RoR: Forum

Try it without the 'Vegas' style effects.

Post 1

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 11:57am

Try it whilst holding your breath.

Post 2

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 12:03pm

But seriously, its really great to read an article of such effusive, unbounded enthusiasm.

Careful though, it might be contagious. Then where would we be?

TimV

Post 3

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 12:36pm

Wagner was an amazing composer. His orchestrations display an incredible understanding of the instruments and the color they produce. His use of brass, for example, thrills me. And don't even get me started about his heroic sense of life! What a pity that he thought in super-nationalistic terms. His heroism should have been directed toward the true heros of mankind -- the thinkers, inventors, industrialists, etc.

I must say that I love his instrumental more than his vocal music. But I love the latter so much that this is a small point.

Enjoy!

Post 4

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 12:43pm

:-)

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 1:24pm

Wagner. hrumph.

A many-faceted genius. If the operatic productions are weak, it makes it tedious. I have heard sopranos that scared me.

And of course, he got some bad funk on him because Hitler was so all about him.

Epic, grand, amazing, unique textures.

Post 6

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 1:28pm

Try it whilst holding your breath.

Didn't we just have some kind of thread about that...?

rde
Where's my necktie?

Post 7

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 2:07pm

The things folk will sit through just to be able to say, Perigo was wrong!

Actually, seems I was wrong about two things�Wagner and economists. :-) Such unequivocal exultation from such a quarter was itself cause for exultation (private joke, long history :-)). If Wagner can do that, hat's off to him, I say.

As for my description of Wagner in the linked post as a "pompous blowhard ... well-known purveyor of meretricious meandering muck"�well, a) it's true at least some of the time, and b) one should observe the context and ask whether I might have been winding Mr. Cresswell up just a little. :-)

For the record, it was I who suggested to Tim that he submit this as an article, having first seen it just as a private e-mail passed on to me. It's the spirit of SOLO writ large. Tim, now I'm going to bonk you. It'll be all right. Just lie back and think of your first time with Wagner. :-)

Linz

Post 8

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 2:46pm

Perhaps you enjoy Bruckner too?

Post 9

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 3:42pm

Tim -- Glad you enjoyed one of my favorite composers. My favorites in Siegfried are the forging of Notung, Woton at the start of Act 3 -- great opening music! -- and the awakening scene.

For the best of the Ring, try Woton's farewell in Act 3 of DieWalkure for some of the most compelling music you'll ever hear. There are even interesting philosophical aspects -- though Wagner really was strange in this regard. But Woton's line when he says that the person who awakens Brunhilda must be "Freer than I the god" -- the gods are bound by their own contradictions and treachery -- is rather nice.

Post 10

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 4:24pm

Thanks for the comments.

Robert D: I take your point, but no apologies for the style I'm afraid. I had a brief opportunity to rewrite it, but then I decided what the hell, I wrote it in the style that grabbed me while the sheer awesomeness of the event was still upon me. Better to to convey *that* spirit, than the sanitised, intellectual wank I might have produced the next day after 13 hours of number crunching. That, and of course the fact that I wanted to go home and get some sleep.

Tim V: You're a star, and you're welcome to come and visit at my place anytime.

Marty and Robert M: If you have some recommendations, I'll gladly receive them!

Linz: You're not *quite* right. Being able to say you were wrong was merely an incidental, although admittedly highly pleasurable, side-benefit. I guess I'd better start worrying if you start playing Wagner to me at SOLOC5 huh?

Ed: Thanks. I agree, Wotan at the start of Act III was stupendous, and yes, Act I has some great musical themes running through it. Unfortunately Das Rheingold and Die Walkure were staged last season and I missed them, but I'll know better next time.

Post 11

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 4:31pm

Ed: "Tim -- Glad you enjoyed one of my favorite composers. My favorites in Siegfried are the forging of Nothung, Wotan at the start of Act 3 -- great opening music! -- and the awakening scene."

I think of all the scenes in all drama, Brunnhilde's awakening must be amongst those that most celebrates life on this earth. A woman lies asleep high on a rock, imprisoned by fire, put there for having rejected her Father's heavenly empire in favour of something more substantial: the potential she has seen of a life on this earth.

She is kissed awake by the hero who has walked free and unafraid through the flames, and she awakens embracing all that is dear to her: the sun, the earth and -- eventually -- the hero, while the music sweeps around them both embracing love, desire and the joy of life on this earth. I'd say it si earth-shattering, but it is the opposite: it is earth-glorifying!

Wagner was at his peak when he wrote this music, and it embraces the earth and every life-giving thing upon it. And the scene also beautifully demonstrates Wagner's dramatic technique: taking a proasic but well-known fairy tale like the Sleeping Beauty tale, mixing with other evocative ingredients, and transforming it through musical drama into great art.

Aaaaaah...

Linz: "...one should observe the context and ask whether I might have been winding Mr. Cresswell up just a little. :-)"

Who would do such a thing. ;^)

BTW, how do you think Mario would have gone as Siegfried? :-P

Post 12

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 5:52pm

I videotaped the entire Ring when it ran simulcast on PBS TV and FM radio about 15 years ago. I just sat there, glued to the tube, and cried all the way through all four long nights. It was just too wonderful. The design production was perfect, nothing wierd or modern with just the right touches of everything in all the right places. Siegfried Jerusalem sang both Siegfried and Loki. That guy likes to work, obviously.

I am happy for you, Tim, that you were deeply affected by the experience.

Post 13

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 7:49pm

Tim,

Seriously, I liked your article and am glad you had a good time. Not so seriously, were there many proctologists in the lobby?;-)

Post 14

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - 7:55pm

Lovely thought, Peter, sleeping beauty and all, but she weighs a ton and looks like Beergut Nielson.

Post 15

Thursday, October 6, 2005 - 1:13am

Tim:

I recommend Barber's adagio (for strings, I believe),
Rachmaninof's 2nd Piano Concerto, Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranguez, Puccini's La Boheme, and Dvorak's New World Symphony for starters.

Enjoy.

Post 16

Thursday, October 6, 2005 - 6:52am

Good points Peter. And one of Rand's favorite movies was the silent version of the Siegfried saga by Fritz Lang. You can get it on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007CVS6/qid=1128606584/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-8946306-9343842?v=glance&s=dvd

All you Wagner fans or those of you who want to become fans, treat yourself to the Metropolitan Opera's 1990 staging of the entire Ring cycle. Levine conducts, the singing's great, generally good acting and the staging is excellent -- none of that post-modernist, French crap. Here's the Amazon link.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006L9ZT/qid=1128605434/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-8946306-9343842?v=glance&s=dvd

Post 17

Thursday, October 6, 2005 - 7:09am

Ooops. I think I posted the wrong link for the Lang flick Try this.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015175/

Post 18

Thursday, October 6, 2005 - 9:04am

I guess I should also say that, how to put it.. OK...

Wagner is fine with me, but I notice I never buy any, and if I'm around a big music library (even if it's all classical), I'm never going to pull Wagner.

I wouldn't mind hearing more things conducted by Marin Alsop (www.marinalsop.com) . I heard of bit of her Brahms 1st Symphony and I thought it was unbelievable.

Post 19

Monday, October 17, 2005 - 7:47pm