Die Walküre (1989)

press

set's photos

storyboard

(in collaboration with Frank Theys)
video
88.07 min.
PAL – color - stereo

With: Hilt Devos (Fricka), Agnes Devries (Sieglinde), Tony Geirlandt (Brunhilde), Pol Goes (Siegmund), Frank Theys (Alberich – Hunding), Koen theys (Wotan – Fafner)
Valkyries: Olivia Bara (Gerhilde), Hafida Bennazouzz (Siegrune), Kerstin Huygelen (Ortlinde), Geert Leysen (Schwertleide), Pascale Lorge (Rossweisse), Karin Peeters (Waltraute), Herlind Smets (Helmwige), Christine Van Goethem (Grimgerde)
Addited voices: Corine Boussy (Sieglinde), Karel Deruwe (Siegmund), Rolande Van Der Paal (Brunhilde)
Camera: Danny Elsen
Camera-assistant: Ludo Timmermans
Sound: Charles Marique, Pierre-Joseph Renquin
Synchronisation: Frank De Groote
Stage manager: Sophie Coppé
Make-up: Kaatje Van Damme
Make-up assistant: Michaela Freisberg
Music: Richard Wgner
Performed by: Berliner Philharmoniker – Herbert von Karajan
Co-production: Audiovisuele Diens, K.U.Leuven - Beursschouwburg, Brussels – Ronny Courtens, Kortrijk – Hoger Sint-Lucas Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten, Brussel – ICC, Antwerp – Noordstarfonds, Ghent - RTBF, Liège – Vogue Trading, Kortrijs

This is the second part of the diptych Lied van mijn Land ('Song of my Soil'), based on Richard Wagner's operas Ring des Nibelungen and Parcifal. At Hunding's. In the living room (an electronical setting wherein space is suggested by perspective), near the fireplace, Hunding's wife Sieglinde serves a drink to an exhausted stranger who is actually her brother Siegmund (both are bold, for they are of divine descent). Hunding arrives at home and challenges Siegmund to a duel. Siegmund, however, will be safe until dawn, for Hunding's fireplace and hospitality are sacred. Hunding takes his wife to bed, but she gives him a sleeping-draught. Afterwards she shows Siegmund the sword which has been promised to him, and in this quiet, secret doings and in the familiarity of their features awakens a beautiful love, that inspires the whole of Nature (a rose-bed). The Warrior maiden Brünnhilde (bold as well, but wearing a white dress) has been ordered by Wotan to assist Siegmund during the coming fight with Hunding, but Fricka, Wotan's wife and patroness of marriage, wants the cuckold Hunding to be revenged. Wotan objects firmly (because he wants to get hold of the gold through Siegmund), but Fricka remains implacable. Wotan becomes furious (aeroplanes flying over in all directions, barbed-wire fences whizzing past, a revolving tower), but all in vain: he is the unhappiest of all people. Brünnhilde is no longer allowed to assist Siegmund, but she is so impressed by his love for Sieglinde, that she protects him with her shield. Wotan (who follows the events in his private cinema) plants his spear (the white pedestal) between the fighting men, Siegmund's sword breaks into pieces and the hero is killed. Brünnhilde, who fled from Wotan, tells Sieglinde that she is pregnant and begs her not to kill herself, but to hide in the nearby forest. The other Warrior maidens try to hide Brünnhilde, but eventually she will accept to be punished for her disobedience. Wotan puts her asleep on a rock (a stairway of clouds), where she has to await the first man who will wake her and thereby make her his wife. At her request she is surrounded by a fire that can only be overcome by a man strong enough not to fear Wotan's spear.



The associative richness of the leidmotives can, as it seems, receive a perfectly visual equivalent…”
André Hebbelinck – Knack

Entire article (NL) press_1989_15



“… The Theys brothers do not seem to lack creative ideas for transposing Wagner’s myth to our time by means of a modern medium…”
Gerard Lakke – MEDIAMATIC

Entire article (NL) (EN) press_1989_13 and press_1989_12



“… The result is much more interesting to look at than the usual dry television registrations of scenic performances. But the most important for the media art is that the tape frees the real creative potential of studio- and postproduction effects and techniques which too often are used as decorative elements to cheer up uninteresting images…”
Jeremy Welsh – ANDERE SINEMA

Entire article (NL)



“… What is language? It is something to communicate with. But the meaning is constructed through conventions. This is what also happens with the music of Wagner. Melodies on themselves have no meaning, but through repetition, by using certain melodies in the same context, they receive a certain meaning. That meaning arises through convention, and is learned while watching the opera. We try to do the same with the image…”
Frank Theys in an interview with Konrad Maquestiau and Koen Van daele

Entire article (NL)



“… Television in itself is nothing. It is a receptacle of possibilities…”
Koen Theys in an interview with Konrad Maquestiau and Koen Van daele

Entire article (NL)



“… On television one can see opera’s, movies, art programs, … It’s a medium that absorbs all other media, that shows everything, but in itself it is nothing. Television is based on culture, but doesn’t participate on that culture…”
Frank and Koen Theys in an interview with Eric de Moffarts

Entire article (FR)



“… In De Walkure, the Theys have employed video's specific properties, fashioning a clever and audacious work that rings true.”
Steve Seid - PACIFIC FILMARCHIVE - Program

Entire article (EN)



“…Their “Walkure” deserves to be seen, but it’s hard to say by whom. Wagnerians will fume (if they don’t shriek), and audiences who don’t know Wagner won’t begin to penetrate this curious, distorted, brilliant, ridicilous work.”
Craig Seligman – SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

Entire article (EN)



“… Purists will certainly howl, but those for whom Wagner's operas are less than Holy Writ may be fascinated, as well as irked, by "The Valkyrie," an unusual video treatment of the second opera of "The Ring of the Nibelungen." …”
Joshua Kosman - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Entire article (EN)



“… For the Theys brothers, the the subject itself of the opera of Wagner, which is the loss of the sacred, of the slow erosion of myths, concerns television very closely…”
Eric de Moffarts - LA LIBRE BELGIQUE

Entire article (FR)



“… It’s a real festival of images: incrustations in the way of Jean-Christophe Averty, the regiment of Valkyries replaced by a flotilla of inflatable dolls, and nothing is left to the imaginary about the intimate anatomy of Siegmund…”
Fernand Leclercq - LE SOIR

Entire article (FR)



“… In a personal style, the two young flemish artists were able to translate Wagner’s complex cosmology to our time, by use of the newest audiovisual technologies…”
Yolande Poulin – DEZE WEEK IN BRUSSEL

Entire article (NL)



“… The more efficient use of the available machinery finally gives a substantial contribution to the production of a technically perfect and at the same time visually from itself generating videowork…”
Friedemann Malsch – KOLNISCHER KUNSTVEREIN

Entire article (DE)