Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelungs stands as one of the most significant works in Western cultural history. A tetralogy of music dramas crafted across a twenty-six year period in Wagner’s life, these works redefined theater, intensified the connection between literature and music, and super-charged the musical and visual vocabulary of 19th-century Romanticism. After their premiere in 1876 at Wagner’s spectacular new theater at Bayreuth, their fame (and influence) spread rapidly across Europe, into Russia, and even into the Americas. Still, today, this tetralogy continues to shape the dialogue surrounding Western drama, music, and artistic culture.
To experience Wagner’s Ring, we will use the imaginative, and technically innovative, production by Robert LePage staged in 2012 for the Metropolitan Opera. Buying a DVD set for these works is expensive, let’s take advantage of The Metropolitan Opera’s unlimited streaming service called “Met on Demand.” Using this service, we can see each opera as much as desired and consult other productions, including a superb film called Wagner’s Dream that documents the making of LePage’s landmark production.
The cost for the “Met on Demand” is $14.99/month. Since “Met on Demand” offers a free one-week trial, participants in the seminar may be able to take advantage of the trial week and then let the service roll into a single month of paid viewing that will cover the full five-weeks of the semester.
Insofar as texts, please seek out these three items.
1. Robert Donington. The Ring and Its Symbols (Robert Donington Publ., 1976). This classic includes essays and a musical catalogue of the themes/motives (Leitmotiven) which permeate and define Wagner’s Ring-Cycle. The book will be useful, whether or not a participant reads music. Second-hand copies are widely available (and also likely library copies). Consult Amazon or Ebay (many used choices, both paperback and hardback).
2. It will be useful for each participant to be able to consult a full text (libretto)—German/English- for each of the four dramas. Thus please obtain Stewart Spencer. Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung: A Companion. Thames and Hudson, 2010. Used copies on Amazon start at . $3.89 on Amazon + delivery (Paperback) and c. $7.98 on Ebay. You can also, of course, look in libraries/ interlibrary-loan for this book.
3. Colin Cleary. Wagner’s Ring and the Germanic Tradition. (Wagnerphile Books., Publ. 2020) Can be found on Amazon new for $14.99.
