Live from the Met 2.04.11 - Wagner: Das Rheingold

[Stanley Stewart]

I would certainly endorse Bryan Magee's "Aspects of Wagner" which I note was published by Panther at 35p in 1968! This paperback edition remains a refreshing read, although I still treasure the 4 vol "The Life of Richard Wagner" (Cassell, 1976), by Ernest Newman, along with his "A Study of Wagner" (Vienna House,1974) and Wagner Nights (Picador/Pan 1977) and RW's "My Life" (Cambridge UP, 1983) - and I'm still on a learning curve.

[perfect wagnerite]

Aspects of Wagner is absolutely indispensible, as is Donnington's post-Jungian Wagner's Ring and its Symbols, which will both irritate and enlighten. Newman's four-volume biography is a masterpiece of sorts, but extremely detailed and quite hard going; Wagner Nights is useful and comprehensive, good on the literary sources, but dated.

I'd recommend Bernard Shaw's The Perfect Wagnerite (well I would, wouldn't I) as a next step - sometimes wonderfully insightful, often extremely silly, and loses the plot entirely over eugenics and his theory that Gotterdammerung is a lapse into grand opera. But it's worth it for writing like this:

In the mine, which resounds with the clinking anvils of the dwarfs toiling miserably to heap up treasure for their master, Alberic has set his brother Mime--more familiarly, Mimmy--to make him a helmet. Mimmy dimly sees that there is some magic in this helmet, and tries to keep it; but Alberic wrests it from him, and shows him, to his cost, that it is the veil of the invisible whip, and that he who wears it can appear in what shape he will, or disappear from view altogether. This helmet is a very common article in our streets, where it generally takes the form of a tall hat. It makes a man invisible as a shareholder, and changes him into various shapes, such as a pious Christian, a subscriber to hospitals, a benefactor of the poor, a model husband and father, a shrewd, practical independent Englishman, and what not, when he is really a pitiful parasite on the commonwealth, consuming a great deal, and producing nothing, feeling nothing, knowing nothing, believing nothing, and doing nothing except what all the rest do, and that only because he is afraid not to do it, or at least pretend to do it.

[Mandryka]

Shaw's Perfect Wagnerite is one of those books that is much talked about but seldom read: probably because it's been either oop or barely available for many years.

[Flosshilde]

Shaw's Perfect Wagnerite is one of those books that is much talked about but seldom read: probably because it's been either oop or barely available for many years.

pw's extract has persuaded me to seek out a copy

& it wasn't in the end that difficult - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Wagn...1647193&sr=1-1

(I thought that if it was out of print I'd start by searching with Bookfinder4U, which showed that it was available new from Amazon)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Of all the operas from The Ring cycle, Das Rheingold seems to be the one with the greatest pace. The others do seem to dawdle in places.

[umslopogaas]

The problem with books on Wagner is that there are so many of them. I agree that Magee's is an excellent introduction. I also like 'Wagner: a case history' by Martin van Amerongen (Dent, 1983). I'd avoid Robert Donnington's 'Wagner's "Ring" and its symbols' (Faber, 2nd ed. 1969). A copy of that has sat mostly untouched on my bookshelves for over forty years, it is one of the most impenetratbly obscure analyses I've ever come across: and these days, is Jung of more than historic interest? Is it still possible to find a Jungian, let alone find anyone to interpret what he says? Well, maybe, but I dont think I'll bother.

Another that I read recently and enjoyed is 'The Wagner clan' by Jonathan Carr (Faber and Faber 2007). Wagner's descendants and their domination of Bayreuth, right up to the present day.

And apologies for repeating myself, I think I've posted the following observation before, probably also in a thread on Wagner. The discussion of Wagner the man and Wagner the artist reminds me of George Orwell's comments on Salvador Dali in his essay 'Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali'. Orwell was troubled by the fact that Dali was clearly a skilled and talented artist, and, on the basis of a carefully cultivated public persona, a disgusting person. Orwell noted that the world was split between those who felt that because he was a fine artist he must be allowed objectionable behaviour, and those who felt that because he was an obnoxious person, he could not be a great artist. He says:

"One ought to be able to hold in one's head simultaneously the two facts that Dali is a good draughtsman and a disgusting human being. The one does not invalidate or, in a sense, affect the other."

I think he might have been happy to have that analysis applied to Wagner too.

[Mr Pee]

I heartily endorse "Aspects of Wagner" as a highly readable and interesting volume- and it's comparitively brief. If you're looking for an introduction to Wagner, it's hard to beat.

Like Flosshilde, I've also read "Last of the Titans" and "Wagner and the art of the theatre". Both are excellent volumes, somewhat lengthy, but worth the time. Also Frederic Spott's history of the Bayreuth festival is well worth a look; while still on Bayreuth rather than Wagner himself, Brigitte Hamann's "Winifred Wagner: A Life at the heart of Hitler's Bayreuth" is a very worthwhile insight into that dark period of Bayreuth's history, and the relationship between the Wagner dynasty and the Nazis.

[StephenO]

Not a book, of course, but I've always found Deryck Cooke's An Introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen to be pretty indispensible listening. Cooke's use of almost two hundred examples from Solti's recording certainly helped me to find my way through Wagner's epic musical journey - and Solti, IMO, still reigns supreme amongst complete versions of the Ring.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes, and the booklet with the CDs quotes all the themes/motifs in their various forms. Well worth acquiring.

[Mr Pee]

And if you want a book that will get you some very strange looks on the tube, there's always this one:-

http://verbo.se/penetrating-wagners-ring

(It's worth clicking on the link from the above page to read some highly "probing" reviews...... )

[umslopogaas]

Just to clarify: 'Der Ring Des Nibelungen' by Derek Cooke is a 2 CD set issued by Decca to complement their complete recording of the ring (it had an earlier incarnation on LP). He uses 193 musical examples, so its pretty thorough!

My CD set has the code Decca 443 581-2, but there may be more recent issues.

I agree, the Solti 'Ring' is a very special recording, I treasure it so much I have it both on LP and CD. Which reminds me, I havent played it for some time ... I think I feel a marathon listening session in the offing.

[Flosshilde]

Good grief, was that really applause I just heard? (just before the Rhinemaidens started singing) Presumably the curtain had just gone up & the audience were applauding the set?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[Bert Coules]

I'm not sure if it was applause or a mechanical sound from the famously high-tech set. That opening image is spectacular though, so it could have got an opening round. It happened at the Coliseum one night for act two of The Valkyrie in the wonderful Blatchley/Byam Shaw/Koltai/Ornbo production.

My DAB display is exhorting me to "listen out for the famous Metropolitan Opera interval quiz". I don't know which aspect I'm more expecting to be surprised by: the quiz or the interval.

The performance seems OK so far.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My DAB display is exhorting me to "listen out for the famous Metropolitan Opera interval quiz". I don't know which aspect I'm more expecting to be surprised by: the quiz or the interval.

I recall something similar in a Das Rheingold broadcast not so long ago.