Grumpy Grane

An important character in Wagner's Goetterdaemmerung is Grane, the horse which Bruenhilde gives to Siegfried as testimony of her love, to which she must sing her final immolation music and then ride bravely into the flaming pyre. A good Grane is as hard to find as a good German tenor. He must look spirited yet be willing to stand quietly while singers sing loudly and at close range, strings whir, brasses blare, drums pound and steam hisses up through the stage traps. In St. Paul, when the German Grand Opera visited there last year, the Grane was Daisy, a local two-ton, snow-white mare who earns her living regularly by pulling a milkwagon. Daisy looked the part admirably but she objected to the singing of Soprano Johanna Gadski, balked, tried to bite. Last week grumpy Daisy had her punishment. Despite financial difficulties met with on the Pacific Coast, the Germans are returning to St. Paul, will again give Goetterdaemmerung. Daisy has been re-engaged to sing Grane but this time she is being rehearsed by members of the Women's City Club. Every day last week one of the ladies visited her in her stable, sang loudly in her ear.

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