After the apocalypse
A reminder, cher public, that the Bühnenweihfestspielkrieg will finish tomorrow afternoon at the end of the broadcast/HD performance (and chat!) of Götterdämmerung from the Met. If you have any last-minute brainstorms, hurry now to the original posting and get them down and black and white.
You will be happy, I hope, to note that at great personal risk to her own safety, La Cieca managed to rescue the comments from that posting, so earlier entries will (as they should be) included in the judging. They do not display with the post, but your doyenne does have an archival copy of those comments tucked away on her hard drive.
Ooh how about this? A Ring set in the ante-bellum South. Wotan and the gods are slave-owners and Valhalla is a Tara-like mansion. The Nibelungs are slaves, and the Walsungs are mixed-race children Wotan has had with a slave.
The final twilight of the gods could coincide with the burning of Atlanta, and the collapse of the South in the Civil War.
poisonivy, I suggested that idea yesterday. It’s probably worthwhile exploring. For sure, nothing could beat the burning of Atlanta scenes from Gone with the Wind for the end of Gotterdammerung. One question is who would the Rhinemaidens be in this Ring?
Belle Watling’s “girls.”
If we’re just looking for a different setting for the story of the Ring, how about pharaonic Egypt? Imagine the pyramids in the background. And the Nile flooding at the end. Talk about a cycle, a periodic restarting anew every year.
Enter Siegfried chased by a dragon.
A big Egyptian asp.
Or a big crocodile.
grimoaldo — your Ernani is in the mail! Hope you make a performance.
Hi Marshie. Too bad we probably don’t live in the same city (I am on the left coast, in San Francisco), otherwise we could meet over coffee and discuss the Ring till the oows came home. On the topic of what to call the “apotheosis of Brunhilde theme”, you are correct that it is first sung to the words, “Herstes wunder.” The following line (sung to the same tune) is “Herliche Maid”. The “herliche maid” is clearly Brunhilde, but it’s a valid point of debate whether or not the music refers to Sieglinde’s pregnancy or to Brunhilde’s offer to stay and face Wotan’s wrath so that Sieglinde can escape with her in utero child.
That’s one of the things I love about mature Wagner. It really is hard to pin down his lietmotifs to a single interpretation. The music could refer to Brunhilde. Or to Brunhilde’s role in protecting the life of the in utero Siegfried. Or to Sieglinde’s response to the knowledge of her pregnancy. Or to all of the above.
One thing I know for sure. We both love this music intensely. And I feel a kinship with anyone who loves the Ring with the intensity that you clearly do.
Carisssssimo Schatsie, of course we both love this music INTENSELY that is very very clear, and that’s why you have a standing invitation to visit MarshieMII;s little shrine to Der Botschafter von Himmel the next time you are in NYC. I think you will be most pleased
There is no question that this is the single most profound survey of the human condition, and with the most sublime music to go with it for good measure. Richard Wagner the greatest giants among the giants!
As usual I find fascinating your take on O herhstes Wunder. It’s a couple of layers of complexity beyond the obvious to think it might be about the Herliche Maid instead of the baby in utero, which is after all Siegfried, so not the most lofty character in the saga. Again, from my point of view, it is about the creation of life independent of whose it is, so again very ambiguous and enigmatic and “layered”. I always thought that the theme at the end of GD is the same as Sieglinde, is because Brunnhilde is most certainly pregnant after the romp in the cave, so it is related again to baby in utero…….
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[I shudder to think that one of these banal right wing idiots like Santorum might appropriate it as a right to life apotheosis
oh and I left out a question for you, what do you call the leitmotif that goes with Sei Mein, Sei Mein in Siegfried Act III (sung by him) and then in Leuchtet mir Siegfrieds liebe (Brunnie with Waltraute) and in Sein Mannesgemahl bin Ich der Ewige Eide…(Behrens again sublime in both of those sublime phrases). I know it as “Brunnhilde in Love” or something like that. It’s also in Ach Jammer ach Jammer in Act II. It is the more earthy kind of love, maybe even including the sexual component? How does it relate to the Erloesung/Wunder one?
I’d love to know your take on that! you always have an unorthodox/interesting viewpoint….
I would walk to Bayreuth for KONIG!!! What a great man…in the Frick tradition……He is something else!!!!!!
Es la verdad, zink! I’d run if he was doing Amfortas!
Lamentablemente el perdón! I meant Guernemanz, zink!
IMMAGINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Konig,Pape,Furlanetto……A shame we cannot even have ONE Verdi soprano….but we have a WEALTH of bassos..and go back some years and add Plishka,Ramey,Siegmundsson,Sotin, Moll,etc.
If Boris and Bella were with us they could figure out a way to make at least one of them a new Stella or Zinka…..