Ride Wagner RIDE!!!
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 ...
Wagner was a gateway into the world of opera, I, like your husband, was raised in a rural area where Hank Williams was on the radio not Madame Butterfly.
Still, I ain't gonnin’ to see “Cats” no matter how good it is suppose to be/ lol
(grins)
Frankly some people hate just because they heard Hitler loved it or that Wagner was an anti Semite
Of these critics have a jaundiced eye towards it way before the opening of the first act.
It's their lost.
BTW The NY Metropolitan Opera did a great performance of the Der Ring des Nibelungen and the stage it was performed on almost outshone the actors. It, along with great lightening kept shifting like giant keys on a piano. Words fail me but one has to see it to appreciate the genius of it's workings...
If you like Wagner you gotta get a copy of this version of it.
I do love me some Tannhäuser.
Don't forget Leonard Cohen, Iron Butterfly & Queen.
What was this thread about again?
I drug my ex to the HGO, she slept the first three years, then she got it.
The Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde is brilliant...as is much his music. That he was a solid gold pr*ck is a separate issue.
and the chorus from Mahler’s 1st”
Mahler’s 2nd, maybe (or 8th)?
That particular staging was shown in HD around the country at the cinema. I went to a few. Missed a few also, but will get the DVDs....
I like you.
I have been to the opera many times over 35 years, but never to Wagner.
Until May 11, when I saw Gotterdamerung at the Met.
Wow. When it was over after 6 hours, I still wanted more.
Whew. At least you recognize that you're not well. The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that you have one.
Ride Wagner RIDE!!!
Well, yes. And the shady deal was trading his sister-in-law for the building of Valhalla by the giants.
Thanks. I shall. My only DVD of the Ring is the older Levine-Jerusalem-Behrens version, which I like a lot, but I am told that the newer one is magnificent.
Yep. I am laughing. Also coming back now. Relearning the Appassionata, which I haven’t played for years.
....if you can find a copy.
+1
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