Gathering Note

By: Peter Klein

Woody Allen once quipped that every time he listened to the music of Wagner, he got the urge to invade Poland. Woody isn’t alone. Many people can’t hear Wagner’s music without thinking of Nazism and Hitler. Some Jews can’t bear to listen to it at all.

Seattle Opera is presenting three complete cycles of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung on August 9-30. The mammoth four-opera saga of Nordic gods and heroes has a long tradition here. The Ring is also at the center of the controversy about Wagner. Why does the issue persist, 126 years after Wagner’s death, and 64 years after the fall of the Third Reich?

The problem is that Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was both a great composer and a notorious anti-Semite. A half-century after his death, his music and writings became part of the cultural and intellectual foundations of Nazi Germany. And in between, a number of Wagner’s prominent followers and family members contributed to the malignant threads of German thought that eventually made the Holocaust possible.

Continue reading The Wagner Question

On night two of the Seattle Opera’s Ring Cycle, I tracked down Jonathan Caves to ask him a few questions about The Valkyrie and his impressions of this particular “green” Ring as it is sometimes called.  We talked before the curtain came up and after Act II.  Caves has lined up his tickets already to see the LA Opera do their own, very different Ring.  Caves is among the handful of people who will be attending all three Seattle Opera cycles.

Jonathan’s thoughts on Act I and II are after the jump.

Continue reading Impressions of The Ring: Valkyrie

Wagner’s “Die Walkure” has long been regarded one of great operas in the canon. It is no error on the public’s judgment that it is probably the most performed opera in the cycle. The reasons why were made very clear Monday night at McCaw Hall in the compelling performance at Seattle Opera. From the rush of music in the overture to the final heartbreaking moments, the music-drama was real, exploring the human experience. It was sublime, expressive, passionate, energetic and profoundly moving.

There are not as many obstacles in “Walkure” to a satisfying performance. But they are there, especially in the second act. None was present in Monday’s performance. The music-making was exemplary and the acting as well. Thank you conductor Robert Spano, and the superb cast of singers, and stage director Stephen Wadsworth. Every moment was alive.

Continue reading “Die Walkure” Provides a Riveting Four Hours of Opera Monday at McCaw Hall

Incomparable in scope, Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” is back at McCaw Hall. “Das Rheingold,” the first opera in the tetralogy, opened Sunday night. Before the end of August, three cycles will have been performed to sold-out houses.

Continue reading Wagner’s “Ring” Cycle returns to McCaw Hall

One of the ways I will be blogging about The Ring is by speaking with people in attendance at each of the operas.  I’m bringing my handy Zoom recorder with me each night and will record the impressions of long-time and first-time Ring goers.  For the first installment, I talked to James, who is attending his very first Ring.

If you would like to be interviewed send me an e-mail at zach@gatheringnote.org.

My first encounter with this year’s Ring happened in the middle of July. For reasons that are irrelevant, I was sitting across a table from Bob Spano. Spano first conducted the Seattle Ring in 2005 and made such a positive impression that Speight Jenkins invited him back for the 2009 Ring. Here we were, with a vodka tonic in my hand and a martini in his hand, having a conversation – about The Ring.

I met Spano, and a few other people at a local watering hole. It was 11:30 pm and the conductor had finished a rehearsal of Twilight of the Gods – the nearly five hour conclusion of The Ring. A few minutes earlier Spano had pulled out the mammoth score to the opera he just rehearsed, and placed it with a thud on a nearby chair. The rest of the group, all musicians, marveled at the phone book-sized tome. Soon the musicians – with Spano’s approval – picked up the score and began going through its pages. “There’s a man who has studied Wagner’s music.” Remarked one of the musicians after reading through Spano’s post-it annotations to the score.

“Be careful. Don’t mess with those post-its!” Spano shot back.

Continue reading My Ring journey: The Rhinegold

The Ring starts tomorrow and the The Gathering Note will be there. For the rest of the month, we will be covering this once-ever-four-year operatic event. Come by The Gathering Note regularly for:

• RM Campbell’s reviews of the first cycle
• My own thoughts on the event and performances as a first time Ring goer
• Special audio and video interviews with key people and performers
• Feature stories by Philippa Kiraly on the technical aspects of this Ring
• James Bash will report from the second cycle.
• You can also follow The Gathering Note on Twitter where I will be providing updates from McCaw Hall

If you are going to the Ring, and don’t mind being interviewed for a few minutes after each performance or during intermission, send me an e-mail at zach@gatheringnote.org. I hope to include audience reactions on this site for each cycle.

Happy Ringing!