The last act opens in a rocky glen filled with the Valkyres calling to each other from summit to summit with wild cries as they come riding through the clouds after the combat, bearing the dead bodies of the warriors on their saddles.  The scene is preluded with an orchestral number, well known in the concert-room as the “Ride of the Valkyres,” which is based upon two motives, the Valkyre’s call and the Valkyre melody.  In picturesque description of the rush and dash of steeds, amid which are heard the wild cries of the sisters, “The Ride” is one of the most powerful numbers ever written.  Bruennhilde arrives among the exultant throng in tears, bearing Sieglinde with her.  She gives her the fragments of Siegmund’s sword, and appeals to the other Valkyres to save her.  She bids Sieglinde live, for “thou art to give birth to a Volsung,” and to keep the fragments of the sword.  “He that once brandishes the sword, newly welded, let him be named Siegfried, the winner of victory.”  Wotan’s voice is now heard angrily shouting through the storm-clouds, and calling upon Bruennhilde, who vainly seeks to conceal herself among her sisters.  He summons her forth from the group, and she comes forward meekly but firmly and awaits her punishment.  He taxes her with violating his commands; to which she replies, “I obeyed not thy order, but thy secret wish.”  The answer does not avail, and he condemns her to sleep by the wayside, the victim of the first who passes.  She passionately pleads for protection against dishonor, and the god consents.  Placing her upon a rocky couch and kissing her brow, he takes his farewell of her in a scene which for majestic pathos has never been excelled.  One forgets Wotan and the Valkyre.  It is the last parting of an earthly father and daughter, illustrated with music which is the very apotheosis of grief.  He then conjures Loge, the god of fire; and as he strikes his spear upon the rock, flames spring up all about her.  Proudly he sings in the midst of the glare:—­

    “Who fears the spike
     Of my spear to face,
  He will not pierce the planted fire,”—­

a melody which is to form the motive of the hero Siegfried in the next division of the work—­and the curtain falls upon a scene which for power, beauty, and majesty has not its equal on the lyric stage.

SIEGFRIED.

The second division of the tragedy, “Siegfried,” might well be called an idyl, of the forest.  Its music is full of joyousness and delight.  In place of the struggles of gods and combats of fierce warriors, the wild cries of Valkyres and the blendings of human passions with divine angers, we have the repose and serenity of nature, and in the midst of it all appears the hero Siegfried, true child of the woods, and as full of wild joyousness and exultant strength as one of their fauns or satyrs.  It is a wonderful picture of nature, closing with an ecstatic, vision of love.