Kirsten Flagstad – Brünnhilde’s battle cry: “Ho jo to ho!”
Kirsten Flagstad having fun singing Hojotoho battlecry of Wagner’s Valkyrie! This scene is extracted from “The Big Broadcast of 1938” which is a Paramount film featuring W.C. Fields and Bob Hope. Directed by Mitchell Leisen, the film is the last in a series of Big Broadcast movies that were variety show anthologies.
| Act Two Prelude and Scene One (The curtain rises.) (A wild rocky place. In the background a gorge slopes from below to a high ridge of rocks, from which the ground again sinks to the front.) |
| Wotan (fully armed, carrying his spear, before him Brünnhilde, as a Valkyrie, likewise fully armed) Now bridle thy horse, warrior maid; soon will blaze furious strife. Brünnhilde, haste to the fray to shield the Wälsung in fight! There let Hunding go where he belongs; in Walhall want I him not. Then, ready and fleet, ride to the field. Brünnhilde (springs shouting from rock to rock up the height on the right) Hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! heiaha! hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! heiaha! hojotoho! hojotoho! hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha ha! hojoho! (On a high peak she stops, looks into the gorge at the back, and calls to Wotan.) Take warning, Father, look to thyself; storm and strife must thou withstand. Fricka comes to thee here, drawn hither in her car by her rams. Hei! how she swings the golden scourge! The wretched beasts are groaning with fear; wheels furiously rattle; fierce she fares to the fray. In strife like this I take no delight, sweet though to me are the fights of men; then take now thy stand for the storm: I leave thee with mirth to thy fate. Hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! heiaha! hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha! heiaha! hojotoho! hojotoho! hojotoho! hojotoho! heiaha ha! (Brünnhilde disappears behind the mountain height at the side.) (Fricka, in a car drawn by two rams, comes up from the ravine to the top of the pass, where she stops suddenly and alights. She strides impetuously toward Wotan in the foreground.) |
| Wotan (seeing Fricka approaching him; aside) The wonted storm, the wonted strife! But firm here must I hold me! |
The American Minervan 