Soft Valkyrie - podcast series

Captivating radio play

Although Kanaga follows Wagner's notes and storyline meticulously, his background in gaming can be heard through the use of electronic instruments and sound effects full of humor, drama and mysticism. The roles are sung by an atypical cast: from classically trained singers like Claron McFadden and Nadine Secunde to demonic Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar and Ghanaian rapper Bryan the Mensah. The result is intimate and lighter than the original. Soft, in other words. Stephen Fry's reading of Wagner's stage directions renders Die Walküre into a true radio play, so that the entire drama takes place in the listener's imagination. 

Een schouwspel voor de oren

Kanaga uses an English translation of the libretto for Soft Valkyrie. While Wagner approached his operas as a Gesamtkunstwerk, Kanaga has chosen the form of a podcast, a spectacle for the ears.

In his adaptation, based on the piano reduction of Wagner's score, the extremes of volume are reduced to the level of soft speech. The singers, in part deliberately cast from outside the opera world, use no vibrato, and sing with the clearest possible pronunciation. Wagner's very own stage directions are read aloud as narrative. Actions are suggested by sound effects. The orchestra has given way to a broad spectrum of sounds sampled and composed electronically. In this way, Kanaga creates an intimate dream world in which listeners can immerse themselves.

 

The Story

Die Walküre, the second opera of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen tells the story of the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, who are separated at a young age. Years later, Siegmund seeks shelter with his sister, while her husband Hunding is away. The two do not recognise each other and are strongly attracted to each other. On his return, Hunding challenges Siegmund to a duel.

Brünnhilde is the daughter of the supreme god Wotan, and one of the Walküren - goddesses who accompany fallen warriors to the afterlife. When Wotan orders her to make sure that Siegmund loses the fight because of his incestuous relationship with Sieglinde, she chooses to help Siegmund instead.

Nevertheless, the fight ends in his death. Wotan punishes Brünnhilde for her disobedience by imprisoning her in a mountain, which is surrounded by a ring of fire.