reading, though Donington seems not to have had the remotest idea that Siegfried is Wagner’s metaphor for Wagner himself, the music-dramatist. It is not that Siegfried lowers his standard for operatic fare to produce a retro work, but rather, that he is too eager to share his innermost insights with his audience through a public performance of his authentically unconsciously inspired music-drama. Along this line of inquiry Gutrune would probably represent a false – because conscious and ulterior - muse for Siegfried’s art, and to this extent Nattiez’s reading of Gutrune is largely correct, though she need not represent any particular genre of popular musical theater, even though Nattiez is surely right in his assessment that the especially sensuous music Wagner wrote for Gutrune was inspired by the seductiveness of French opera.
[T.1.1: C]
Striking evidence that it is the Wagnerian Wonder, the magic of Wagner’s musical motifs, which in the end will betray Wotan’s unspoken secret to the light of day, within the context of the Wagnerian music-drama itself (Siegfried’s narrative of how he came to grasp the meaning of birdsong), is to be found in the following conversation between Gunther, Gutrune, and Hagen:
Gutrune: ([[ #156: ]]) Might I only set eyes on (#153:) Siegfried!
Gunther: (#153:; 51?:) How could we find where he is? (#51)
(#151:; #103; #151: An off-stage horn is heard from the back on the right. #103?. Hagen listens. #151?; #152 or #115 in low strings?: he turns to Gunther.)
Hagen: (#103 >> :) When he rides out gaily in search of adventure, the world becomes a narrow pinewood. in restless chase he’ll surely ride (#103?:) to Gibich’s shores along the Rhine.
Gunther: (#103:) I’d gladly bid him welcome.
(horn closer, but still in the distance. #103. Both men listen. Hagen hurries down to the shore. #151; #152 vari)
Hagen: (#voc?: [#24 vari or #139?]) The horn rings forth from the Rhine (:#voc? [#24 vari or #139?]). (#151; [[ #168b ]]) (Hagen looking downstream and calling back: #45: #?: [perhaps some
