In anticipation of two major British Wagner events this coming Monday — the opening of the Royal Opera House production of Götterdämmerung, and the nonstop broadcast and simultaneous Webcast on BBC Radio 3 of the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen — several worth-reading articles have appeared over the past few days in the Brit press (here, here, and here — can you imagine such in this era's American press?). I especially liked this, excerpted from the last linked of the foregoing trio:
Few artists, certainly no other composers, inspire the passionate feelings of hatred and revulsion that Wagner can provoke. But ... the strength of anti-Wagner feeling proves what his detractors cannot deny — the immense power of his music.
And music is where any encounter with Wagner should begin and end. His mature works have a power to move that no opera written before ever had. While previous operas can enchant, divert, charm, make you think, amuse and, at their best, hint at the sublime, Wagner’s work comes bounding off the stage, wrenches at your heart and tries to make a prisoner of your soul.
For many people a music that sets out so powerfully to seduce is just too much to take. When that music is written, as Wagner’s was, by a sexually manipulative and egomaniac anti-Semite, then resisting it seems almost a moral duty. But if you turn away from Wagner you’re turning your back on the chance to experience some of the most complete, and deepest, experiences you can have with your clothes on.
Yes indeed. My thoughts exactly.
It's The Music, Stupid!
Peggy
