Thread: My idea: a new studio recording of Wagner's Ring, not audio only, but a movie

Well, maybe it is an unrealistic idea, but I think, that it can solve several problems:
1) Singing in studio is less difficult for the singers and they can re-record something if it's not good
2) Wagner wanted his operas to be seen by lots of people. The cinema is the way to do it.
3) Wagner - I suppose - wanted naturalistic decorations. So, maybe cinema suits him more than theater.

I think the idea hits a major snag when you consider financing. I have a hard time believing that a major company, i.e.: one that could actually afford to mount such a gargantuan project, would be willing to take the risk financially. It would probably be the most expensive film project ever, and how many average film-goers do you think will pay to sit and watch people yell at each other in German over dramatic music for four hours apiece? The studio would have to view the project as being monumentally important to even consider doing it when multi-million dollar losses per film are pretty much inevitable.

But don't get me wrong; I love the idea, and I hope it will become a reality during my lifetime.

I was actually thinking about this again yesterday, specifically the finale of Götterdämmerung. I was visualising the entire scene, it was really gorgeous. I was thinking that perhaps going a bit against tradition and showing a shot of Wotan looking out at the funeral pyre in the distance before accepting his fate and entering Valhalla as it goes up in flames. I don't know, is that too much of a wink at the camera or could it conceivably be worked in to the sequence? Remember that this is a film, and a long shot of people standing next to a fire for the grand finale is something I don't think would translate so well.

Some more hypotheticals to think about:

Siegfried's fight with Fafner, would it need to made more "actiony" for the big screen?

Alberich's transformations in Rheingold, graphic special effects galore or cut away transitions?

Is the incest in Die Walküre going to cause problems for the project?

Is anti-Semitism going to cause problems for the project? I think we're all aware of the large number of Jews currently holding prominent positions in the film industry, especially in the big money areas like Hollywood; suppose this project is proposed and canned purely on the basis of Wagner's anti-Semitic writings and posthumous association with Hitler and the Third Reich. Suppose it is green-lit but then forced in to development hell by an organisation like the ADL? That would be a sad way for such a huge project to go.

With that last question I'm not trying to paint Jews as unreasonable people, megalomaniacs or money grubbers, I'm just saying that there are some reactionary people among them who have a lot of influence, and they could cause serious problems -even to the point of killing it outright or worse; butchering it and having to have it rewritten to reflect "modern values"- if someone were to try and mount a project like this.

Hmmm, that was far too serious for my liking.