Word: fricka
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...inexplicit staging, these moments stood out in a relief that old-fashioned literalness could never achieve. The orchestra, which Von Karajan subdued to the point of regretfulness during the love scene between Siegmund and his twin sister Sieglinde in Act I, later blared and crackled as Wotan and Fricka haggled about the implications of incest, thus highlighting Wagner's philosophical meditations on the Ring rather than the story itself...
Thus, as Wieland interpreted the Ring cycle, Valhalla would be Wall Street, the heroes Siegfried and Siegmund self-sacrificing astronauts, the temptress Gutrune a mythological call girl, the god Wotan a wheeler-dealer politician, his wife Fricka everybody's nagging mother-in-law, and the spear-carrying Valkyries teen-age Beatle fans. Richard Wagner would have adored it, insisted Wieland. After all, no one despised the old Wagnerite purists more than Grandfather, who delighted in shocking admiring visitors by greeting them at the door on all fours and yapping like a fox terrier...
...glories of the Wagnerian orchestra, at the same time charging every passage of Wotan's family fracas with drama. The lush and beautiful singing is alive with emotion, the stars being an international assemblage of accomplished artists: Birgit Nilsson as Briinnhilde, Regine Crespin as Sieglinde, Christa Ludwig as Fricka, and Hans Hotter as Wotan. Not quite so great but still outstanding are James King as Siegmund and Gottlob Frick as Hunding...
Killer & Astronaut. In Wieland's revised version, he visualized Alberich and Wotan as archetypes of "wheeler-dealer politicians," the heroes Siegfried and Siegmund as self-sacrificing astronauts, the Rhinemaidens as the bosses' sexy secretaries, Wotan's wife Fricka as everybody's nagging mother-in-law, Fafner and Fasolt as Murder Inc.'s cold blooded killers, Briinnhilde as a man's best pal, the temptress Gutrune as a call girl...