Parent ‘12 has written three previous essays on the experience of attending Wagner’s Ring Cycle after winning the ticket lottery. This is the concluding essay and ends with a comparison to our present times. Thank you, Parent ‘12, for these excellent contributions.

Twilight of the Gods, at last! When I won this drawing, I thought the opportunity to see the Ring would be an adventure, watching a saga unfold. It’s 4 long operas of varying length: Das Rheingold (3 hours), Die Walkure (5+ hours), Siegfried (5 1/2 hours), & Gotterdammerung (6 hours!). Granted, the last 3 each have 2 intermissions, which are also long, typically 30 minutes, so it’s not sitting forever… but, still this would be a commitment for all my senses.

I’ll admit that I did check the time a few times while watching Siegfried up until the last act. I think Wagner “got it” by the time he composed Gotterdammerung. Those six hours passed quickly because he was able to combine music and drama to create, at least in the MET version, a spectacle. (For one scene there was a male chorus of at least 100 men walking on the stage & carrying spears.) Each enhanced the other, propelling the audience forward, as they wondered what would bring about the Twilight of the Gods.

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To make this final entry more Eph-relevant, I’d like to imagine that other Ephs, besides Dick Swart & a couple other alumni commenters, would give opera a go. Opera is not that far removed from seeing a movie. And, is a precursor to musicals, remember West Side Story & Sondheim’s other work.

If you are aware of the importance of music in movies, then you’re on your way to opera. If you like foreign films, that’s even better, because there are sub-titles to follow along. At some houses super-titles run above the stage so that one can follow the lyrics & dialog. At the MET there are optional subtitles on the seat backs. As you look at the stage, you can glance down to the top of the seat in front & read the subtitle.

From watching the Ring, I realized how critical the production, the actual experience of watching & listening, is to not only appreciate, but also enjoy Wagner. I also began to understand how an audience not steeped in classical music could enjoy it. At least in this production, & many of the MET productions, there’s a lot of “eye-candy” or pyrotechnics, both literal & conceptual. For example, I’ve seen revolving stages, where scene changes involve singers walking to the next arc as the carousel turns; stages that move horizontally for a scene change; & animals, which, if I remember correctly, might have included a procession with an elephant. There definitely have been horses & dogs on stage. These productions are complicated. And, particularly here, the singing is gorgeous & the orchestra in top form. With that in mind, I’ll try to describe some sets from the Ring so you can see how fantastic, with the emphasis on fantasy, it is.

In Das Rheingold, the opening scene is under the Rhein, the MET’s was atmospherically magical. The stage is quite dark. There are 3 Rheinmaidens cavorting around a phallic-looking rock & taunting Alberich, a Niebelung. The Rheinmaidens are highlighted with light shining from above, like sunlight piercing the water. They undulate as they move as if swimming under water. In front of them are 2 sheer scrims, one has moving projected light to give the quality of murky water, the other is dark with scattered horizontal lines of glitter. As one moves up and down, we have the illusion of both being on water & looking through it, as if we’re looking into an enormous aquarium. I actually began to feel a bit sea-sick, which might relate to where we sat (see below).

Later in Das Rheingold we’re literally taken down to the Niebelungs, who live underground. As two Gods (Wotan & Loge) walk down to Alberich’s home from one stage to another, the entire stage rises to be replaced by another stage beneath it where the Niebelungs are working at forges, pounding away.

At the beginning of the last act of Gotterdammerung we first see the Rheinmaidens standing in the Rhein. Now, rather than taunting Alberich, they are being playful with Siegfried, who’s on the shore by a glen with trees. We only see their heads & arms. The rest of their bodies are below the stage (in the river). Along the front of the stage are reeds to mark the length & edge of the Rhein. As they sing to Siegfried & cavort in the river, they toss water from below the stage at him on the shore.

The final scene of Gotterdammerung depicts a quick, sudden downfall of Valhalla. This starts with Brunhilde jumping into a funeral pyre at the back of the stage. When she lands in the pyre, an explosion occurs, as smoke rises & “fires” pop up all over the stage. The explosion starts the beginning of the set’s collapse. Before us has been an open structure of large beams that filled most of the stage, which now begins to collapse. Beams break in half one by one. Meanwhile, the stage descends & the funeral pyre is replaced by the 3 Rheinmaidens, now atop the phallic-looking rock (this rock is rising while they cling to it & move as if underwater) from the opening scene way back at the very beginning. While this happens, the Rhein overflows with rising water depicted as a light projection on a scrim in the back, or that scrim might have risen. (All this happens so quickly that I’m not certain exactly how this was done. And, I’ve left out some details so as not to totally spoil the plot.) Lastly, behind the scrim of the overflowing Rhein is Valhalla in flames.

To close about the entire experience, I’ll add that I was very fortunate in where we sat. Although I could not choose my seats because of the lottery & they varied for all 4 operas, we were always 4 to 8 rows from the orchestra pit. Often in the City one hears location-location & stories about its value. I’ll admit that proximity enhanced the experience. I could clearly see the acting, which combined with the superb singing brought the characters alive. But, I have sat in the balcony where I was enthralled with Rodelinda, an opera by Handel. So, regardless of where you sit, it will be an entertaining & memorable experience.

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It’s hard not to look at the Ring cycle as the result of a real estate deal gone bad — a deal based on an act of bad faith. The Gods put up, as collateral to build Valhalla, the Goddess of Youth, which they never intended to pay. To watch the Ring at this moment in time, while sitting in Manhattan, brings to mind the most recent saga of Wall Street. We have sub-prime mortgages, deals that everyone who should have known better did, in fact, know would go bad. Plus, the entire Wall Street edifice based on them, the securities backed by the bad mortgages and the credit default swaps to insure against what everyone knew were worthless securities. Finally, places like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, in the end, went down in flames (to use the obvious metaphor) like Valhalla.