Posted on 05/21/2013 11:56:02 AM PDT by Borges
Wednesday marks 200 years since the birth of Richard Wagner, the most violently controversial musician in history. His Italian contemporary Verdi – born in the same year – is acknowledged as a genius for all time. But Wagner, though he has the more passionate advocates, also has the most determined detractors. Why, they complain, are his operas so heavy-sounding, so terribly long, so full of weird mythical figures? In short: why are they so German?
When I started going to the opera not so long ago, I was asked which work had drawn me to the art form. Perhaps people expected me to say a lyrical Rossini or delightful Mozart, because I got funny looks when I said it was Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal – the six-hour epic based on medieval legend, featuring the Holy Grail and a castrated sorcerer. “Oh,” said one woman I met, “don’t tell me you’re becoming one of those Wagnerians?” She could barely hide her distaste.
What I loved about Parsifal was that transcendent music was allied to superb drama. Parsifal, an innocent knight, battles his way into a sorcerer’s lair in order to rescue a holy spear. To succeed, he must reject the sexual temptation of the flower maidens who, like the Sirens of Greek mythology, send many a knight to his doom. It might sound a touch silly, but in an age when we’re happy to read deep meanings into fantasies such as The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, surely we can be open-minded about Wagner’s plots?
A bigger problem is the Nazi associations.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“I love the sound of Wagner in the morning”
“Sounds like.....victory!”
Que in...
“The Ride of the Valkyries”
Me too. Did you ever play “Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral”? Unbelievable. Starts softly and the whole piece is one gradual crescendo. At the end you are blowing your heart out.
Isn't that like blaming the creator(s) of the good luck sign for Nazism and the "evil swastika"?
Ask that teach if the president resides in the Vhite Haus.
Didn't the Dixie Chicks movie Shut Up And Sing teach us ANYTHING? You aren't supposed to criticize or boycott an entertainer simply because of their politics or comments, no matter how offensive.
Nothing was like the Bugs Bunny sendup “What’s Opera, Doc?”
It mixed in Fliegende Hollander, Die Walkure, and Tannhauser among others.
“Oh, Bwunhilde, you’re so wuvwy...”
"Yes, I know it ... I can't hellllp it..."
It's more Wagner's book about the Jews than the fact that Hitler took him up. He wasn't quite "the Nazis favorite composer" -- plenty of Nazis were bored to death by the Bayreuth festival -- but he definitely had strong feelings against the Jews and certainly was a major influence on Hitler himself.
I like you.
I decided to introduce him to live opera. I also decided NOT to introduce him to operatic music and drama via Wagner.
I bought tickets for a new and stunning production of "Madama Butterfly" at the Lyric Opera House in Chicago. It was the right move....he sat in his seat through all the acts as if mesmerized.
The Butterfly is a right choice for newbies to opera.....dramatic, melodic and colorful setting-wise.
I know if I brought him to a Wagnerian opera he'd never want to go again. I don't think he could have sat still that long...or could have sat through all the unmelodic recitatives.
The upshot of that lovely evening? He never asked to go to another opera again, anyhow....after all my planning and plotting.
Grrrr......
After listening to the Act III finale of The Valkyrie, with the Magic Fire, over and over and over all weekend, I decided that Wagner was almost an addiction. I listen to the last 15 minutes, four times an hour, for hours on end. I am seriously worried about it. Perhaps no physical dependence, but there is definitely a psychological craving/dependence and tolerance--the more I listen, the more I crave to produce the same effect. It is even making music like Beethoven and Bach sound...plebeian. Now when it gets to that point, it's a pathology. I've always known that I was not quite normal, but this...has me worried.
Those broadcasts care now available in DVD. I have the complete set.
It does sound like that, but...the Ring is, to me, quite the opposite of what is portrayed by Wagner's detractors. Even considering the ubermensch, Wotan is brought down by his own hubris and, ultimately for trading Freia for Valhalla.
Do not like Wagner. Musician here. Music without cadences is like a run-on paragraph without punctuation.
Ha, I’m with Mark Twain.
It does have cadences. Just at the end of an Act of an Opera.
Wotan was brought down by making shady deals with shady characters and not expecting to keep his end of the bargain.
“With my spear and my magic helmet!”
“Your spear and your magic helmet?”
“Yes...magic helmet! And I’ll give you a SAM-PLE....!!”
;^)
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