Scenes from Das Rheingold

In Wagner's opera Das Rheingold from the stolen Rheingold Alberich forges a magic ring that enables him to to enslave his underworld bretheren (think of what Tolkien did with this theme in The Lord of the Ring) - both to amass more gold endlessly and to craft magical articles from it that will enhance his power over the whole world. Thus Wagner is not critiquing a mere miserly hoarding of gold, but rather the endlessness of capitalist accumulation and the way gold is used (qua money) to put people to work and to gain power over all of society. The workers, of course, resist and when necessary Alberich uses force to compell them to obey - typical of pre-Keynesian, pre-collective bargaining capitalism.

In the opening of Scene Three, we find Alberich confronting his brother, Mime, whom he has also enslaved and commanded to create a magical helm that would allow him to become invisible so he could spy on the workers and get more work out of them. Mime, however, thought to use the helm that he crafted for himself - to escape slavery and perhaps even overthrow Alberich. Alberich upsets this mini-revolt, however, and exulting with the power of the helm beats Mime forcing him back to work and declares himself "The Lord of the Nibelungs" [The illustrations below are those of Arthur Rackham. A complete set of his drawings for Wagner's Ring is online.]

    Scene Three
    A suberranean cavern

    Alberich:

    "Hehe! Hehe!"
    "Come here, here, crafty dwarf!
    You shall be pitilessly pinched by me
    if you haven't, on time, finished making
    what i ordered, the fine-wrought gold."

    Mime:

    "Oh! Oh! Ow! Ow!
    Let me go!
    It's ready, as you ordered,
    made by moiling and toiling:
    take your nails from my ear!"

    Alberich:

    "Why then are you so slow
    to show it to me?"

    Mime

    "Alas! I hesitated only
    lest something was lacking."

    Alberich:

    "What is not ready?"

    Mime:

    "Here . . . and there."

    Alberich:

    "What here and there? Give me the work!
    See, you scoundrel! Everything forged
    and finished as I commanded!

    Did the simpleton slyly seek to decieve me
    and keep for himself the cunningly-worked object
    that my craft taught him how to forge?

    Have I found you out, stupid thief?
    The helmet fits my head;
    will the spell work too?
    'Night and mist, like to no one!'
    Can you see me, brother?"

    Mime

    "Where are you? I cannot see you."

    Alberich:

    "Then feel me, you rascal!
    Take that for your thieving thoughts!"

    Alberich beats Mime

    Mime:

    "Oh! Oh! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

    Alberich:

    "Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
    Thank you stupid!
    Your work has stood the test.
    Hoho! Hoho!
    Niblungs all, bow down to Alberich!
    Now he is watching you everywhere:
    repose and rest is refused you:
    you must work for him though he is unseen;
    expect him when you do not perceive him;
    you are his vassels for ever!
    Hoho! Hoho! Listen for him, he is near,
    the Lord of the Nibelungs!"

Unfortunately for Alberich, the gods also have an interest in the Rhine gold. Wotan, the chief of the gods, needs the gold to buy the freedom of his wife's sister whom he rashly promised to the Giants Fasolt and Fafner in exchange for building him the stonghold of Valhalla. Therefore, Wotan and Loge, the god of fire, descend into Nibelheim to take the gold from Alberich. There they discover Mime and the other workers. Their entrance follows immediately after the above exchange between Alberich and Mime. Talking to Mime, they discover how the previously free craftsmen, who reveled in their skill, have been enslaved and forced to work under the most alienating circumstances.

    Loge, Mime & Wotan

    Loge:

    "Here is Nibelheim:
    through the pale mist
    what firey sparks are flashing?"

    Mime: "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

    Wotan:

    "Those were loud groans:
    what is that lying among the rocks?"

    Loge:

    "Why are whimpering, you oddity?"

    Mime:

    Oh! Oh! Ow! Ow!"

    Loge:

    "Hi, Mime! Merry dwar!
    What tweaks and torments you so?"

    Mime:

    "Leave me in peace!"

    Loge:

    "That I will, and gladly,
    and more yet: listen -
    I would help you, Mime!"

    Mime:

    "Who can help me?
    I must obey my own brother,
    who brought these bonds on me.

    Loge:

    "But what, Mime, gave him
    the power to bind you?

    Mime:

    "By arrant cunning Alberich wrought
    for himself a golden ring from the Rhine's gold:
    at the might of its magic we tremble and marvel:
    with it he has overcome us,
    the Niblung's nocturnal race.

    "Carefree smiths, once we created
    ornaments for our women,wondrous trinkets,
    dainty trifles for Niblungs,
    and lightly laughed at our work.
    Now this villain compels us
    to creep into caverns
    and ever toil for him alone.

    "Through the ring's gold his greed divines
    where a new gleam is concealed in the clefts:
    there we have to track and trace it, dig it out,
    melt down the booty and forge the cast
    without pause or peace
    to pile up our master's hoard.

    Loge:

    "Your idleness, then, brought on his wrath?"

    Mime:

    On me, most wretched, he forced the heaviest task.
    He bade me forge and weld for him a helmet:
    he gave exact orders how I was to make it.
    I shrewedly noted what might power
    lay in the work I fashioned from the metal:
    so I wanted to keep the helmet for myself,
    and through its spell
    escape from Alberich's sway -
    perhaps, yes, perhaps
    outwit the tyrant himself
    and get him in my power,
    snatch the ring from him,
    so that, as I now am a menial to this bully,
    I might be free and he my slave!"

    Loge:

    Why, wise one, did you not succeed?"

    Mime:

    "Ah! Though I fashioned the work,
    the spell that would bind him,
    that spell I did not guess aright!
    He who planned the work and snatched it from me
    now has taught me -
    alas, too late! -
    what cunning lay in the helmet:
    he vanished from my sight,
    but unseen, his arm
    raised weals on me while I was blind.
    That's what thanks I earned, fool that I am!"

    Loge (to Wotan:

    "Admit, our capture will not be easy."

    Wotan:

    "But the foe will fall with the aid of your cunning."

    Mime:

    "Who are you, then, strangers,
    with your questioning?"

    Loge:

    Friends to you; we will free
    the Niblung people from their misery."

When Alberich returns Wotan and Loge see him exalting over the enslaved workers driving them to work with threats and blows.

    Mime, Wotan, Loge and Alberich

    Mime:

    "Beware! Alberich draws near."

    Alberich:

    "Here! There! Hehe! Hoho!
    Idle herd, pile up the hoard there in heaps!
    You there, get up! Will you get on?
    Despicable dogs, put down the treasure!
    Must I help you? Bring it all here!

    "Ha, who is there? Who has broken in?

    "Come here, Mime, you shabby scamp!
    Have you been chattering to this pair of tramps?
    Be off, you idler!
    Back to your bench and forge!

    Hey, get to work!
    Out of here, all of you! Hurry below!
    Find me gold from the new veins!
    My whip waits for those that don't dig deep!
    Mime shall stand bail that no one idles,
    or flee thelash of my whip if he can;
    that I am everywhere, though none can tell where,
    he knows full well, I think.
    Are you still lingering? Still loitering?
    Tremble with terror, abject throng:
    at once obey the master of the ring!

Wotan and Loge, in due course, trick Alberich and steal the ring from him - thus beginning their own unhappy roles that unfold in the next three operas: Die Walkure (The Valkyrie), Siegried and Die Gotterdammerrung (The Twilight of the Gods). As you might already suspect from these excerpts from the first opera, the golden ring forged from the Rhine gold, poisons the lives and destinies of all who seek to embrace and wield it. (Again - an element of the story utilized by Tolkien in his trilogy.)