There is much of value in the preceding post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guarnerius
Must confess, the greatest shock I have experienced in my lifetime was to C the horrible, unforgivable act of Siegfried - this "supposed-to-be hero" brutally kidnapping Brünnhilde and stripping off the pursued ring from her!  It doesn't help me to think that he was subordinated to Hagen's magical potion. D'oh! Why he had to act like a stupido and trust that treacherous Hagen?!  Yep, I know, it "is written to happen so in the manuscript"!  |
There is definitely something of the "plot imperative" in this turn of the action. Then, it falls to apologists (like me) to "retro-fit" an explanation according to that imperative. The sheer scope of the Ring, combined with its recasting (most notably from a 'Feuerbachian*' to a 'Schopenhauerian' persective) have led to some contradictions in the finished product.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guarnerius
...in Ring it is the huge (megalomanic) musical power and artistic genius of construction (die Leitmotivs).
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Yeah... and nowhere are the Leitmotivs more masterfully applied than in
Götterdämmerung. In fact, I'll opine that, whatever one may think of the story-line,
Götterdämmerung is the most
musically sophisticated of the "Ring" operas, or of all Wagner operas, for the matter of that. (
Parsifal gives it very close competition.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guarnerius
My own favourite recordings for the integral set R relatively "modern", by Haitink/SO des BayerischenRF (EMI) and Levine/MET (DG). Both have their advantages, but in my opinion no disadvantages, like them very much!
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You can check out the
SchizophRINGia thread for my viewpoint on favored versions.
I'll leave the "bilge-battles" over which version is or is not a flawed interpretation to those other places.
(In fact, my primary quarrel in the SchizophRINGia thread is that one particular "authority" attempted to entertain multiple (and mutually exclusive) viewpoints.
*In earlier, 'Feuerbachian' form, Siegfried achieves Divine Ascension and is welcomed into the pantheon of gods...