If there’s one lesson Seattle Opera has learned the hard way, it is this: when producing Wagner’s RING, make sure every role is adequately covered. At a 1976 performance of “Die Walküre,” General Director Glynn Ross found himself in a tough spot when the Siegmund withdrew after the first act. There was another Siegmund nearby, James McCray—but McCray didn’t know Siegmund in English—he knew Siegmund in German and Siegfried in English! As a result, Act Two of the “Walküre” performance that day was a strange affair, with Lorna Hawyood (Sieglinde) and Anna Green (Brünnhilde) singing to McCray in Andrew Porter’s English translation, and McCray responding in Wagner’s original German. Here’s a moment from the great confrontation between Green and McCray, the “Todisverkundigung” or Death-Announcement Scene:

BRÜNNHILDE:
You gazed on the Valkryie’s
searing glance;
with her now you must go.

SIEGMUND:
Wo Sieglinde lebt
in Lust und Leid
da will Siegmund auch säumen.
Noch machte dein Blick
nicht mich erbleichen:
vom Bleiben zwingt er mich nie!
(Where Sieglinde lives in pleasure and pain, there Siegmund will tarry. Your gaze hasn’t made me turn pale; it’ll never force me from staying here!)

BRÜNNHILDE
I cannot force you,
now while you live;
but death can force you to go!
I come to tell you:
death is near.

SIEGMUND
Wo wäre der Held,
dem heut ich fiel’?
(Who’s the hero to whom I’ll fall today?)

BRÜNNHILDE
Hunding kills you today.

SIEGMUND
Mit stärkrem drohe
als Hunding Streichen!
Lauerst du hier,
lüstern auf Wal,
jenen kiese zum Fang:
ich denk ihn zu fällen im Kampf!
(Threaten me with something stronger than Hunding’s strokes! If you linger here, lusting for carrion, choose him as your prey: I think I will fell him in battle!)
Andrew Porter, translation. Henry Holt conducted the Seattle Opera orchestra.