Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen | Siegfried Act I (MET 1990)

Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring. This part of the opera is primarily inspired by the story of the legendary hero Sigurd in Norse mythology.

In the third opera of Wagner's Ring Cycle, a young man named Siegfried, raised by the dwarf Mime, finds the pieces of a magic sword and goes on a quest to experience fear for the first time, all part of a plan set forth by the god Wotan.

ACT I - Mime's forge in the forest

Mime tries in vain to forge a sword strong enough for Siegfried to kill the dragon Fafner. Siegfried returns from the forest with a bear with which he terrifies Mime. He easily breaks the latest sword on the anvil. Mime reproaches him with ingratitude, reminding him that he has brought him up from childhood. Refusing to believe that Mime is his father, Siegfried manages to extract from him the information that his mother, Sieglinde, had died giving birth to him, leaving the fragments of his father's sword, Nothung. Siegfried demands that Mime reforge this sword and storms out, hoping he may soon be free of the dwarf. Mime knows he cannot forge the sword, but when the Wanderer (Wotan) appears and offers to answer any three questions on pain of forfeiting his head, Mime asks him only useless questions (about the races of dwarf, giants and gods). When the Wanderer demands a reciprocal question test, Mime is able to answer the first two questions but fails on the third: who will reforge Nothung? The Wanderer tells Mime that his head is forfeit, but he leaves it to be claimed by one who knows no fear.

Mime realises that this is one lesson he has failed to teach Siegfried and tries vainly to make up this omission, but Siegfried is unmoved, even by the mention of the fearsome dragon. Mime has to admit that his skill is unequal to the task of forging Nothung and Siegfried takes to the task himself, breaking all the rules of smithing, but succeeding, while Mime brews a potion he plans to administer to Siegfried when he has killed Fafner, so that he can kill him and seize the ring.

Cast & Characters:
Siegfried - Siegfried Jerusalem
Mime - Heinz Zednik
Brünnhilde - Hildegard Behrens
Wanderer - James Morris
Alberich - Ekkehard Wlaschiha
Fafner - Matti Salminen
Erda - Birgitta Svendén
Waldvogel - Dawn Upshaw

Siegfried Act II: https://rumble.com/v4bhgwb-richard-wagners-der-ring-des-nibelungen-siegfried-act-ii-met-1990.html