I am in the early days of preparing for the Bayreuth Festival (finally got tickets for the whole cycle) and this introduction is a huge help. Thank you!
This is the best short summary I've ever seen that explains the motives in The Ring Cycle. Thank you for putting this together so skillfully.
Having taught "The Ring" in my university class for ten years, I find this small tribute to they ground-breaking work is encouraging. Some of the snide comments that followed are a sign that this masterful work, which catapulted music into new heights, is still misunderstood by too many.
Wagner's use of the Leitmotiv has still echos today in such popular icons as Star Wars by John Williams. But it is his advances in chromaticism that are the most striking, and the less-researched. For my part, I'll listen to The Ring any time and fall back into that primordial time he was evoking, and happy get carried along.
2
Thank you for this piece. I first heard Das Rheingold in college randomly listening one Saturday afternoon to a live broadcast from the Met. I never thought more than three decades later I would see the Ring Cycle as my wife and I did last week in NY. This was a dream come true for me.
Wagner was a musical genius and Der Ring des Niebelungen is one of the greatest achievements in all of opera.
Among the many highlights was just hearing Rheingold in its entirety and then Tomasz Konieczny as Alberich, Andreas Schager as Siegfried and Christine Goerke as Brunnhilde.
Thank you to all of the donors who are so integral to the success of this great opera company.
2
By the way, Anna Russell on "The Ring" is required listening for anyone interested in it.
2
I'm reminded of Mark Twain on Wagner: I understand Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
Amen to that!
1
@Watchful
What Twain (Samuel Clemens) actually wrote was: “The late Bill Nye once said ‘I have been told that Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.’” [Autobiography, Vol. 1]
Thank you so much for this. My husband, who died recently, introduced me to the Ring over 35 years ago. We were both a little scared (I think) of how much it moved us and so didn't listen to it except in small doses.
The only exception: We did watch the four night extravaganza on PBS in the 80s. (I think James Levine conducted.) We watched it on our tiny 12" black and white TV, tinny speaker and all. Though a poor vehicle at best, I was mesmerized, enchanted and exhausted over those four glorious days. I vividly remember crying at the end, wishing it would never stop.
Thank you for bringing that piece of my husband back to me as I read (and listened to) this article this afternoon. Bravo!
4
Thematically Wagner is dealing with the various aspects of love (romantic, parental, etc.) and its conflict with duty (Wotan/brunhilda), incest, greed, and power. On top of these probing problems of humanity we are immersed in overwhelming musical beauty.
3
Wagner did not invent the leitmotif, or anything else. He got all his orchestration ideas from Franz Liszt, the single most influential composer of the 19th century. The worship of Wagner is particularly disgusting now that we know how his virulent anti-Semitism set the stage for the Holocaust to happen, and how many composers we know were murdered; and the Met has yet to perform their operas, as far as I know. The Ring and any other Wagner should be boycotted until the operas of murdered composers are performed. Franz Schreker, for one. And they are just as good. The Met has done Kurt Weill, but he escaped harm and found great success in the USA, unlike too many of his compatriots.
3
@Grittenhouse
This article is not about Wagner, the human being or his anti-Semitism. It is about his masterful work. And his creations have not been surpassed to date and will live on for centuries to come as long as the form continues to exist! The holocaust did not happen because of Wagner's operas. By suggesting they did you show historical ignorance in addition to musical ignorance.
6
Wagner had nothing to do with the Holocaust. Yes he was anti Semitic, as nearly all Europeans and Americans were in that century, but there is no evidence that he would have condoned violence. This Holocaust connection came after his death when Hitler championed his music and Nordic themes.
5
@Grittenhouse
While I'm no fan of the Wagner the man or the composer (essentially a miniaturist taking a lot of time, in my view), I think you've made a truly fantastic claim for Liszt, a first rate showman and third-rate composer. Berlioz had a far greater influence. As did Beethoven for that matter, seeing as he lived twenty-seven years into the nineteenth century..
2
Just saw this yesterday. The projections come off poorly on film. In the opera house, seeing the projections clearly on all the surfaces makes for a much more magical experience. Is it a clunky production? Yes but I think its infamy has far exceeded what flaws there really are. I saw a far worse production of Gotterdammerung at La Scala years ago. It's far from being a perfect production but as a New Yorker, it's our Ring and one I'm proud of it. Whatever you might feel about the production, this current cycle was blessed with the most amazing talent I've seen in a while. Kudos to Phillipe Jordan for his spirited conducting and Goerke for her sassy Brunhilde. My favorite remains Die Walkure but this cycle had an especially well sung Rheingold, even the minor characters. Always grateful for a Ring Cycle!
4
THAT! WAS! MARVELOUS!
My sister (lives in D.C.) has--over the past few years--become passionately addicted to The Ring cycle. Has flown out to San Francisco (at great expense) to take in these four great operas--and is now (as I type these words) in New York City for the same purpose.
I am not (personally) the devoted Wagner aficionado she is. Oh dear me, no!. When we argue about it (not often--every now and then), I point out that, what you get in these four works are not so much living, breathing PEOPLE as Wagner's FEELINGS about these people.
How "real" a person, how "real" a human being is Siegfried compared with Mozart's Figaro? Or Verdi's Rigoletto? These were composers "stuck" (as it were) in real life--not that marvelous Germanic world of myth.
AND YET--
--when I listen (as I did just now) to the excerpts in this article--carefully reading the article as I go--
--gosh, New York Times! My objections and criticisms give a little gasp and die. This is the work of a master! A man of stupendous genius. Incredible!
It wasn't as if I'd never heard this music before. At some time or other. But bringing it all together--explaining it--calling my attention to this or that leitmotif--
--what a service! Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Marvelous! That was--marvelous!
Gotta sit down and actually LISTEN--to the whole Ring cycle sometime.
And I will.
I promise.
12
@Susan Fitzwater
I love the Ring in large part for the very reason you state: gods and giants marching, flying and swimming across the stage for nigh on 24 hours, waging their titanic and ultimately fruitless struggles. It's so THRILLING and so much bigger than anything else in opera or even in all of performing art.
And yet, when I saw Die Meistersinger I was stunned to discover a completely different side of Wagner. The master's only comedy was perhaps the most human and humanist opera I had ever experienced, with people, their foibles and a community that seemed very, very real and cotidian. Indeed, even if the particulars of the story are made up, Wagner used the real singing societies of old Nuremburg and names of real historical people to create the opera.
And after THAT experience it might pay to see Tannhauser--basically the same story, complete with a community structure and a singing context, but transformed into a supernatural, mopey, tragic Christian tale. With an orgy in the form of a dance, I might add.
The Ring may indeed rule them all, but there are many sides to Wagner!
3
I really don't get how you are supposed to know that the Sword motive has anything to do with a sword or some unspoken idea of Wotan when it occurs at the end of Rheingold, if the staging doesn't include it (and I don't see it in Chereau's, 2:17:48 and following, 2:21:39, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZP-yXsNV2E).
According to http://richardtrythall.com/UCCD2A.html, "Suddenly, Wotan has a new idea. Taking up a sword that had been left behind by Fafner, he hails this new home...." I don't have the score handy. Do the stage directions include this?
Better late than never. I had shunned Wagner all my early adult life (political issues) and only now in my 8th decade have the need to learn why his music thrills my heart so.
Please, give me your recommendations of online courses I could follow to understand why his Ring Cycle in particular is so compelling to me. (not even aFORMER hippie!). Thank you.
1
@Marcia Wilheim
Welcome to the club. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40300.I_Saw_the_World_End this is great book about the ring. One of the best DVD sets is https://mostlyopera.blogspot.com/2008/10/nibelungen-ring-on-dvd-kupfer-barenboim.html
@Marcia Wilheim
I would also recommend the book Wagner Without Fear by William Berger. It's a very readable and accessible book and actually very entertaining. I addition to a bio of Wagner, the author summarizes each opera and discusses the music. I've spent a lot of time with this book recently in preparation for the Met Ring.
3
In our house, when I was growing up, Wagner was banned, for the reason Arie Avnur cites. So I have come late to this magnificent music, which is the fount of so much that came after. I will be attending my first Ring cycle next week, having spent the past six months studying the music, the libretti, the performance history, and the biographies of Wagner and his associates. I will probably spend the rest of my life deepening my understanding of the Ring. This piece in the Times is helpful! I would like to have a video dictionary of all 198 motifs! As for Wagner's personal behavior and political views, which caused our family to shun his music, I am trying to learn more about them as well. I don't need to learn much more about Levine's behavior, but I'm sad about it -- he was a good conductor.
3
@edebrigard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzFdrDju4Zw&list=PL78TsyiiZjhGNl-civwjVsk_7tn6XG3wh here is a list of the Leitmotifs from youtube
Wagner raises the ages old question of possible separation between the artist and his/her art. In addition to personal affronts, his most known offense against humanity is his anti-Semitism—the spreading of hate against an ethnic group, no matter who they are.
Only recently I learned that he was actually the first to claim that the “solution” to those people is by burning.
I would accept that artists’ personal life and misdeeds, can be kept private and separate from their art--but to a limit. Those who speak and promote ideas like burning people do not deserve that we respect any aspect of their art. They do deserve to be outright banned.
For those reasons, I find the discussion of this person’s art offensive.
(Just think if these days you would appreciate anything created by members of hate groups or ISIS, and if you would accept that their art is indispensable.)
3
@Arie Avnur
And you've gone to the opera how many times this year?
Have you gone to the opera? Do you even like opera?
When I complete the 'Cycle 3' in two weeks I will have attended 22 performances at the Met this season.
How easy to pontificate about something especially when it doesn't really interest you.
3
@Arie Avnur Should we shun the constitution because some of its authors were slave owners? Similar examples can easily be constructed for anti-gay and misogynist writings by talented people of the past.
7
@Arie Avnur . . . How many members of the MET orchestra do you think have gotten over your issue early on in their careers (with a tad more knowledge and expertise than yours)?
I am going to see the Ring at the Met next week. This is a wonderful piece that has me excited. Thank you.
5
Thank you for this beautifully produced article. A true education. Please do more pieces such as this.
27
I'm a veteran of more than a dozen Ring cycles including those in NYC, Seattle, San Francisco, L.A., and Flagstaff. Some productions were "iffy" relying on a modernistic turn. But the music endures, and when the staging was horrid (L.A. notably), I just closed my eyes and listened, it's all there: the story of the beginning of the world and its final redemption.
3
@Krismarch I haven't seen the L.A. production but it can't be worst than the circus-inspired production at the Met
@Georges - oh yes it can!
@Georges
The LA production was as bad as it get. The Met production is a bit bland, but not offensive as LA's.
1
Thank you New York Times. Thank you Metropolitan Opera. Wonderful way to start the day with a re-examining of the leitmotivs that make the cycle powerful, beautiful, and timeless.
21
Going to see Die Walküre tomorrow. My favorite opera! All issues with the current staging aside, nothing has ever come close to the beauty of this music, particularly that wrenching dialogue between father and daughter in the final act. I can‘t wait!!
6
Well, I think Parsifal exceeds the beauty of The Ring Cycle, but nothing exceeds J.S. Bach.
7
I’ve seen three complete Ring cycles. There’s always something new to discover in the music.
But I have to admit that the Ring also contains a lot of “note-spinning,” tired themes and endless pages that go on and on and on.
The Ring could be much greater if half of it was cut. (I’m sure a lot of Wagnerites will be incensed by that suggestion).
8
Hear! Hear! I match you in having attended three Ring series. Magnificent music stretched and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d...and random bits of lengthy, useless exposition tossed in (useless because no action results from other characters hearing it.)
But I look forward to seeing it again!
3
@David G.
Who said it about some of Wagner, that some of it could be cut, but who would be foolish enough to do it.
You may have been to three cycles, but may I gently suggest more homework is in order. HALF, half of it were cut, did you really mean that?(which half would that be?) .......so Wagner didn't know what he was doing? I think not-it is the other way, that he knew exactly what he was doing, and there is a reason for the epic length. I'm not incensed just think you're missing a lot.
Here's hoping your next one will BE the one.
6
@David G. Will be going to see the last complete Ring Cycle (my 2nd after L.A.) of this year's Met Season.
Shortening Wagner's music to fit today's short attention span would be a travesty. The Ring is not for everyone.
8
What a great read! What a cast! I am sure it will inspire more fans to come and become mesmerized by the magical beauty of Wagner's worlds!
10
Informative material about one of my favorite composers. But I'm surprised to see the work of the allegedly morally dubious James Levine make an appearance in this article.
3
Good point, but isn’t Wagner himself proven to be “morally ambiguous?” He lies at the very center of the argument on whether we can celebrate the artist while condemning the person. Such was the argument of Deems Taylor’s essay, “The Monster”, which introduced me to Wagner in high school.
17
The “morally dubious” standard leads us to hypocrisy and mob rule. James Levine harmed some people, if reports are true, and allegedly helped others, raising musical standards of what an opera orchestra could be. The Met was right to fire him, even if 30 years late—but I don’t believe that we throw out the good with the bad, or the recorded legacy of decades of sometimes exceptional music making.
12
Absolutely wonderful article, Mr. Cooper. As a die-hard Wagner fan and also having sung Fricka in several professional Ring cycles, I never cease to be amazed at the genius of the leitmotif to invoke objects, ideas, emotions. Thank you for this, which I will share with my colleagues.
11
Brilliant article. Loved it. Unfortunately, a few of the clips didn't play on my Mac. What a cast too! So happy to read something like this.
8
Just played, enthralled as a non Ring fan, on my iPad mini, so no iOS probs. And great to see our own (Wales’) Bryn Terfel. He did glorious Flying Dutchman and Meistersinger for Welsh National Opera btw.
6
@Peter Cox worked fine on my Imac.
I first heard the spellbinding opening of Das Rheingold in the music room of the Detroit Public Library. I was just a kid. The Solti Rheingold had just been released. I was overwhelmed as I listened to the whole music drama. Submerged and inundated in the leitmotifs, I eagerly awaited the next Solti installment. As the Solti Ring developed, so did my interest in Wagner. I saw performances at the old Met, the New Met and in San Francisco. I am now retired. I am looking forward to Saturday's Gotterdammerung broadcast. The formidable and transcendent genius of The Ring is still awe-inspiring to me. I never tire of it.
22
@JimW
The all-time finest Wagner recording is quite old but amazing. Try the Furtwangler/Flagstad verion of Tristan und Isolde, recorded by EMI (UK) and available on Seraphim.
Remastered from the original....the sound is excellent.
7
@JimW
Thanks Metropolitan Opera for Live in HD which was my first opportunity to see the Ring being performed in entirety. It was the beginning of my interest and education in Wagner and his work. Hope to see a live performance someday.
Thanks NYT and Metropolitan Opera for this article.
5
@JimW Gotterdammerung just concluded, and I hope you found it as spellbinding as I did. What a wonderful opera! And Cycle!
1