::The Ring
2:03 a.m. - 2007-02-18
So today I've been thinking about The Lord of the Rings and Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. I watched Das Rheingold tonight on TV; it is the opera cycle's first installment, and functions in many ways the same way the Hobbit functions. It's good background information, but does not quite fit in the main story. Obviously my observations about the linked nature of these two works are nothing original or particularly surprising. I just found it interesting. I mean they're both about a magical gold ring which gives you amazing power but causes death and destruction. Wagner's version is spicier, though. I mean, for one thing, there's loads of incest.
The production that was on BBC 4 today was one that went up at Covent Garden not too long ago with Bryn Terfel (who I love) as Wotan. It was a very gritty staging set around the fin de siecle. It was even graphic and gory. At one point there were partially dissected bodies everywhere, and loads of the Nibelungs had their brains exposed from weird surgury. It seemed pretty strange, but I suppose you could depict the early history of the gods in any way you wanted. Who could tell you you were wrong?
Does it mean I'm a sad, pathetic person that I am disappointed that I will not be able to watch Die Walküre, the next installment, next Saturday night because I actually have social plans? Uh-Oh, I think I'm turning into a Wagner fan. Of all opera fans, Wagner fans are the most fanatic.
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