Klarinet Archive - Posting 000480.txt from 1998/03

From: "Barbara Guyll" <grinanddizzy@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Re Garrett Martin and the Ring
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 20:08:05 -0500

Gene,

Unless it has to do with a person's musicianship please keep your opinions
to yourself.

Thank you.
-----Original Message-----
From: Gene Nibbelin <gnibbelin@-----.com>
klarinet@-----.us>
Date: Saturday, March 07, 1998 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: Re Garrett Martin and the Ring

>I don't want to start a political debate - but the thought crossed my mind
>as I read Dan's excellent summary of Wagner's lack of character -- does
>this remind any of you of someone currently on the scene at 1600
>Pennsylvania Ave.?
>
>Clinton may not be anti-semitic. I'm sure that he would deny it, but, then,
>he denies everything.
>
>Gene Nibbelin
>
>----------
>> From: Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
>> To: klarinet@-----.us
>> Subject: Re Garrett Martin and the Ring
>> Date: Friday, March 06, 1998 7:27 PM
>>
>> Garrett, the Ring is not "a piece" and you are setting yourself
>> up for a great disappointment if you simply approach it as you
>> would approach another work of music; i.e., buy the recording,
>> listen to it, end of story.
>>
>> For one thing, it is 20 hours long. For another, it is very
>> difficult to make sense out of the work without seeing it and
>> becoming intimately familiar with the characters and the tunes
>> associated with those characters. For yet a third thing, there
>> are multiple passages in the opera where very little happens
>> for as much as 20 minutes at a time; for example, the opening
>> of Gotterdammerung where the three fates recount the entire
>> story of the first three operas.
>>
>> You are almost better off getting a "best tunes from the Ring"
>> rather than attacking the entire thing. It would be like
>> trying to eat an 80 pound birthday cake all by yourself.
>>
>> The plot is absurd. The characters border on the venal, the
>> stupid, the hateful, the naive, and the just plain dull. The
>> major character is Siefried, though he does not show up until
>> the second opera. He is young, brave, handsome, and very
>> stupid. The first words out of his mouth when he sees his
>> first woman are "This is not a man."
>>
>> He gets killed. And his funeral music has to be one of the
>> monuments of western music. It is astounding and I never
>> played it without a feeling of awe.
>>
>> Rossini said that "Wagner has great moments, but bad quarter
>> hours." True. True. The entire first five minutes of
>> Siegfried is one chord!!
>>
>> The composer was a hateful, disgusting piece of human filth
>> who was also one of the greatest of all composers. He was
>> a bigot, an antisemite, a cowardly, selfish, lecher who
>> seduced everything who came his way. He even threw Mr.
>> Wesendonck out of his own house because he had interrupted
>> Wagner while he was seducing Wesendonck's wife.
>>
>> So approach Wanger's "Ring" as you would approach Mount
>> Everest. You can get killed if you try and climb it from
>> the wrong side.
>>
>> Perhaps you might start with Meistersinger first. Very
>> approachable. Or Tannhauser or Flying Dutchman or Lohengrin.
>> But not the Ring. Exercise care!!!
>>
>>
>> =======================================
>> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
>> Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
>> leeson@-----.edu
>> =======================================
>