Living in coronsvirusworld: a few thoughts on Wagner's "Ring Cycle"

4/4

The Met's Ring Cycle

One unexpected benefit of of living in Coronavirusworld was the opportunity to experience Richard Wagner’s “Ring Cycle,” one of those bucket list type items that seemed destined to remain uncompleted. I have always had an ambivalent fascination with the Ring. On the one hand, intrigued by how so many would come to  commit themselves to plunging into a 14-16 hour adventure in heavy opera. Waiting years for tickets to the Ring’s true Valhalla, the Festival at Bayreuth, still run by Wagner’s descendants.  I wanted to understand that passion. On the other was my awareness of Wagner as a truly nasty no question about it anti-semite and favorite of Hitler. This being both a “Stay away” factor and back ended attraction as something forbidden always is. Aware of the ongoing controversial efforts of conductors like Daniel Barenboim to perform Wagner in Israel. 

So far I had only one experience of any part of the Ring, the historic 1980 Tulsa Opera production where Simon Estes became the first African-American to portray Wotan. His performance would open the doors to his Metropolitan Opera debut as Wotan. I reviewed that production for the African-American owned Oklahoma Eagle under the title “Die Walkure from die balcony,” from the perspective of one sitting in the cheap seats. I remember little of the performance save for the power of Estes' voice.  I bring that same naive outlook to this 2011-12 production of the Ring, directed by Richard le Page of Cirque de Soleil fame and conducted by the still loved pre-Me Too outed James Levine struggling to remain in the pit finally giving way to Fabio Luisi. 

At the end of the day, this streaming experience was better for me than being there in person.  Close ups helped. Being able to replay a scene you may have missed. In the end, I saw it all. And I can’t always honestly say that. And what did I see? More than see... experience? Like being immersed in another world. And as a complete novice, I can say the world was not unfamiliar. Marvel comics and the Marvel “Avengers” movie universe was certainly good preparation. Hey, even some of the same characters!  Wotan (Odin), Loge (Loki) and Donner (Thor) all straight out of Marvel. And Wotan, Sigmund and Siegfried all brought a World Wrestling Entertainment vibe with their long hair and bulging biceps and swagger.  And Wagner’s identity leitmotifs like WWE’s entrance music. Siegfried’s heel turn in Gotterdammerung is classic WWE. There are other connections…When Gunther appears in Siegfried, he looks and sounds like a Star Wars Republic senator ready to go to the dark side. And the power of the Ring, it’s effect on people, the obsessive passion it creates, clearly at least a connector to the ring in the Lord of the Rings series. All of these share a certain mythic  way of processing reality,  a certain ethos where the gods interact with humans and share all their emotional complexities and character flaws.  A certain lost majesty and passion. You enter into the reality and experience that for all those hours, yes I get it.  And these myths are all part of how humanity shapes its own narrative. (My musical son Micah, in Berlin laughed and wondered what Wagner would think of the Marvel and pro Wrestling comparisons..) 

The story carried me along, not knowing what would happen next.  I loved Wagner’s experimental use of leitmotifs to introduce and announce characters, none better than that  of the Valkure’s conjuring up Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now helicopter scene. All the men are filled with annoying arrogance, bad thinking and fatal decision making. And some plot twists like brothers and sisters falling in love and mating are jaw dropping, even in “Ring Land.” As entertaining as the Rhinemaidens are, the one truly noble character is Brunhilde, the queen of the Valkures.

As to the deeper question of Wagner, that remains a challenge. This work has been seen as anarchist, Marxist, and nationalist/ populist.  In the end, though, the surface story is pretty clear….it is about the love of power over against the power of love. It’s explicit, only one who gives up the option of love can possess the ring. The Shrekish  Niebulung Alberich (otherwise know as Oberon, here to visit from Midsummer Nights Dream) is willing to make the choice, Wotan is not. And I suddenly realized that Wagner is macing the same argument as prophetic  writer Nahum Ward-Lev who decides we must decide either to put faith in power or faith in love. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q3XQKG2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) I’m sure this comparison would not please other party. 

Finally, does the beauty of a work outweigh the sins of its creator? Picasso? Dali? Michael Jackson? Woody Allen? Polansky?  (I once heard a stand up comedian say, “hey John Wayne Gacy: great clown. Made wonderful balloon animals…”). After the Ring, I think where I end up is the beauty we create does not outweigh the evil we do. On the other hand, neither can the evil negate the beauty.  In the end, beauty trumphs over evil. 

Would I do this again? Fully paid trip to Bayreuth? Just maybe….