Scene 2 and, dramatically, at the end of Götterdämmerung when, after Brünnhilde's immolation, the Rhinemaidens rise from the river to claim the ring from Siegfried's funeral pyre. Its first five notes, with an altered rhythm, become the motive of the sleeping Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, Act 3. A variant of the tune becomes the Woodbird's greeting "Hei! Siegfried" in Act 2 of Siegfried. The Rhinemaidens and the Woodbird, in Deryck Cooke's analysis, are related through nature, as "fundamentally innocent allies of the natural world".
• Rhinemaidens' joy and greeting to the gold: "Heiayaheia, Heiajaheia! Wallalallalala leiajahei! Rheingold! Rheingold!..." (Das Rheingold Scene 1): The triumphant greeting song is based on two elements, which are developed and transformed later in the Ring and put to many uses. For example the joyful "heiayaheia" cries are converted, in Rheingold Scene 2, into a dark minor version as Loge reports the theft of the gold to the gods, and the consequent rising power of the Nibelungen. The "Rheingold!" repetition is sung by the Rhinemaidens to the same falling step that marked the start of Woglinde's song. This figure recurs constantly in the later stages of the drama; in Das Rheingold Scene 3 a snarling minor key version is used as a motive for the evil power of the ring that Alberich has forged form the gold. It comes to represent the theme of servitude to the ring; in Gotterdammerung Hagen, enslaved to the ring by his desire for it, utters his "Hoi-ho" call to his vassals using the same minor two-note figure.
• Rhinemaidens' lament: "Rheingold! Rheingold! Rheines Gold!..." (Das Rheingold Scene 4): The lament, which is sung at the end of Das Rheingold as the gods cross the Rainbow Bridge into Valhalla, begins with the "Rheingold" repetition from the greeting, but develops into a haunting song of loss, which becomes ever more poignant before it is drowned by the fortissimo orchestral brilliance that ends the opera. A slow version of the lament is played on the horns in Siegfried, Act 2, as Siegfried enters Fafner's cave to claim the gold—the lament serves to remind us of the gold's true ownership. The lament is played exuberantly as part of the orchestral interlude known as Siegfried's Rhine Journey, during the Götterdämmerung prologue, before a shadow falls across the music as it descends into the minor key of the servitude motive.
• Interlude with Siegfried: "Frau Sonne..." and "Weilalala leia..." (Götterdämmerung, Act 3 Scene 1): Newman describes the Rhinemaidens' scene with Siegfried, at the start of the last act of the Ring cycle, as a "gracious woodland idyll". The musical elements associated with the Rhinemaidens in this scene are new; Holman describes them as alluding to the maidens' seductive nature, as well as conveying a sense of nostalgia and detachment, as the drama approaches its conclusion.

Rhinemaidens on stage

A contemporary picture of the machinery using for the swimming Rhinemaidens at the 1876 premiere of the Ring, seen from backstage.

In Wagner's initial 1876 production of the Ring cycle it was established that the Rhinemaidens should be depicted in conventional human form, rather than as mermaids with fishtails or other supernatural features, notwithstanding Alberich's insult to Wellgunde: "Frigid bony fish!" (Kalter, grätiger Fisch!). The staging of their scenes has always been a test of ingenuity and imagination, as Wagner's stage directions include much swimming and diving and other aquatic gymnastics, which are difficult to represent on a theatre stage. Traditionally, therefore, much use has been made of backdrops and lighting to achieve the necessary watery effects. Until the Second World War, under the influence of Cosima Wagner and her and Richard's son Siegfried, a policy of "stifling conservatism" was applied to the Bayreuth stagings of the Ring operas. Although there had been some innovation in productions staged elsewhere, it was not until the postwar revival of the Festival in 1951 that there were any significant changes in Bayreuth's presentation of the Ring operas. Since 1976, in particular, innovation at the Festival and elsewhere has been substantial and imaginative.

At the first complete production of the Ring, at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1876, the singers were wheeled around on stands behind semi-transparent screens. The stage machinery and the lighting effects were designed by Carl Brandt, who was the foremost stage technician of the time. One innovation Cosima did approve was the introduction of giant, invisible "fishing rods" on which the Rhinemaidens were hung. Wires continued to be used under Siegfried Wagner and later his widow Winifred, who ran the Bayreuth Festival until the end of the Second World War. Similar approaches are used in present-day productions. In the 1996 Lyric Opera of Chicago Ring cycle, repeated in 2004–05, the Rhinemaidens were suspended on bungee cords anchored in the fly space above the stage, enabling them to dive up and down, as directed by Wagner. The Rhinemaidens were played on-stage by gymnasts, mouthing words sung by singers standing in a corner of the stage.

The 1951 Festival production, by Siegfried and Winifred's son Wieland, broke with tradition and featured an austere staging which replaced scenery and props with skilful lighting effects; the Rhinemaidens, along with all the other characters, were plainly dressed in simple robes, and sang their roles without histrionics. Thus the music and the words became the main focus of attention. Wieland was influenced by Adolphe Appia, whose Notes sur l'Anneau du Nibelungen (1924–25) had been dismissed by Cosima: "Appia seems to be unaware that the Ring was performed here in 1876. It follows that the staging is definitive and sacrosanct." However, Wieland and his brother Wolfgang praised Appia: "... the stylised stage, inspired by the music and the realisation of three-dimensional space – constitute the initial impulses for a reform of operatic stagings which led quite logically to the 'New Bayreuth' style."

Keith Warner's Covent Garden production uses lighting to convey the impression of being underwater and nudity to display the natural innocence of the Rhinemaidens

The innovative centenary Bayreuth Ring, directed by Patrice Chéreau, did away altogether with the underwater concept by setting the Rhinemaiden scenes in the lee of a large hydro-electric dam, as part of a 19th century Industrial Revolution setting for the operas. For the scene with Siegfried in Götterdämmerung Chéreau altered the perpetual youth aspect of the Rhinemaidens by depicting them as "no longer young girls merrily disporting themselves; they have become tired, grey, careworn and ungainly". Since this production "the assumption of unrestricted interpretive license has become the norm". For example Nikolaus Lehnhoff, in his 1987 Bayerische Staatsoper production, placed the Rhinemaidens in a salon and had their lament at the end of Rheingold played on a gramophone by Loge.

The Bayreuth Ring which followed Chéreau's, directed by Peter Hall in 1983–86, took the natural innocence aspect of the Rhinemaidens literally, by presenting them naked, a feature shared with Keith Warner's Ring production for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, first staged 2004–06. A Covent Garden spokesman explained "The maidens are children of innocence, a vision of nature - and as soon as someone appears they hastily throw on some clothes to protect their modesty." Whilst Warner relies on lighting to achieve an underwater effect, Hall used a Pepper's ghost illusion with mirrors at 45 degrees making the Rhinemaidens appear to swim vertically when the performers were in fact swimming horiziontally in a shallow basin.

The 1876 premiere cast of the Ring included Lilli Lehmann (centre) as Woglinde. She was the first of many significant singers to play one of the Rhinemaidens

Although the roles of the Rhinemaidens are relatively small, they have been sung by notable singers better known for performing major roles in Wagnerian and other repertoire. The first person to sing the part of Woglinde in full was Lilli Lehmann at Bayreuth in 1876. In 1951, when the Bayreuth Festival re-opened after the Second World War, the same part was taken by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Helga Dernesch sang Wellgunde there between 1965 and 1967, and Hanna Schwarz made her Bayreuth debut as Flosshilde in 1975. Joan Sutherland is another soprano who has sung the part of Woglinde, including in the Royal Opera House performances between 1954 and 1957. Recorded Rhinemaidens have included Sena Jurinac for Furtwängler and RAI, Lucia Popp and Dame Gwyneth Jones for Solti, and Helen Donath and Edda Moser for Karajan.

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