Iain Cameron's Diary
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2012-05-26 - 12:47 a.m.


ComScore





More new pieces at the top of the Widget - do keep playing the stuff.

Tonight Gilbert was giving a concert with a poet in Bruges, playing original lute pieces. This weather I feel the need to lose weight.

I left about 3.45pm and got to Fulham Broadway about 5. Bette was a few minutes late and went and had a cup of tea.

The Walkyries kicked off at 6. The first act starts with Siegmund who is on a run of bad luck turning up at the house of Hunding and his wife Sieglinde. H is out but shows up before long. By the end of Act 1 S&S are love, H having been drugged by his wife. S&S leg it into the forest with the magic sword that Sm has been pulled out of the tree.

B & I had decided we would skip Act 2 while we had something to eat. In fact we got back in time to see the end of Act 2 in which Hunding and Siegmund fight it out. Wotan turns up and breaks the magic sword so that Siegmund is killed but then he kills Hunding anyway. By this time Sieglinde is pregnant with Siegmund's child even though they have realised that they are twins. Brunnhilde, one of the Vals, saves Sieglinde and rides off.

Act 3 opens with the famous ride of the Vals. I should explain that this production was in modern dress and is set in Hollywood. The music is provided by a single grand piano. The Vals rode in on bicycles. This is the only ensemble piece in the opera.

Most of act 3 is about the relationship between Wotan and Brunnhilde. He is cross with her for having helped Sieglinde. He ends up by casting her into a deep sleep on the top of the mountain protected by a ring of fire which is pretty much where the story pauses.

The next opera is Siegfried - the child of SnS. By the of the opera Siegfried has released Brunnhilde from her sleep.

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