A dramatised reading of The Ring, in English

[Bert Coules]

The British Library paid host yesterday to what was described - probably accurately, I suspect - as a unique event. A semi-staged dramatic reading of Wagner's complete Ring, in English. A large cast of young actors from the Central School was accompanied by John Tomlinson no less as narrator: which is to say he read, with enormous presence and power, a slightly edited version of the stage directions.

It was something of a success: I heard several people using the word "revelatory". Certainly anyone with little or no German, accustomed only to surtitles or following a translated libretto, would have found the direct experience of hearing the dialogue in English quite new. The staging was minimal, but clever: no scenery, no props (everything was mimed) and unobtrusively appropriate modern dress: the gods formal, the giants in jeans, Alberich and Mime racially linked by the simple expedient of giving them both woolly hats. Personally, I could have done without the projected images (from Rackham and others).

Unison passages, which I expected to be problematical, weren't. The ride of the Valkyries and the summoning of the Gibichung vassals were both done exactly as if sung, with unison lines, overlapping delivery, simultaneous different words and all.

The weakest point of the whole thing for me was, unfortunately, a central element: the translation. After considering various alternatives they decided to use Stewart Spencer's which is undeniably clever at maintaining the Stabreim (and in other variously scholarly ways) but to my mind is absolutely hopeless for performance (for which I presume it was never intended). It varies widely in tone (and not just where Wagner's original does the same) but more crucially, it isn't rhythmic: in sticking close to one aspect of the German text, Spencer has completely abandoned another - and in this instance, one that's vastly more important: the unmetrical delivery sounded not poetic but hopelessly stilted and unnatural. The text was also full of pitfalls for the cast with even Tomlinson stumbling once or twice.

The performances were full of interest. There could have been stronger overall direction (we heard several different pronunciations of key words, especially names) but what was fascinating was that most of the cast were new to Wagner in general and the Ring in particular, which lead to some markedly unexpected moments . Too many to mention in detail, but for instance the Wotan completely threw away "One freer than I - the god" (usually a highlight) and gave a fascinating reading of another key line: "I cannot destroy him! He found my sword!" (as opposed to being given it - the usual stress being on the final word).

Did it work as a play? Not for me, but that wasn't the fault of the players. If they'd gone for a singing translation - and they could have used an early one, Jameson say, or Newman, if they wanted a period feel - things could have been very different. But my word, I'm glad I was there.

Bert

[DracoM]

Bert

I never saw any advert etc that this was to be done. How did you know it was on?

[Flosshilde]

I would very much like to have gone to this. Although Wagner's readings weren't 'dramatised' with an actor for each part it's how his circle first heard the Ring - as spoken texts without musical accompaniment .

[Flosshilde]

Draco, I had heard it was on - I think it might have been trailed on R3 - In Tune, perhaps, or in general discussion of Wagner celebrations.

I shall have a look at the BL website to see if it's available on line.

[Bert Coules]

To be honest, I don't now remember how I learned of it. Apparently, there was another Wagner event at the same venue the day before, which I only found out about too late, on Sunday. Similarly, a mini-festival called Wagner 200 ("London celebrates the bicentenary of Richard Wagner, May - December 2013") which I'd never heard of until I saw a leaflet about it at the Ring performance. There are details of this here .

Sunday's house was decent but the venue (capacity 255) certainly wasn't full: the performers deserved more. They also deserve another chance to give the piece, with better publicity.

[gurnemanz]

It does seem a strange enterprise but you make it sound intriguing. Wagner's language is such a weird concoction of alliteration, obscure, obsolete and even invented words that it is difficult to imagine even attempting to translate it.

I found a very entertaining article from the Frankfurter Allgemeine. Here, for example, is a list of Wagner's made-up words: „schleck“, „glau“, „fahn“, „Huie“, „schmählen“, „zullen“, „Gleißner“, „lackert“, „queck“, „neidlich“, „jach“, „Witzigung“, „weihlich“, „Klinze“.
The author quotes Hanslick's reference to Wagner's „bombastisches Alliterationsgestotter“ (*bombastic alliterative stuttering?)

PS. If they are planning to do Parsifal, I am available as the ageing, long-winded knight.

[Bert Coules]

It does seem a strange enterprise...

Does it? Wagner gave readings of the texts, his contemporary followers made claims for them as dramas in their own right, he started as a playwright, and to the end described himself as a poet (with the "dramatic" implied).

As to translation, well it depends what you mean by "translation", doesn't it. In one way it's the old argument of sense over sound, or vice versa. "From the very first time I heard The Ring," said Andrew Porter in an article on the subject, "I wanted to know what those characters were saying to each other" and that was my experience too. Porter's own singing version manages in large measure to combine direct intelligible English with the flavour at least of the original, but you could argue that to reproduce the effect felt by the Ring's first audiences, direct intelligibilty should perhaps be laced with something rather more obscure and convoluted.

But - as with all historical-perpective performances - the problem is that we simply can't know in any meaningful way just what that effect actually was, much less reproduce the circumstances in which it occurred. Given that, I'll take the Porter approach with gratitude, knowing that Wagner himself is on record as favouring translation of his works for maximum impact to non German speakers.

...the ageing, long-winded knight.

One of the many interesting things about Sunday's performance was that the bits of the work that can sag dramatically in the opera house - which for me include the Alberich/Wotan scene in Siegfried and the early section of the Brünnhilde/Siegfried duet from the same opera - also sagged as spoken drama.

Thanks for the list of Wagnerian coinings. Fascinating.

[David-G]

This sounds to have been a fascinating event. It's a pity that it was not better publicised. If I had known about it, I would certainly have gone. I think perhaps that the Porter translation would have done very well. It certainly helped to make the Goodall Ring at the ENO in the 1970s very powerful dramatically.

[Beef Oven]

This sounds to have been a fascinating event. It's a pity that it was not better publicised. If I had known about it, I would certainly have gone. I think perhaps that the Porter translation would have done very well. It certainly helped to make the Goodall Ring at the ENO in the 1970s very powerful dramatically.

I missed this too Can't understand why it happened so 'quietly'.

[Flosshilde]

One of the many interesting things about Sunday's performance was that the bits of the work that can sag dramatically in the opera house - which for me include the Alberich/Wotan scene in Siegfried and the early section of the Brünnhilde/Siegfried duet from the same opera - also sagged as spoken drama.

Ah - I thought the punch-line was going to be the opposite!