Wagner, Richard (1813 - 1883)

[teamsaint]

If you have the big Decca and DG Karajan box then surely a disc a day for The Ring is the whole work in a day. After all, it's all there on a single Blu-ray disc (which I must admit I have yet to spin, despite having got the set at the time of its release*.).

*A situation which I intend to resolve shortly.

I don’t got a Blu Ray machine, which incidentally has put me off some of those lovely XTC re- issues.

[teamsaint]

My way into The Ring was listening to the Solti boxed set along with the books by Rudolph Sabor which I had taken out of the library at uni - these are translations of the libretti along with commentary and descriptions of all the Leitmotifs and signals as to their appearance in the operas. Unfortunately the boxed set of all these books is now going for over a grand on amazon - but individually they're not as expensive (although perhaps still prohibitively so).

Much as I'd like to get more involved in The Ring, I value my practice schedule more than to disrupt it. A disk a day is enough for me...

Well since I have nothing better to do, I have had a bit of a shop and bought all four plus the companion for £40 used. Rheingold was the most expensive from Oxfam in Oxford, ( where else ?)
So that should keep me out of mischief.

[Joseph K]

Well since I have nothing better to do, I have had a bit of a shop and bought all four plus the companion for £40 used. Rheingold was the most expensive from Oxfam in Oxford, ( where else ?)
So that should keep me out of mischief.

Ah great!

[teamsaint]

Ah great!

And I won’t forget whose idea it was ……..however it goes….
Thanks for the tip, the books look fantastic.

[teamsaint]

Ah great!

Well two of the Sabor books have arrived, so being a traditionalist I am starting at the beginning with Rheingold, which handily is one of the two that have so been delivered.
They are terrific, quite superb books, and, as you found, a great aid for the beginner.
I’m hooked.

[Joseph K]

Well two of the Sabor books have arrived, so being a traditionalist I am starting at the beginning with Rheingold, which handily is one of the two that have so been delivered.
They are terrific, quite superb books, and, as you found, a great aid for the beginner.
I’m hooked.

Great!

I am behind schedule... only just now finished listening to the first act of Die Walkuere.

[teamsaint]

Great!

I am behind schedule... only just now finished listening to the first act of Die Walkuere.

Finished that last night. System working quite well !! . At least I feel I have a tentative grasp on the whole business now.
Probably look for some good performances on Youtube after finishing the cycle on CD.

This looks like one for the shortlist.

https://youtu.be/oyGlVwDu6a0

[Joseph K]

Finished that last night. System working quite well !! . At least I feel I have a tentative grasp on the whole business now.
Probably look for some good performances on Youtube after finishing the cycle on CD.

This looks like one for the shortlist.

https://youtu.be/oyGlVwDu6a0

Only last night did I finish the second act of Die Walkuere.

[kernelbogey]

Act One of Die Walkuere is one of the most gripping in all opera, IMV.

[smittims]

And the only part of the Ring which can stand alone as a one-act opera in its own right, I think. Not surprisingly it featured in early attempts to get at lest some of the Ring available on disc, the 1933 Bruno Walter set with Melchior , Lotte Lehmann and the Vienna Philharmonic still outstanding.

[gradus]

From an earlier era, Ernest Newman's Wagner Nights tells the stories and explains the Leitmotifs very well, in one volume.

[smittims]

Does anyone still listen to Deryck Cooke's once-famous recorded lecture with specially-recorded extracts by the VPO and Georg Solti? It was made in conjunction with the famous Decca Ring and originally issued as part of a massive 22-Lp box in an impressive presentation case, though of course available as a separate 3-LP set and more recently a 2-CD set.

As I recalll, it was in its day rather cointroversial for renaming and re-assigning some motifs, 'Freia-II' for instance, first heard where the eponymous goddess enters in 'Rheingold' pursued by the Giants, and famously transformed Liszt-like on solo cello in Walkure Act One at the moment where Siegmund and Sieglinde first exchange glances (who could forget Emanuel Brabec's playing of this wonderful passage?) .

[Petrushka]

Does anyone still listen to Deryck Cooke's once-famous recorded lecture with specially-recorded extracts by the VPO and Georg Solti? It was made in conjunction with the famous Decca Ring and originally issued as part of a massive 22-Lp box in an impressive presentation case, though of course available as a separate 3-LP set and more recently a 2-CD set.

As I recalll, it was in its day rather cointroversial for renaming and re-assigning some motifs, 'Freia-II' for instance, first heard where the eponymous goddess enters in 'Rheingold' pursued by the Giants, and famously transformed Liszt-like on solo cello in Walkure Act One at the moment where Siegmund and Sieglinde first exchange glances (who could forget Emanuel Brabec's playing of this wonderful passage?) .

I have that 2 CD set but especially remember Cooke's talks on Radio 3 in the early 1970s which took some of his ideas forward. I think he called the 'Freia' motive the most important one in the entire Ring.

I don't know if anyone reads Robert Donington's 'Wagner's Ring and its Symbols' nowadays. It's a Jungian analysis of Wagner's work which some may find enlightening and others hard going, but he does have a useful appendix of motives.

[smittims]

Yes, I'm afraid I couldn't get on with Donington; I found Cooke much more agreeable.

[gurnemanz]

Over the years I have made frequent reference in various threads on here to how influential Donington has been on my understanding of the Ring and indeed the workings of the human psyche in general:

Eg, to quote myself: "About 30 years ago when our daughter was 2, the BBC showed the Ring Cycle on the telly (those were the days). She was riveted by Rheingold, I remember (golden apples, giants, a rainbow bridge etc). I'd recently been reading Robert Donington's Jungian "Wagner's Ring and its Symbols" and at the time, pseud that I no doubt was, I convinced myself that she was somehow "getting" it at the deep unconscious level of psychological archetypes." http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...033#post289033

She is now 41 and more of a ballet than an opera freak, such that she is subscribed to ROH priority booking, which we also take advantage of. We booked the ROH Ring through her in 2018 and my wife and I were surprised when she announced that she and her partner would join us. Neither had ever really listened to Wagner much but they thought it would be a cultural experience not to be missed. We duly went all together and had a great time. I couldn't help telling her about that TV broadcast but having been so young at the time she of course had no memory of it - conscious, that is.