Editing Das Rheingold (section)

==Critical assessment==
Although it is sometimes performed independently, ''Das Rheingold'' is not generally considered outside the structure of the ''Ring'' cycle. However, as Millington points out, it is a substantial work in its own right, and has several characteristics not shared by the other works in the tetralogy.{{sfn|Millington et al 2002}} It is comparatively short, with continuous music; no interludes or breaks. The action moves forward relatively swiftly, unencumbered, as [[Arnold Whittall]] observes, by the "retarding explanations" – pauses in the action to clarify the context of what is going on – that permeate the later, much longer works. Its lack of the conventional operatic devices (arias, choruses, ensembles) further enable the story to progress briskly.{{sfn|Whittall|1983|p=279}}

Since it was written as a prelude to the main events, ''Das Rheingold'' is in itself inconclusive, leaving numerous loose ends to be picked up later; its function, as Jacobs says, is "to expound, not to draw conclusions".{{sfn|Jacobs|1980|p=155}} The fact that most of its characters display decidedly human emotions makes it seem, according to a recent writer, "much more a present-day drama than a remote fable".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Das Rheingold|url=https://bachtrack.com/22/291/view/das-rheingold-teatro-real-17-january-2019/290277/amp=1}}</ref> Nevertheless, Philip Kennicott, writing in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' describes it as "the hardest of the four installments to love, with its family squabbles, extensive exposition, and the odd, hybrid world Wagner creates, not always comfortably balanced between the mythic and the recognizably human."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2016/05/03/two-critics-trade-thoughts-on-wagners-ring-in-dc-the-long-version/|title= Two critics trade thoughts on Wagner's ''Ring'' in D.C.|last=Midgette|first=Anne|author-link=Anne Midgette|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=May 3, 2016|access-date=June 19, 2017}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Certain presumptions are challenged or overturned; John Louis Gaetani, in a 2006 essay, notes that, in Loge's view, the gods are far more culpable than the Nibelungs, and that Wotan, for all his prestige as the ruler of the gods, "does much more evil than Alberich ever dreams of".{{sfn|DiGaetani|2006|p=1}}