Klarinet Archive - Posting 000095.txt from 2007/05

From: Paolo Leva <paolo.leva@-----.se>
Subj: [kl] SV: Wagner
Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 04:53:35 -0400

IMHO the complexity of Wagner's Ring really cannot be
reduced to "good characters" against the "evil ones".
There are no characters in the ring that are simply
good and others that are simply bad. I wonder whether
Wagner had any interest at all in concepts like "good"
and "bad", I believe he did not.

This kind of good/bad classification is a
simplification that might be appropriate for Disney,
Tolkien and much of nowadays "action movies" crap, not
for Wagner. The complexity of both characters and
music is much greater than that. The complexity
further increase when you put text and music together,
since often they tell different, even opposite things.

For instance to see Siegfried as the "good" one
prevailing against Mime the "bad" one is to extract
one episode and choose to ignore the context.
Unfortunately this is exactly the simplification done
by the nazi to be able to use the Ring in their
propaganda. I believe and hope that it is now time to
move away from that simplification.

The Wagner of the ring is in many respect the same
person that earlier wrote Tannhäuser and later wrote
Parsifal, a man deeply involved to understand the
human condition, its suffering, its fall and its way
to redemption.

The mix of mythologies (German and other) was the tool
he chose to deliver his message and to represent the
human mind. It was not THE message.

I myself found the book of Robert Donington "Wagner's
Ring and its symbol" quite a stimulating reading to
catch this complexity, but most of all I recommend
people wondering about antisemitism in Wagner's ring
to go and see the whole ring with an open mind.

Paolo

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