If we interpret Wotan as the poet-dramatist, who confesses his corrupt history - and need for a hero who can redeem this history - to Bruennhilde, and construe Siegfried as the actor-mime who brings Wotan’s vision to fruition, this passage’s meaning deepens considerably. In this case Siegfried the actor redeems Wotan’s hidden poetic intent, the content of his secret confession to Bruennhilde, by acting out, spontaneously and involuntarily, as if in a dream, Wotan’s secret aim that Siegfried should, by his inspired actions, redeem the gods from Alberich’s curse. And in fact this is precisely the effect which Wagner said his continuous development of musical and motival material (in the orchestra and in the actor-singers’ vocal lines) would have upon the actor-singers who performed his music-dramas on the stage before an audience, that through the music Wagner has them sing, and in the context of which they act, Wagner, both author and composer of his music-dramas, becomes the mime of his own protagonists:
[P. 150] “… whereas the poetic diction of the written speech falls prey to every personal caprice of its reciter, the physical reproduction of this Melody [i.e., the vocal line Wagner has written for his actor-singers to perform] can be fixed beyond all risk of error. What to Shakespeare was practically impossible, namely to be the mime of all his roles, the tone-composer achieves with fullest certainty, for from out his each executant musician he speaks to us directly. Here the transmigration of the poet’s [say, Wotan’s] soul into the body of the player [Siegfried, in whom Wotan is reborn] takes place by laws of the surest [P. 151] technique … .” [799W-{3-6/71} The Destiny of Opera: PW Vol. V, p. 150-151]
But Wagner provides us with more tangible evidence that Siegfried’s fear is the expression of his intuition that in waking Bruennhilde he is in danger of confronting Wotan’s repressed thoughts head on. For instance, in the following remark which Cosima recorded, Wagner says that Siegfried feels fear of guilt through love, as if Siegfried is instinctively aware that he is taking on the burden of Wotan’s guilt, Wotan’s confession of his guilt to Bruennhilde, by waking her and taking her as wife:
“A profound, indescribable impression; a wooing of the utmost beauty; Siegfried’s fear, the fear of guilt through love, Bruennhilde’s fear a premonition of the approaching doom … .” [801W-{7/18/71} CD Vol. I, p. 391]
In a remark recorded by Heinrich Porges, Wagner says that in Bruennhilde’s presence Siegfried is afraid of all that he’s about to undergo, as if Siegfried has an intimation of his tragic future, a future to which he is condemned by unwittingly taking on the burden of Wotan’s guilt. This of course corresponds with Wagner’s comment in our last extract above (see 801W) that Bruennhilde fears sexual union with Siegfried because she has a premonition of coming doom:
[P. 107] “Before singing the words, ‘Wem ruf’ ich zum Heil, dass er mir helfe?’, he [Siegfried] draws away somewhat from Bruennhilde. He should not look at her as he cries, ‘Wie weck’ ich die Maid, dass sie Auge mir oeffne?’ ‘Siegfried is frightened by the [P. 108] thought of all he is about to undergo’, Wagner explained.” [882W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 107-108]
