| 1984 |
1988 |
Act IThe Spirit Messenger (baritone) arrives on the terrace
overlooking the Emperor's palace in the Southeastern Islands. He delivers an
ultimatum from Keikobad, ruler of the spirits, to the Nurse (soprano) for her
mistress: if the Empress remains childless (a ``woman without shadow''), she
will have to return to the spirit kingdom and her father (Keikobad), and the
Emperor will be turned into stone.
|
| 05:24
|
05:35 |
The Emperor (tenor) leaves for the hunt; he recalls how he first met the
Empress, shooting a gazelle who became a woman.
|
| 10:00 |
10:50 |
The Empress (soprano) awakens, looking for her husband, tells the story
from her perspective -- the gazelle's point of view, as it were.
|
| 23:45 |
24:00 |
(After a ride right out of the Walhalla-to-Niebelheim shuttle of
``Rheingold'') Empress and Nurse arrive in the home of Barak (baritone), where
the three unsavory brothers are raising the roof. The Dyer's Wife (Mrs. Barak,
a soprano) curses them, and provides a glimpse into the reasons for her dislike
of children -- or, at least, having them.
|
| 27:00
|
28:00 |
Barak sings of his hopes for having children. |
| 45:00 |
46:30 |
Apparitions are conjured by the Nurse, including the seductive Young Man
(tenor), as she is attempting to capture the Wife's shadow to save the
Empress. |
| 55:50 |
55:00 |
Barak returns to find the strange visitors, and a Wife even more
disagreeable than before, and the bed divided.
|
| 58:30 |
57:00 |
Chorus of the Unborn Children as they are trying to cross over into the
world, but thwarted by divided beds and shadowless royalty.
|
| 1984 |
1988 |
Act IIThe Empress and Nurse are disguised as servants in Barak's
dwelling, trying to capture the Wife's shadow.
|
| 12:55 |
13:05 |
The Emperor, at his hunting lodge, is looking for the Empress; he is
beginning to suspect her. |
| 22:00 |
22:40 |
In Barak's dwelling, the Nurse again conjures the young man to seduce the
Wife; she wakes Barak to resist the temptation. |
| 37:00 |
37:40 |
The Empress is tormented by the cost of acquiring her shadow: the Wife's
downfall and the betrayal of Barak. |
| 40:55 |
41:38 |
Barak is bewildered and he is afraid, his Wife is ready to give up her
shadow, the Nurse is certain of victory, but the Empress is agonizing over the
arrangement. |
| 42:40 |
43:30 |
When the Wife loses her shadow, Barak is enraged to the point of wanting to
kill her, but suddenly, by a mysterious force, the two are separated and are
lost in the darkness.
|