Der Ring Des Nibelungen
3) Inspired by my most recent trip to Ravinia, where I heard the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) perform some of Wagner’s overtures - Rienzi, Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman), and Tannhauser, I have decided to write a little bit about Wagner’s most impressive work, Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Der Ring Des Nibelungen, or The Ring of the Nibelungs, or The Ring Cycle, is a series of four operas telling one monumental story. Now, I feel it is important to have some familiarity with this work because, well, it reappears everywhere. The names of the four operas are: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung (all umlauts have been ommitted). Die Walkure (or Valkyrie if you prefer) has very prominent them that I am sure you have heard. The Ride of the Valkyries can be heard in Apocalypse Now being blasted by the American helicopters as they ride into battle (an amazing scene) as well as in the Loony Toons parody of Wagner’s operas (”kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit…”). The plot of The Ring Cycle follows the life of, well, a ring. The ring is forged by an evil God and then cursed. It falls into the hands of the hero who undergoes much torment and eventually dies. At his funeral (or after im not quite sure) the ring is thrown back into the abyss from which it was originally forged (in this case the Rhein). With the destruction of the ring comes a paradigm shift as the old gods are thrown down and the world is reborn. Sound familiar? Well, it should, because Tolkien did indeed borrow from Wagner in the creation of The Lord of the Rings. Lets take a look at the conclusion to the cycle. The last opera is entitled Gotterdammerung, which translated means “Damnation of the Gods” or perhaps more fitting/romantic “Twilight of the Gods”. I bring this up because recently I was playing a little computer game I bought called Warcraft III, and one of the final single player levels was entitled “Twilight of the Gods”. Evidently there are some cultured folks over at Blizzard. On a musical note, Wagner pioneered a technique called leitmotif in which each character/idea/force/occurence has its own theme that is played whenever that character appears (sorry about the pun up there…). This may remind you of Star Wars (and if it doesn’t, well, read on and then say “oh yeah! i remember that!”) in which there are specific themes for different people. Luke has his own heroic theme, Obi-wan (the old one) has his “use the force” theme, Darth Vader has the imperial march, and Leia has her own little romantic-sounding ditty. All because of Wagner. Pretty darn amazing if you ask me. Now go forth, and find more allusions to The Ring in the world.
(sorry, that was kinda long… i hope it was interesting…)
