Alberich: The Nibelung dwarf who takes hold of the Rhinegold by forswearing love. From the hoard he forges the Ring, which grants extraordinary powers to its wearer. When Wotan steals the gold from him, Alberich places a curse upon the Ring, thereby dooming Wotan. He reappears in Siegfried, conversing with his brother Mime and with Wotan in the guise of the Wanderer; and in Götterdämmerung, speaking with his son Hagen. Although his plots to take back the Ring fall short, he seems still to be alive at the end of the cycle.
Amfortas: In Parsifal, the King of the Grail Knights. He is suffering from a wound inflicted by the sorcerer Klingsor, who employed Kundry to seduce Amfortas from the chaste path.
Bayreuth: A city in Franconia, in the northeast of Bavaria, where Wagner established his Bayreuth Festival. The cornerstone for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the festival’s custom-built theater, was laid in 1872; the first festival took place in 1876, consisting of three complete performances of The Ring of the Nibelung. The next edition took place in 1882, with the première of Parsifal. After Wagner’s death, in 1883, his widow, Cosima, took over the direction of the festival and built it into a major enterprise. Subsequent directors were Richard and Cosima’s son, Siegfried; Siegfried’s wife, Winifred; Winifred’s sons, Wieland and Wolfgang; and two of the composer’s great-grandchildren, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner.
Beckmesser: In Meistersinger, the Merker, or judge, of the mastersinger guild. He is in love with Eva Pogner and hopes to win the singing contest so that he can gain her hand. Hans Sachs foils his scheme, and Walther von Stolzing wins the contest.
Brangäne: In Tristan, Isolde’s devoted attendant. When she is told to prepare a death potion for Isolde and Tristan to drink, she prepares a love potion instead.
Brünnhilde: In the Ring, one of the nine valkyries who select warriors on the battlefield who are to be carried to Valhalla. They travel by way of “air-horses”
Bühnenweihfestspiel: “Stage consecration festival play,” Wagner’s cumbersome name for his final opera, Parsifal.
Donner: In Rheingold, the god of thunder.
dramatic soprano: The standard English term for the superpowered lead female roles of the later Wagner operas, principally Brünnhilde, Isolde, and Kundry. Great singers in this category include Lilli Lehmann, Kirsten Flagstad, Frida Leider, Astrid Varnay, Martha Mödl, Birgit Nilsson, and Waltraud Meier. The German term is hochdramatischer sopran.
Dresden Amen: A six-note rising sequence characteristic of Saxon church music in the nineteenth century. Mendelssohn used it prominently in his Reformation Symphony; Wagner quotes it extensively in Parsifal.
endless melody: A term that Wagner introduced around the time of the 1861 Paris performance of Tannhäuser, suggesting a musical language made up of ever-flowing, continuously overlapping phrases. It seems especially apt to the idiom of Tristan.
Elisabeth: In Tannhäuser, the niece of the Landgrave of Thuringia. In love with Tannhäuser, she ends up sacrificing herself so that Tannhäuser can be redeemed.
Elsa: In Lohengrin, daughter of the Duke of Brabant. As the opera begins, the scheming Telramund has accused her of murdering her brother Gottfried; in fact, Telramund’s sorceress wife Ortrud has trapped Gottfried in the body of a swan. She has a vision of a knight in shining armor who will come to her aid; such a knight duly appears, and she falls in love with him. Lohengrin accepts her hand in marriage, on the condition never to ask his name; eventually, she does so, with disastrous results.
Erda: In the Ring, the goddess of wisdom, who periodically rises from the depths to converse with Wotan. With him she has borne the nine Valkyries and the three Norns.
Eva: In Meistersinger, the beautiful daughter of the goldsmith Pogner.
Fafner and Fasolt: In Rheingold, the sibling giants who build Valhalla. When they receive the Rhinegold in payment for their work, they fall into a dispute, whereupon Fafner kills his brother and takes the hoard for his own. The Tarnhelm allows him to assume the shape of a dragon. Siegfried kills him in Siegfried.
Die Feen (The Fairies): Wagner’s first opera, written in 1834 but not premièred until 1888, five years after the composer’s death.
Flower Maidens: In Parsifal, Klingsor fills his magic garden with these seductive creatures, in an unsuccessful attempt to entice Parsifal into unchaste behavior.
Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman): Wagner’s fourth opera, written in 1840 and 1841 and given its première under the composer’s direction in Dresden in 1843.
Freia: In Rheingold, the goddess who keeps the golden apples of eternal youth. When the giants Fafner and Fasolt are not paid for their work building Valhalla, they take Freia as ransom, causing a health crisis among the gods. They return her only when they are paid with the Rhinegold.
Fricka: In the Ring, Wotan’s wife. She disapproves of his costly schemes and his problematic plot to win back the Ring. Her interrogation of her husband in Act II of Walküre precipitates the god’s emotional collapse and leads him to an understanding of his doom.
Gesamtkunstwerk: Wagner uses this term in two of his essays, “Art and Revolution” and “The Artwork of the Future,” to describe the synthesis of the arts that was present in the theater of ancient Greece. The implication is that his own work would aspire to the same synthesis, although he never says so outright. He did not use the term in his later writings. At the end of the nineteenth century, Gesamtkunstwerk became a byword of progressive artistic movements, and continues to be used very broadly, often to the point of meaninglessness.
Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods): Wagner’s twelfth and penultimate opera, written between 1869 and 1874 and given its première under the direction of Hans Richter in Bayreuth in 1876.
Gunther and Gutrune: In Götterdämmerung, members of the Gibichung clan who attempt to raise their status by marrying Brünnhilde and Siegfried respectively, with disastrous results.
Gurnemanz: In Parsifal, a wise old servant of Titurel who undertakes to guide the wild boy Parsifal toward wisdom.
Hagen: The son of Alberich and an unnamed woman from the Gibichung clan, he launches a complex scheme to seize the Ring in Götterdämmerung.
Hans Sachs: In Meistersinger, the wisest member of the Mastersinger guild. He is a widower, and entertains wistful thoughts of marrying the beautiful young Eva, but happily surrenders her to the headstrong singer-knight Walther von Stolzing, whom he guides to mastery.
Heldentenor: “Heroic tenor.” This term is applied to the lead tenor roles in the later Wagner operas, especially Siegfried, Tristan, Walther von Stolzing, and Parsifal. Heldentenors need to be able to project their voices through the raging Wagnerian orchestra and maintain stamina over extended periods (notably Act III of Tristan). They must also possess unusual power in the lower register, almost like that of a baritone. Great singers in this category include Lauritz Melchior, Max Lorenz, Wolfgang Windgassen, René Kollo, and Jon Vickers.
Holy Grail: In Parsifal, the Grail is the sacred chalice in which Joseph of Arimathea caught Christ’s blood as he hung on the Cross. This definition conforms to some versions of the Parsifal story and other Arthurian romances, although the Grail assumes many other guises. In Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, for example, it is a sacred stone that fell from the sky—an entity that bears a distinct resemblance to the Black Stone at Mecca, as Wagner himself observed.
Holy Spear: The Parzival legends make mention of a spear or lance that bleeds from the tip. Wagner had the idea of fusing this spear with the Lance of Longinus, which, in the book of Luke and in subsequent Christian legend, pierces Christ’s side as he hangs on the Cross. In Wagner’s conception, this spear becomes a second sacred relic for the knights of the Grail. In the events leading up to the opera, King Amfortas lost the spear to Klingsor, who used it to administer a crippling wound. Parsifal’s mission is to win back the spear and cure Amfortas with its tip.
Isolde: In Tristan, the daughter of the Queen of Ireland, gifted with magic powers.
Klingsor: In Parsifal, a sorcerer who had tried in vain to win admittance to the company of the Grail, going so far as to castrate himself in order to ensure his chastity. He sets about trying to destroy the Grail order by seducing its knights by way of Kundry and the Flower Maidens. He succeeds in tempting Amfortas, seizing the Holy Spear from him, and inflicting a seemingly incurable wound. Parsifal defeats him at the end of Act II of the opera.
Kundry: In Parsifal, a woman who has been wandering the earth since the time of Christ. She was cursed after laughing at Christ on the way to Golgotha. She has fallen under the command of the sorcerer Klingsor, who uses her to seduce the Knights of Grail. She receives redemption at Parsifal’s hands, and expires at the end of the opera.
Kurwenal: In Tristan, Tristan’s loyal friend and attendant.
leitmotif: A term applied to the network of recurring, identifying themes that appear in the Ring cycle and other later Wagner works. Wagner himself did not approve of the term, referring instead to “melodic moments” and “basic motifs,” and felt that too much emphasis was placed on the idea. The term was popularized by Wagner’s follower Hans von Wolzogen in his 1876 pamphlet Thematischer Leitfaden durch die Musik zu Rich. Wagner’s Festspiel “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” which was on sale at the first Bayreuth festival.
Das Liebesverbot (The Love Ban): Wagner’s second opera, written in 1836 and premièred under the composer’s direction that same year in Magdeburg.
Loge: In Rheingold, the god of fire. He is also a kind of all-purpose fixer for Wotan, who locates the Rhinegold as a funding source. Although he does not appear in person past the first opera, he is invoked at the end of Walküre when Wotan sets the Ring of Fire around Brünnhilde.
Lohengrin: In Lohengrin, a knight of the Grail, son of Parsifal.
Lohengrin: Wagner’s sixth opera, written between 1845 and 1847, and given its première under Liszt’s direction in Weimar in 1850.
Ludwig II: King of Bavaria from 1864 until his unexplained death in 1886.
Marke, König (King Mark): In Tristan, King of Cornwall and uncle of Tristan. In a political arrangement, he is given Isolde as a bride, and he sends Tristan to bring her from Ireland to Cornwall, with disastrous results. In some versions of the tale, he is malevolent in intent, but in Wagner’s tale he is a large-hearted, sympathetic character. Wagner also gave the name Marke to one of his dogs, who, true to form, fell into deep sorrow after the composer's death.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Wagner’s eleventh opera, written between 1862 and 1867 and given its première under Hans von Bülow’s direction in Munich in 1868.
Mime: In the Ring, a Nibelung dwarf, brother of Alberich. In Rheingold, he forges the Tarnhelm; in Siegfried, he serves as a foster father to Siegfried, plotting to use the boy to win back the Ring. He is slain by Siegfried when the Woodbird makes his intentions known.
mystic abyss: Wagner’s name for the sunken orchestra pit at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. From most seats in the house, the orchestra is invisible and the conductor is also out of sight.
Norns: In the Ring, weavers of the rope of destiny, who appear in the prologue of Götterdämmerung. The breaking of their rope signals the end of the gods. They are daughters of Wotan and Erda.
Nothung: In the Ring, the hero’s sword that Wotan plants in an ash tree between Rheingold and Walküre. Siegmund, Wotan’s son, pulls it from the tree in Act I of Walküre, but it is smashed at the end of Act II when Siegmund falls to the jealous Hunding. Siegfried reforges the broken pieces in Siegfried and uses it to slay the dragon Fafner.
Ortrud: In Lohengrin, the wife of Telramund, a sorceress who worships pagan gods. Desirous of winning the ducal throne of Brabant, she has trapped the rightful heir, Gottfried, in the body of a swan. When Lohengrin arrives on the scene, Ortrud sets about sowing doubts in the mind of his fiancée, Elsa.
Parsifal: In Parsifal, the son of Gamuret and Herzeleide, who is destined to save the company of the Grail. Raised in solitude by his mother after his father falls in battle, he enters as a wild boy who has illegally killed a swan on the territory of the Grail, where all creatures are sacred.
Parsifal: Wagner’s thirteenth and final opera, written between 1877 and 1882 and premièred under the direction of Hermann Levi in Bayreuth in 1882.
Rainbow bridge: In Rheingold, a blow of Donner's hammer creates the atmospheric conditions necessary for the apparition of this multicolored airborne walkway, which allows the gods to enter Valhalla.
Regeneration writings: Late-period writings by Wagner, shot through with antisemitism and racial speculation, published in the Bayreuther Blätter in 1880 and 1881. They include “Religion and Art,” “What Boots This Knowledge?,” “Know Thyself!,” and “Herodom and Christianity.”
Revolutionary writings: Essays by Wagner from the period 1849–50, including “Art and Revolution,” “The Artwork of the Future,” and Opera and Drama. The notorious antisemitic essay “Jewishness in Music” belongs to the same period.
Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold): Wagner’s seventh opera and the first opera in the Ring of the Nibelung cycle, written between 1853 and 1854 and given its première under the direction of Franz Wüllner in Munich in 1869.
Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes: Wagner’s third opera, telling of the fourteenth-century populist rebellion of Cola di Rienzo in Rome, written between 1838 and 1840 and given its première under the composer’s direction in Dresden in 1842. Wagner's principal source was Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1835 novel Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes.
Ring: Alberich forges a magic ring from the Rhinegold, one that confers supreme power. When Wotan takes it from him, Alberich curses it, saying that whoever wears will become its slave. Only when the Ring is returned to the Rhine can the curse be undone and order restored.
Ring of Fire: In Walküre, Brünnhilde disobeys Wotan’s will by attempting to Siegmund and Sieglinde, and is punished by being put to sleep on a mountain rock. The first man who finds her, Wotan declares, will win her as a bride. Brünnhilde begs her father to set a barrier around, so only the bravest, noblest man can break through. Wotan invokes Loge to set the Ring of Fire around his daughter. Siegfried breaks through it in Act III of Siegfried.
Senta: In The Flying Dutchman, daughter of the merchant Daland who has long been in love with a portrait of the Dutchman that hangs in her home. She saves the Dutchman from his curse by flinging herself into the sea.
Siegfried: In the Ring, the son of the siblings Siegmund and Sieglinde, who reforges the sword Nothung, slays Fafner and Mime, and wins the hand of Brünnhilde. He loses his heroic cast in Götterdämmerung, becoming enmeshed in the machinations of Hagan and the Gibichungs.
Siegfried: The third of the four Ring operas, composed in stages between 1856 and 1869 (primarily in 1856-57, 1864–65, and 1869), and given its première under Hans Richter’s direction in Bayreuth in 1876.
Siegmund and Sieglinde: In Walküre, twin children of Wotan, members of the Wälsung clan. They are separated early; Sieglinde marries Hunding, whose house Siegmund enters at the beginning of the opera. The siblings fall in love; Hunding kills Siegmund; Sieglinde is rescued by Brünnhilde and bears the hero Siegfried, though she dies in childbirth.
Stabreim: An alliterative rhyme scheme in old Germanic verse, roughly imitated by Wagner in his Ring libretto.
Tannhäuser: In Tannhäuser, a minstrel knight who once belonged to the music-inclined court of the Landgrave of Thuringia but who has defected to the grotto of the goddess Venus.
Tannhäuser and the Singers’ Contest at Wartburg: Wagner’s fifth opera, written between 1843 and 1845 and given its première under his direction in Dresden in 1845. It underwent a series of revisions over the following decades; a considerably altered version had its première at the Paris Opéra in 1861.
Tarnhelm: A magic helmet that Mime fashioned from the Rhinegold hoard. It allows the wearer to become invisible, to assume any form, and to travel great distances. Its leitmotif is centered on an eerie juxtaposition of minor chords separated by a major third.
Telramund: In Lohengrin, the Count of Brabant, guardian of the late Duke of Brabant’s children, Elsa and Gottfried. He has married the sorceress Ortrud and is plotting to win the ducal throne; when the grail knight Lohengrin arrives, his plans are foiled.
Titurel: In Parsifal, the ancient founder of the Grail order. Only through the unveiling of the Grail can he stay alive, although that ceremony causes his son Amfortas, the king of the order, to suffer and bleed. In Act I, he sings offstage but is not seen; he dies just before Act III begins.
Tristan: In Tristan, a noble Breton orphan who is the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall and is raised by him. In the events preceding the opera, he has killed Isolde’s fiancé Morold, and, in the guise of a knight named Tantris, has been cured of poison by the Irish princess.
Tristan und Isolde: Wagner’s tenth opera, composed between 1857 and 1859 and given its première under Hans von Bülow’s direction in Munich in 1865.
Valkyries: In the Ring, handmaidens of Wotan who travel by way of “air-horses” and select slain warriors suitable for an afterlife in Valhalla. Children of Wotan and Erda, they are Brünnhilde, Waltraute, Gerhilde, Grimgerde, Helmwige, Ortlinde, Rossweisse, Schwertleite, and Siegrune.
Venusberg: In Tannhäuser, the “Venus mountain” that houses Venus’s pleasure grotto. At the beginning of the opera, Tannhäuser is growing wearying of its orgiastic charms, but he feels pulled back to it later on, as his attempt to escape sensual feeling wavers.
Wagners: Wagner’s first marriage, to Minna Planer, produced no children. In 1864, he began an affair with Cosima von Bülow, daughter of Franz Liszt and Marie d’Agoult, husband of Wagner’s advocate Hans von Bülow. The Bülows had produced two children, Daniela and Blandine. With Wagner Cosima had three children, Isolde, Eva, and Siegfried; all were illegitimate, since the couple did not marry until 1870. Isolde married the conductor Franz Beidler, and was ejected from the family amid disputes; Eva married Houston Stewart Chamberlain; and Siegfried married the English orphan Winifred Williams, producing four children: Wieland, Friedelind, Wolfgang, and Verena. Wieland and Wolfgang took over the Bayreuth Festival in 1951; Wieland died in 1966, whereupon Wolfgang carried on alone after Wieland’s death until 2008. From 2008 to 2014, Wolfgang’s daughters Katharina and Eva Wagner-Pasquier shared the directorship; after that, Katharina carried on alone.
Wagner tubas: Instruments fashioned for the Ring orchestra at Wagner’s behest, closely related to the horn family but possessing darker, more trombone-like timbre.
Wahnfried: Wagner lived in Haus Wahnfried, in Bayreuth, from 1874 until his death, although he was absent for long periods in his last years.
Die Walküre (The Valkyrie): The second of the four Ring operas, written between 1854 and 1856 and given its première under the direction of Franz Wüllner in Munich in 1870.
Walther von Stolzing: In Meistersinger, a brash, gifted singer-knight who falls in love with Eva Pogner and resolves to win the mastersinger contest to win her hand.
Wanderer: A guise assumed by Wotan as he wanders the earth in Siegfried. He wears a cloak and a broad-brimmed hat that covers his missing eye.
Woodbird: In Siegfried, a magic bird who is well informed about the world situation. When Siegfried tastes the blood of the dragon Fafner, he acquires the ability to understand the Woodbird’s utterances, and thereby gains useful information.
Wolfram von Eschenbach: In Tannhäuser, a character based very loosely on the real-life author of Parzival. Although he loves Elisabeth, Wolfram selflessly helps to save his rival Tannhäuser. his aria “O, du mein holder Abendstern,” or Song to the Evening Star, is one of Wagner’s most famous melodies: it bids the evening star to greet Elisabeth as she ascends to heaven.
World-Ash Tree: In the Ring, a version of the Tree of Life that figures in so many myths. Wotan breaks off a branch of the tree to fashion his spear, causing the tree to wither and die.
Wotan: In the Ring, the one-eye chief of the gods. He holds a spear on which the contracts that encode his power are engraved. As the cycle begins, he is tried to figure out how to pay the giants Fafner and Fasolt for their work building Valhalla.
