“Das Rheingold” by Richard Wagner libretto (English)

Contents: Characters; Prelude And Scene One; Scene Two; Scene Three; Scene Four; Glossary

Prelude and Scene One

At the bottom of the Rhine
(Greenish twilight, lighter above, darker below.
The upper part of the scene is filled with moving
water, which restlessly streams from right to left.
Toward the bottom, the waters resolve themselves
into a fine mist, so that the space, to a man's height
from the stage, seems free from the water, which
floats like a train of clouds over the gloomy depths.
Everywhere are steep points of rock jutting up from
the depths and enclosing the whole stage; all the
ground is broken up into a wild confusion of jagged
pieces, so that there is no level place, while on all
sides darkness indicates other deeper fissures.)
(The curtain rises. Waters in motion. Woglinde
circles with graceful swimming motions around the
central rock.)

Woglinde
Weia! Waga! Wandering waters,
swing ye our cradle! wagala weia!
walala, weiala weia!

Wellgunde
(from above)
Woglinde, watchest alone?

Woglinde
If Wellgunde came we were two.

Wellgunde
(dives down to the rock.)
How safe is thy watch?

Woglinde
(eludes her by swimming)
Safe from thy wiles!
(They playfully chase one another.)

Flosshilde
(from above)
Heiaha weia! heedless wild watchers!

Wellgunde
Flosshilde swim! Woglinde flies:
help me to hinder her flying!
(Flosshilde dives down between them.)

Flosshilde
The sleeping gold badly ye guard!
Better beset the slumberer's bed,
or both will pay for your sport!
(With merry cries they swim apart. Flosshilde tries
to catch first one and then the other; they elude her
and then together chase her and dart laughing and
playing like fish between the rocks.)
(From a dark chasm Alberich climbs up one of the
rocks. He remains watching the water-maidens with
increasing pleasure.)

Alberich
Hehe! ye nixies!
(The maidens stop playing
on hearing Alberich's voice.)
How ye delight me, daintiest folk!
From Nibelheim's night fain would I come,
would ye turn but to me!

Woglinde
Hei! who is there?

Wellgunde
A voice in the dark.

Flosshilde
Look who is below!
(They dive deeper down and see the Nibelung.)

Woglinde, Wellgunde
Fie! thou grisly one!

Flosshilde
(swimming quickly up)
Look to the gold!
Father warned us such foe to fear.
(The two others follow her, and all three gather
quickly around the middle rock.)

Alberich
You, above there!

Rhine Daughters
What wouldst thou below there?

Alberich
Spoil I your sport,
if still I stand here and gaze?
Dive ye but deeper, with you
fain would a Nibelung dally and play.

Woglinde
Would he be our playmate?

Wellgunde
Doth he but mock?

Alberich
How bright and fair in the light ye shine!
Fain are my arms to enfold a maiden so fair,
would she come to me here!

Flosshilde
I laugh at my fear:
the foe is in love!

Wellgunde
The languishing imp!

Woglinde
Let us go near him!
(Woglinde lets herself sink to the top of the rock,
the foot of which Alberich has reached.)

Alberich
One sinks down to me.

Woglinde
Come close to me here!
(Alberich climbs with imp-like agility, but with
frequent checks, to the top of the rock.)

Alberich
(hurriedly)
Loathsome, slimy, slippery pebbles!
I cannot stand!
My hands and my feet cannot fasten or hold on
the treacherous smoothness!
Waterdrops fill up my nostrils ...
accursed sneezing!
(He has come near Woglinde.)

Woglinde
(laughing)
Sneezing tells of my love's approach!

Alberich
My sweetheart be, thou loveliest child!
(He tries to embrace her.)

Woglinde
(avoiding him)
Me wouldst thou woo? then woo me up here!
(Alberich scratches his head. Woglinde has
reached another rock.)

Alberich
Alas! thou escap'st?
Come but nearer!
Thou canst fly where I scarcely can creep.
(Woglinde swims to a third rock, deeper down.)

Woglinde
Climb to the ground,
then safe wouldst thou clasp me.

Alberich
(clambers hastily down)
'Tis better down lower!

Woglinde
Now let us go higher!

(She darts quickly
to a high rock at the side)

Wellgunde, Flosshilde
(laughing)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Alberich
How catch in her flight the timid fish?
Wait a while, false one!
(He tries to climb hastily after her.)
(Wellgunde has sunk down to a lower rock on the
other side.)

Wellgunde
Heia, thou fair one!
hear'st thou me not?

Alberich
(turning around) Call'st thou to me?

Wellgunde
I counsel thee well:
to me turn thee and Woglinde heed not!
(Alberich clambers hastily over the ground to
Wellgunde.)

Alberich
Far fairer seemest thou than that shy one,
who gleams less brightly and looks too sleek.
Yet deeper dive, if thou wouldst delight me.

Wellgunde
(letting herself sink down
a little nearer to him)
Now, am I not near?

Alberich
Not near enough!
Thy slender arms come fling around me;
that I may touch thee and toy with thy tresses,
with passionate heat on thy bosom so soft let me
press me!

Wellgunde
Art thou bewitched
and longing for love-joys?
then shew, thou fair one, what favor is thine!
Fie! thou hairy and hideous imp!
Swarthy, spotted and sulfury dwarf!
Seek thee a sweetheart whom thou dost please!
(Alberich tries to hold her by force.)

Alberich
Though foul be my face,
my hands hold thee fast!

Wellgunde
(quickly swimming up to the middle rock)
Hold fast, I flow from thy hands!

Woglinde, Flosshilde
(laughing) Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Alberich
(calling angrily after Wellgunde)
Faithless thing! Bony, chilly-skinned fish!
Seem I not comely,
pretty and playful, brisk and bright?
Hei! go wanton with eels then,
if so loathsome am I!

Flosshilde
Why chid'st thou, elf?
So soon cast down?
But twain hast thou wooed: try but the third one,
sweetest balm surely her love would bring!

Alberich
Soothing song comes to my ears!
How good that ye are not but one:
of many, some one I may win me;
alone, no maiden would choose me!
If I may trust thee, then glide down to me!

Flosshilde
(dives down to Alberich)
How foolish are ye, senseless sisters,
if ye find him not fair!

Alberich
(quickly approaching her)
Both dull and hideous well may I deem them,
now that the fairest I see!

Flosshilde
O sing still on thy soft sweet song,
its charm enraptures mine ear!

Alberich
(confidently caressing her)
My heart bounds and flutters and burns
when such sweet praise laughs to me.

Flosshilde
(with gentle resistance)
Thy winsome sweetness makes glad mine eyes,
and thy tender smile all my spirit cheers!
(She draws him tenderly to her.) Dearest of men!

Alberich
Sweetest of maids!

Flosshilde
Wert thou but mine!

Alberich
Might I e'er hold thee!

Flosshilde
(ardently)
O, the sting of thy glance
and the prick of thy beard,
for ever to see and to feel!
Might the locks of thy hair,
so shaggy and sharp,
but float round Flosshilde ever!
and thy shape like a toad,
and the croak of thy voice,
o might I, dazzled and dumb,
see and hear nothing but these!
(Woglinde and Wellgunde have dived down close
to them.)

Woglinde, Wellgunde
(laughing)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Alberich
(starting up, alarmed)
Wretches, laugh ye at me?

Flosshilde
(suddenly darting from him)
As fits at the end of the song!
(She swims quickly up with her sisters.)

Woglinde, Wellgunde
(laughing)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Alberich
(in a wailing voice)
Woe's me! ah, woe's me! alas! alas!
The third one, so dear, doth she too betray?
Ye shameless, shifting, worthless and infamous wantons!
Feed ye on falsehood, treacherous watery brood?

Rhine Daughters
Wallala! Wallala!
lalaleia! leialalei! heia! heia! ha ha!
Shame on thee, imp!
why chid'st thou down yonder?
Hear the words that we sing thee!
Say wherefore, faint-heart, didst thou not hold
the maiden thou dost love?
True are we, free from all guile,
to him who holds us fast.
Gaily to work, and grasp without fear;
in the floods not fleet is our flight:
Wallala! lalaleia! leialalei!
heia! heia! ha hei!
(They swim apart, hither and thither, now deeper,
now higher, to incite Alberich to chase them.)

Alberich
Through all my frame what passionate
fire now burns and glows!
Rage and longing, fierce and mighty,
lash me to madness!
Though ye may laugh and lie,
yearning masters my heart,
and one to me now shall yield her!
(He begins the chase with desperate exertions.
With terrible agility he climbs the rocks, springs from
one to the other, and tries to catch first one then
another of the maidens, who always elude him with
mocking laughter.)
(He staggers and falls into the abyss, then
clambers hastily aloft again to renew the chase.)
(They let themselves sink a little.
He almost reaches them, falls back again,
and again tries to catch them.)
(Foaming with rage, he pauses breathless and
stretches his clenched fist up toward the maidens.)

Alberich
Could I but capture one!
(He remains in speechless rage gazing upward,
when suddenly he is attracted and chained by the
following spectacle.)
(Through the water from above breaks a con-
tinuously brightening glow, which, on a high point of
the middle rock, kindles to a blinding, brightly shining gleam;
a magical light streams from this through the water.)

Woglinde
Look, sisters!
The wakener laughs to the deep.

Wellgunde
Through the waters green
the radiant sleeper he greets.

Flosshilde
He kisses her eyelids,
so to unclose them.

Wellgunde
Look, she smiles in the shining light.

Woglinde
Through the floods afar
flows her glittering ray!

Rhine Daughters
(together swimming around
the rock)
Heia jaheia! heia jaheia!
Wallala la la la leia jahei!
Rhine-gold, Rhine-gold! Radiant joy,
thou laughest in glorious light!
Glistening beams thy splendor shoots forth o'er
the waves!
Heia jahei! heia jaheia!
Waken friend! wake in joy!
Games will we play so gladly with thee:
flasheth the foam, flameth the flood,
as, floating around, with dancing and singing,
we joyously dive to thy bed!
Rhine-gold! Rhine-gold! heia jaheia! heia jaheia!
Wallala la la la heia jahei!
(With ever-increasing mirth the maidens swim
around the rock. All the water gleams with golden light.)

Alberich
(whose eyes, strongly attracted by the
gleam, are fixed on the gold)
What is't, ye sleek ones,
that there doth gleam and glow?

Rhine Daughters
Where hast thou, churl, ever dwelt,
of the Rhine-gold ne'er to have heard?

Wellgunde
Knows not the elf
of the gold's bright eye, then,
that wakes and sleeps in turn?

Woglinde
Of the wondrous star in watery deeps,
whose glory lightens the waves?

Rhine Daughters
See how blithely
we glide in its radiance!
wouldst thou, faint-heart, then bathe in brightness,
come float and frolic with us!
Wallala la la leia lalai!
Wallala la la leia jahei!

Alberich
For your water games is the gold alone good?
Then nought would it boot me!

Woglinde
The golden charm wouldst thou not flout,
knewest thou all of its wonders.

Wellgunde
The world's wealth would be won by the man who,
out of the Rhine-gold, fashioned the ring
which measureless might would bestow.

Flosshilde
Our father said it, and bade us ever
guard with wisdom the shining hoard,
that no false one should craftily steal it:
then peace, ye chattering brood!

Wellgunde
Most prudent sister,
why chidest thou so?
Well knowest thou, only by one the golden
charm may be wrought?

Woglinde
He who the sway of love forswears,
he who delight of love forbears,
alone the magic can master
that forces the gold to a ring.

Wellgunde
Secure then are we and free from care,
for all that liveth loveth;
none from love's fetters would free him.

Woglinde
And least of all he, the languishing dwarf
with love-desire wasting away.

Flosshilde
I fear him not,
whom here we have found:
in his passion's blaze nearly I burned.

Wellgunde
A sulfur brand
in the water's surge,
in lover's frenzy hissing loud!

Rhine Daughters
Wallala! Wallaleia la la!
Loveliest Niblung! laugh'st thou not too?
In the golden shimmer how fair thou dost shine!
O come, lovely one, laugh thou with us!
Heia jaheia! heia jaheia! Wallala la la la leia jahei!
(They swim, laughing, to and fro in the light.)
(Alberich, with his eyes fixed on the gold, has
listened well to the sisters' hasty chatter.)

Alberich
The world's wealth by thy spell might I
win for mine own?
If love be denied me,
my cunning shall win me delight?
(terribly loud) Mock ye then on!
the Niblung neareth your toy.

(Raging he springs to the middle rock and
clambers with terrible haste to its summit. The
maidens separate screaming and swim upward on
different sides.)

Rhine Daughters
Heia! heia! heia jahei!
Save yourselves! The elf is distraught;
how the water swirls where'er he swims:
for love has lost him his wits!
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
(With a last spring, Alberich reaches the summit.)

Alberich
Fear ye not yet?
Then wanton in darkness, watery brood!
(He stretches his hand out toward the gold.)
My hand quenches your light,
I wrest from the rock the gold,
fashion the ring of revenge;
for hear me ye floods:
love henceforth be accursed!
(He tears the gold from the rock with terrible force
and plunges with it hastily into the depth, where he
quickly disappears. Thick darkness falls suddenly on
the scene. The maidens dive down after the robber.)

Flosshilde
Seize on the spoiler!

Wellgunde
Rescue the gold!

Rhine Daughters
Help us! Help us! Woe! Woe!
(The water sinks down with them. From the lowest
depth is heard Alberich's shrill, mocking laughter.)
(The rocks disappear in thickest darkness, and the
whole stage is from top to bottom filled with black
water waves, which for some time seem to sink
downward.)
(The waves have gradually changed into clouds,
which little by little become lighter, and at length
disperse into a fine mist.)
(As the mist disappears upward in little clouds, an
open space on a mountain height becomes visible in
the twilight. At one side, on a flowery bank, lies
Wotan with Fricka near him, both asleep.)

libretto by Frederick Jameson

Contents: Characters; Prelude And Scene One; Scene Two; Scene Three; Scene Four; Glossary