Alberich after the Apocalypse: Christopher Rouse's "Sequel" to Wagner's Ring

Abstract

In 1976, Götz Friedrich directed a centenary production of the Ring cycle at Covent Garden with an unusual and highly provocative ending. As the waters rise and Valhalla burns, Alberich—boldly disregarding Wagner’s stage directions—briefly emerges to witness the apocalyptic scene.1 Though unsanctioned by Wagner, Friedrich’s interpretation is justified. After all, unlike any other major character in the Ring, Alberich’s fate is unknown at the end of the cycle and he may very well be alive. Christopher Rouse’s Der gerettete Alberich, a “Fantasy for Solo Percussion and Orchestra” (1997), originates from the same interpretive impulse. It begins with the closing bars of Götterdämmerung and then imagines Alberich’s existence in the wake of the apocalypse. The piece features a rather loose, three-movement structure (fast-slow-fast) with frequent manipulation of Wagner’s leitmotifs. Despite obvious programmatic implications, Rouse did not intend a specific narrative design. As he puts it: “it is not a narrative piece in the manner of, say, Strauss’ Don Quixote. Beyond a brief passage in which Alberich serves a stint as a rock drummer...I was not attempting to paint specific pictures in this score. However, the listener is free to provide whatever images he or she likes to the sonic goings-on.”2 It is difficult to place such recent music in an appropriate historical and stylistic context. We are simply not far enough removed to offer a panoramic view of the latest fin de siècle musical scene. Rouse’s piece, however, evokes a number of familiar late twentieth-century compositional