[865W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 23]
[P. 23] {FEUER} “Loge’s vindication of Alberich: ‘Gerathen ist ihm der Ring!’ must be sung with a harshness verging on the shrill. Wagner attached great importance to this passage: it should sound like a lament for a lost paradise and yet a lament that is being mocked. He himself sang the words several times articulated in such a way as to make his meaning crystal clear; he remarked that here the daemonic element in Loge is breaking through, that in a flash he reveals his true self, then at once reverts to his former apparent good humour.” [865W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 23]
[866W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 27-29]
[P. 27] {FEUER} “The powerful orchestral piece, depicting the descent from the mountain heights to gloomy, cavernous Nibelheim, was played with a tremendous weight and energy. The Valhalla theme creates an atmosphere of grandiose calm appropriate to the spirit of law and order, but now a daemonic force erupts reveling in its power to destroy the realm of freedom and love. (…) After the Loge motive rises to a gigantic power, imbued with a fury of destructive lust and yet at the same time inwardly cold, it is as though an eternal lament for the destruction of love were reaching our ears. (…)
[P. 28] {FEUER} The performance of the whole period should combine frightening power and painful agitation – as though the spirit of love in the grip of the powers of darkness were uttering a cry of anguish. (…) It was as though we were facing cosmic forces of nature which mercilessly wipe out the lives of [P. 29] individuals.” [866W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 27-29]
[867W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 29]
[P. 29] “ … this was one of the essential aspects of the expressive style for which Wagner strove in music and drama: everything arbitrary and individual, however inspired, was foreign to it. His most startling inspirations seemed as though drawn from some hidden deep layer; often it was as though a veil were removed and one had the sudden glimpse of a self-sufficient ideal world beyond the influence of any human will.” [867W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 29]
[868W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 29]
[P. 29] “He took great care over the Tarnhelm theme: … . It should not be unduly drawn out; nevertheless it must have the character of a melody conceived as an adagio. In those twilit harmonies one felt the presence of a mysterious spirit-world; it was as though for a moment the eternal silence of the very basis of existence was beginning to resound of its own volition … .” [868W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 29]
[869W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 31]
[P. 31] “It is not possible to find a more striking way of expressing the difference between Alberich’s and Wotan’s characters than through the latter’s delivery of the speech: ‘Von Nibelheim’s naecht’gem Land vernahmen wir neue Maehr’ …’ The calm self-control of the ruler of the gods forms a doubly effective contrast to the savage passion of the prince of the Nibelungs. (…)
