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Floating the Rhinemaidens, 1869–1913
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
Extract
Producing Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen has never been an easy task for singers and musicians, yet it is no less difficult for stage mangers and machinists. One of the more troublesome staging problems of this opera cycle is presented by the initial scene of Das Rheingold, the first of the four operas making up the Ring. Not only is the scene set under the waters of the Rhine but the three Rhinemaidens (Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde) must float up and down and around the stage with simulated swimming motions as they mock and elude the dwarf Alberich and guard the Rhinegold atop a high pinnacle at stage center.
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- Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1966
References
NOTES
1 See “Stage Notes,” The Builder, XXVII (May 22, 1869), 411; “Theatre Secrets,” Scientific American, Supplement, XXXI, no. 522 (January 2, 1886), 8336; “The Mechanical in Grand Opera,” Popular Mechanics, XIII (April, 1910), 530–531.
2 Newman, Ernest, The Life of Richard Wagner, IV, New York, 1946, 211, 234.Google Scholar
3 Juliién, Adolphe, Richard Wagner: His Life and Works, IV, trans. Hall, Florence Percival, Boston, 1892, 239.Google Scholar
4 “Stage Notes,” p. 411.
5 Newman, p. 207.
6 Jullien, loc. cit.
7 Newman, pp. 210–211.
8 Ibid., pp. 444, 234.
9 Kerr, Caroline V., The Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, Boston, 1912, p. 223.Google Scholar
10 Newman, pp. 470–471.
11 Lehmann, Lilli, My Path Through Life, trans. Seligman, Alice Benedict, New York, 1914, p. 222.Google Scholar
12 Kerr, p. 223.
13 Lehmann, p. 223.
14 Ibid.
15 The Times, May 6, 1882, p. 12.
16 Lehmann, pp. 321–322.
17 Ibid., p. 421.
18 Archer, William, “The Mounting of the ‘Ring,’” Theatrical World of 1896, London, 1897, pp. 238–239.Google Scholar
19 The New York Times, January 13, 1899, p. 6.
20 Ibid., March 20, 1907, p. 9.
21 Ibid., February 25, 1902, p. 6.
22 The British failure to imitate Bayreuth is surprising. Flying effects on the English stage were quite common during the Restoration and the eighteenth century. As late at 1894 the husband and wife team of Aenea and Dando, using a windlass and rubber cords, became a smashing success at London's Palace Theatre with a flying act billed as ‘La Mouche D'Or.’ See The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, ed. Phyllis Hartnoil, London, 1957, p. 244.
23 Begg, S., “Making the Rhinegold's Guardians Natural: New Swimming,” Illustrated London News, LII (American Edition), April 26, 1913, 556–557.Google Scholar
24 The Times, April 28, 1903, p. 10.
25 Farlow, L. S., “The Mechanism of Grand Opera,” Theatre Magazine, VII (December, 1907), 325.Google Scholar
26 Annals of the Opera, 1597–1940, I, ed. Alfred Loewenberg, Genève, 1955, see under “1876.”
27 Yezhegodnik Imp. Teatr, XVI (season of 1905–1906), 96.
28 “Les Filles du Rhin à l'Opéra de Budapest,” L'illustration, CXXIX (February 16, 1907), 115; “Manoeuvering the Guardians of the Rhinegold,” Illustrated London News, CXXX (British Edition), February 23, 1907, 285.
29 See the following: “L'Or du Rhin à l'Opéra,” L'illustration, CXXXIV (November 20, 1909), 366; Le Théâtre, no. 272 (April, 1910), 6–13; Popular Mechanics, loc. cit.; Lahm, Carl, “Rheingold in der Grossen Oper zu Paris,” Illustrierte Zeitung, CXXXIII (November 25, 1909), 1,041b.Google Scholar
30 Popular Mechanics, loc. cit.
31 “L'Or du Rhin à l'Opéra,” 366.
32 Singer, Hans W., “The New Mounting of Wagner's Ring as Adapted at Dresden,” Graphic, LXXXVIII (August 16, 1913), 314.Google Scholar
33 S. Begg, 557.
34 The Times, April 23, 1913, p. 10.