WOTAN } _Baritone-Bass_ DONNER } Gods _Baritone-Bass_ FROH } _Tenor_ LOGE } _Tenor_
FASOLT } Giants _Baritone-Bass_ FAFNER } _Bass_
ALBERICH } Nibelungs _Baritone-Bass_ MIME } _Tenor_
FRICKA } _Soprano_ FREIA } Goddesses _Soprano_ ERDA } _Mezzo-Soprano_
WOGLINDE } _Soprano_ WELLGUNDE } Rhinedaughters _Soprano_ FLOSSHILDE } _Mezzo-Soprano_
_Place_--The bed of the Rhine; a mountainous district near the Rhine; the subterranean caverns of Nibelheim.
In "The Rhinegold" we meet with supernatural beings of German mythology--the Rhinedaughters _Woglinde_, _Wellgunde_, and _Flosshilde_, whose duty it is to guard the precious Rhinegold; _Wotan_, the chief of the gods; his spouse _Fricka_; _Loge_, the God of Fire (the diplomat of Walhalla); _Freia_, the Goddess of Youth and Beauty; her brothers _Donner_ and _Froh_; _Erda_, the all-wise woman; the giants _Fafner_ and _Fasolt_; _Alberich_ and _Mime_ of the race of Nibelungs, cunning, treacherous gnomes who dwell in the bowels of the earth.
The first scene of "Rhinegold" is laid in the Rhine, at the bottom of the river, where the _Rhinedaughters_ guard the Rhinegold.
The work opens with a wonderfully descriptive Prelude, which depicts with marvellous art (marvellous because so simple) the transition from the quietude of the water-depths to the wavy life of the _Rhinedaughters_. The double basses intone E-flat. Only this note is heard during four bars. Then three contra bassoons add a B-flat. The chord, thus formed, sounds until the 136th bar. With the sixteenth bar there flows over this seemingly immovable triad, as the current of a river flows over its immovable bed, the =Motive of the Rhine=.
A horn intones this motive. Then one horn after another takes it up until its wave-like tones are heard on the eight horns. On the flowing accompaniment of the 'cellos the motive is carried to the wood-wind. It rises higher and higher, the other strings successively joining in the accompaniment, which now flows on in gentle undulations until the motive is heard on the high notes of the wood-wind, while the violins have joined in the accompaniment. When the theme thus seems to have stirred the waters from their depth to their surface the curtain rises.