"Weiche, Wotan! Weiche!" (Das Rheingold: scene 4) is Erda's Aria from Richard Wagner's opera, "Das Rheingold." One possible translation of Erda'a opening words would be: "Yield it, Wotan! Yield it! Flee the ring's dread curse..." Wotan later comes to love Erda and fathers the Walküre with her. She is the mother of the three Norns, who were born to her without a father, rather simply from the original energy of Creation itself. This is what she tells Wotan in this Aria... ("Drei der Töchter, urerschaffne, gebar mein Schoos...") Erda is herself a mysterious Goddess, an oracle. She knows the future, the past and the present - which is sometimes the hardest of all to see clearly.

Willhelm Furtwängler said (quote) in 1950 that "Das Rheingold" is the most difficult of the four operas (from the "Ring des Nibelungen") to make attractive to the public. We musicians enjoy all its delicate refinements with their subtle interrelations, but the work is very tiring and allienates the average listerner..."

In 1953 Furtwängler also said (quote), "I have just conducted the entire "Ring" on the radio and I have again realized that this work is one of the very greatest feats a man has ever accomplished. Even as oratorio, this work has no equal..."

Richard Wagner was himself a gambler as a young student in Leipzig. He knew too well about the temptations of money and gold - in this case the Rhine Gold. The treasure of the Rhine Gold and and the greed to keep that treasure brings only ruin and tragedy to all, who possess its powers... This is one of the primary messages behind each of Richard Wagner's four operas, which together form his great work, "Der Ring des Nibelungen."

Live Performance of Erda's Aria from "Das Rheingold" by Dorothea Fayne (Mezzo-Soprano), accompanied by Diana Wartenberg (Viola) and Uwe Streibel (Piano). May 2007.