What is Die Walküre?
[[Image:Ring22.jpg|thumb|Brünnhilde the [[Valkyrie]]. Illustration by Arthur Rackham (1867 - 1939) to [[Richard Wagner]]'s Die Walküre.]] '''''Die Walküre''''' (''The Valkyrie'') is an [[opera]] by [[Richard Wagner]]. It is the second of the four operas that together tell a story called ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen]]'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). The story continues from the first opera which was called ''[[Das Rheingold]]''. It is a very beautiful piece. ''Die Walküre'' was first performed on 26 June 1870 in [[Munich]]. The first performance that was part of the whole Ring cycle took place on 14 August 1876. ==The story of the opera== ===Act One=== The opera starts with a [[storm]]. The young man Siegmund is out in the storm and comes to a house. The house belongs to Hunding who lives there with his wife Sieglinde. An [[Ash tree|ash]] tree is growing in the middle of the house. Siegmund and Sieglinde are [[twin]]s who were separated as children, so neither of them knows who the other one is. Their father is Wotan, the chief god, but they don’t know this either. Their mother was a [[immortality|mortal]] (an ordinary person, not a goddess) or perhaps a she-wolf, which is how the goddess Fricka refers to her.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/wagner/general-faq/section-28.html|title=[humanities.music.composers.wagner] Wagner General FAQSection - L. What is the name of the mortal woman who is mother to Siegmund and Sieglinde?|website=www.faqs.org}}</ref> Sieglinde lets Siegmund into the house and gives him a drink of [[mead]]. They start to fall in love. Hunding arrives and asks Siegmund who he is. Siegmund says that his name ought to be Woeful because he has had an unhappy life. When he was small he came home once and found his house burned down, his mother [[murder]]ed and his twin sister had been abducted (taken away). He then remembers that some years later he went to help a young lady who had been forced to marry a cruel man. He had killed some of the man’s friends. Hundi