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Home , Das Rheingold, Rudolf Bing, Siegfried (opera), Winifred Wagner, Wolfgang Wagner

Inside the Ring: Essays on ’s Cycle John Louis DiGaetani Professor Department of English and Freshman Composition James Morris as Wotan in Wagner’s Die Walküre. Photo: Jennifer Carle/The

hirty years ago I edited a book in the 1970s, the problem was finding a admirer of Hitler and she turned the titled Penetrating Wagner’s Ring: performance of the Ring, but now the summer festival into a Nazi showplace An Anthology. Today, I find problem is finding a ticket. Often these in the 1930s and until 1944 when the myself editing a book titled Ring cycles — the four done festival was closed. But her sons, Inside the Ring: Essays on within a week, as Wagner wanted — are Wieland and Wolfgang, managed to T Wagner’s Opera Cycle — to be sold out a year in advance of the begin- reopen the festival in 1951; there, published by McFarland Press in spring ning of the performances, so there is Wieland and Wolfgang’s revolutionary 2006. Is the Ring still an appropriate clearly an increasing demand for tickets new approaches to staging the Ring and subject for today’s audiences? Absolutely. as more and more people become fasci- the other Wagner operas helped to In fact, more than ever. The four operas nated by the Ring cycle. revive audience interest and see that comprise the Ring cycle — Das Wagnerian opera in a new visual style Rheingold, Die Walküre, , and Political Complications and without its previous political associ- Götterdämmerung — have become more ations. Wieland and and more popular since the 1970s. Although Wagner died in 1883, 50 — the composer’s grandsons — empha- Back then there were only two years prior to Hitler’s regime, the Nazis sized the Ring’s connections with Greek opera companies in the clearly wanted to give their criminal tragedy and staged abstract productions that ever staged the Ring — The movement some intellectual clout so that emphasized the Ring’s complex Metropolitan Opera in New York and they quoted the world-famous opera characterizations and mythic dimen- the — and not composer. As a result, sions. These new productions reflected very frequently at that. How the situa- had a very tainted name after World the extensive lighting effects in the Ring tion has changed since then. Now every War II, especially in America. While the cycle and focused on its symbolism. opera company in the world wants to composer’s anti-Semitic prejudices did stage the Ring cycle. In the United not appear in his operas, his reputation New Visual Styles for the Ring States, Ring cycles have appeared in had been harmed. Rudolf Bing (a former many other places, including Seattle, manager of The Metropolitan Opera) in Many people, especially the young, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los his memoirs reported that even in a city have been drawn to Wagner by these Angeles, and Dallas — and around the as operatically sophisticated as New new approaches — not to mention the world in cities like Toronto, Tokyo, York, people simply did not want to very quality of his wonderful operas. Shanghai, Beijing, Adelaide, and hear Wagnerian opera as long as 10 Many of them are too young to have the London, in addition to most of the years after the war. What caused such a old World War II associations, and thus other European opera capitals. We are major change in attitude toward can see and hear the operas with minds clearly living during a Wagner renais- Wagnerian opera since then? unburdened by these ugly memories. In sance when the Ring is being staged Beyond the simple passage of time addition, the symphonic quality of around the world — and some wealthy and the magical quality of this compos- Wagner’s music, coupled with its dra- fans (often called Ring-heads) will go er’s operas, one of the major factors was matic and visual powers, has attracted anywhere in the world to see a new pro- the Wagner Festival (where the Ring new audiences through recordings and duction of this tetralogy of operas. All had its premiere) in , . videotapes. Now that virtually every this represents a revolutionary change in , the widow of the opera house in the world has some sys- attitude, and all within 30 years. Back composer’s son, Siegfried, was a great tem of surtitles, it has also helped

24 HOFSTRAHORIZONS Wagnerian opera since when audiences Wagnerite, and even a casual under- stage designers and inspire them to pro- can understand what is being sung on standing of the Ring forces one to pon- duce fascinating new Ring productions. stage, they become more engaged in der what happens to the gold after it is So many of the visual effects Wagner opera. The age of compact discs, video- stolen from the river and transformed wanted seem cinematic because of the cassettes, CDs, and DVDs has brought into the ring, with its immense wealth composer’s impossible demands. The new audiences to Wagnerian opera — and power. In many ways the Ring is a ending of Götterdämmerung, with the first in Europe and now around the study in greed and the corruption that hall of the Gibichungs afire, in world. Wagner can make music that results when even noble characters like flames, and the overflowing, sounds hot (the fire music of the Ring), the god Wotan renounce love and seems still impossible to achieve sexy (the first act of Die Walküre and the become murderously ruthless in their onstage. Some great filmmaker, though, last scene of Siegfried), tragic (the open- determination to possess the mighty ring. The power of money and what it could create wonderful images with does to people remain the obvious inter- these Wagnerian demands, assuming of pretations, as well as how our ability to course that realism is worth achieving. love can be incapacitated by our desire If Wagner were alive today, he would for money. In many ways the Ring is a probably be turning his operas into family tragedy that shows how money films, given the impossible imagistic and power can destroy a family and pit demands he makes of the operatic stage. one member against another. The dramatic and mythic qualities The Ring’s Characters of the Ring have also attracted many new fans to its power. At a time when Besides fantastic visual effects, char- J.R.R. Tolkien’s own Ring — both in its acterization remains another of Wagner’s original form as novels and its newer appeals. His correspondence is filled film versions — has become very popu- with reference to people as either loving lar, it is not surprising that Wagner’s friends or dangerous enemies. In his Ring (certainly the source of the Tolkien work) becomes more and more enticing. Both artists were interested in mythic Jon Fredric West as Siegfried and as Brünnhilde patterns such as love and hate, evil and in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung. revenge, water and air, earth and fire, life and death, tragedy and comedy, and ing of Götterdämmerung and Siegfried’s death and transfiguration. It is no coin- funeral music), and silly (the flute play- cidence that the Ring ends where it ing of Siegfried in the second act of begins, in the depths of the Rhine. Siegfried). All these varied musical Recurrent cycles remain what the Ring is effects become cleverly woven into the essentially about, and our lives are gov- drama and create symphonic sounds erned by them. A man dies of cancer, that accentuate theatrical developments. his grandson is born a month later; A scene from Wagner’s . Photo: Ken Howard/The Metropolitan Opera lovers fight and make up; water evapo- The Ring’s Revolutionary Ideas rates and clouds are formed; matter is personal life he tended to look upon other people in extremes, as heroes or The young have also been attracted destroyed, but energy is created. The villains — and indeed there is a bipolar to Wagner as a social revolutionary. The forces of nature occur all around us and quality to his life in general, a life lived spring of 1849 found Wagner at the bar- control our lives, and they come in ricades in , fighting the aristo- cycles — like Wagner’s Ring — and in extremes of often suicidal depressions cratic establishment and defending the these cycles both create lives and and paranoid manias. But one of the rights of the poor and the disenfran- destroy them. most wonderful and amazing things chised. The year 1848, during which he about the Ring is its lack of melodramat- started work on the Ring, was also the The Ring’s Scenic Demands ic characterization. The Ring’s characters year that Karl Marx wrote The remain as inexhaustible as real people Communist Manifesto. The Ring’s own The scenic effects that Wagner because they refuse to be neatly catego- anti-materialism and anti-capitalism are demands, utterly impossible at the time rized and dismissed. Who is the real emphasized by several critics, starting the operas were written in the l9th cen- villain in the Ring? The god Wotan with George Bernard Shaw’s The Perfect tury, provide fresh challenges to modern does much more evil than the

HOFSTRAHORIZONS 25 ever dreams of — and often be enjoyed. The new book will provide Alberich’s many personal rejections and more information about this work for his very isolation make him a very sym- Ring fans, and with more knowledge of pathetic character. In Das Rheingold this vast work comes more enjoyment. Loge finds the gods the most culpable of Here a beginner can start his examina- beings, not the dwarves. tion of the cycle, but here the expert Wagner’s characters become as confus- will also find new approaches and ing and fascinating and multidimension- insights. Inside the Ring: Essays on al as real people because they are never Wagner’s Opera Cycle will provide an melodramatically two-dimensional. introduction to the inexhaustible Ring Even Hunding and (usually seen — arguably the greatest work of oper- as the Ring’s villains) can be portrayed atic art ever composed. Each new onstage as very anguished and sympa- A scene from Act II of Wagner’s Siegfried with Jon Fredric West hearing, new viewing, and new pro- thetic characters despite the brutality of in the title role. Photo: Marty Sohl/The Metropolitan Opera duction offers new insights and new some of their actions. discoveries. The complexities and fas- Using a variety of writing styles from cinations of the Ring can provide A Ring Renaissance the most carefully scholarly to the con- entertainment and enlightenment for a versational, this collection of essays lifetime — and perhaps even beyond! For all of the above reasons and examines many different aspects of The Metropolitan Opera here in New many more, a Wagner renaissance is Wagner’s complex Ring. York will bring back its wonderful pro- alive and doing well today, and for the Clearly, too many people have duction of the Ring in two years, so increasing number of people becoming approached the Ring with fear and opportunities to experience Wagner’s fascinated with the Ring, a collection of trembling, but the time for Wagnerian Ring exist both here in the New York essays such as Inside the Ring: Essays on intimidation is over. More than any- area and increasingly around the Wagner’s Opera Cycle will be helpful. thing else, the Ring cycle was meant to world.

However, after taking courses in English, he Anthology. Currently, he is working on another found himself immersed in the subject. He gen- book on Richard Wagner titled Inside the Ring: uinely enjoyed reading and writing, and he Essays on Wagner’s Opera Cycle, which will knew that by pursuing a degree in English he be published in spring 2006. would be able to focus on these areas. Professor DiGaetani is of Italian descent When Professor DiGaetani joined the and, as such, he was originally drawn to Italian Hofstra faculty in 1978, he taught courses pri- opera. The first time he visited Europe, howev- marily in business communication at the Frank er, after arriving in , he ran to the Paris G. Zarb School of Business. He was also a Opera because he was eager to see the opera guest professor for one year at Harvard house. There, Wagner’s Tannhauser was being University’s Graduate School of Business performed for the entire week. Professor Administration. He currently teaches courses DiGaetani’s first thoughts about Tannhauser on modern theater, modern literature, history of were in keeping with those of the Italian com- English literature, and Western European litera- poser Rossini. During this first experience with ture, among others. Professor DiGaetani loves Wagner, he remembers that there were “won- Professor John DiGaetani earned a B.A. in teaching English, although every so often he derful moments,” but “terrible half-hours.” English from the University of Illinois, an M.A. will also teach a class in business communica- Today, however, he has been converted to a in English from Northern Illinois University, and tion. Professor DiGaetani is also the director of full-fledged “Ring-head,” that is to say, like a Ph.D. in English from the University of Hofstra University’s London Program, which many others, he is truly in awe of and inspired Wisconsin. Prior to earning the doctoral takes place during the January session. The by this great work of composer Richard degree, Professor DiGaetani accepted a posi- program offers English courses in contempo- Wagner, The Ring. tion as an instructor of English at Providence rary British theater. Professor DiGaetani firmly believes that College to decide if he wanted to teach at the Professor DiGaetani has authored 15 “scholarship works particularly well when you university level. “I wanted to know if I would books on a variety of topics, including: Richard are able to combine it with your teaching.” He like teaching [at the university level] before pur- Wagner and the Modern British Novel, A is always eager to incorporate opera into his suing a Ph.D.,” he explains. “Obviously, I real- Search for a Postmodern Theater, and An course curriculum, when appropriate. His gen- ly enjoyed it.” Invitation to the Opera. In 1978, he edited a uine passion for both teaching and scholarship As an undergraduate student, John book titled Penetrating Wagner’s Ring: An is quite evident. DiGaetani planned on a career in law.

26 HOFSTRAHORIZONS