Richard Wagner – or, rather, the Wagner dynasty – is in the news again, with
intrigue about who in the family will inherit the directorship of the
131-year-old Bayreuth festival, created by the composer in the theatre built
specifically for the performance of his work. Wagner occupies music and
opera lovers as no other composer does. Some unequivocally worship him,
their trips to Bayreuth akin to pilgrimages. Others revile him. Many can do
both at once, separating Wagner the composer from Wagner the self-obsessive,
a man who, though often penniless, lavishly spent others’ (particularly the
adoring Ludwig II of Bavaria’s) money, who freely exercised his considerable
libido, who demanded adoration and who held some highly suspect views, on,
for instance, Judaism. The music itself requires much of us: endless
uncomfortable hours in the opera house, with outrageous demands upon not
only time but concentration. Many meekly enter his world on his terms – and
gasp in amazement.
What makes this man and his work so important is, essentially, his reforming
spirit. He wanted to purify opera, to return to something like the concept
envisaged by its creators in the late 16th century, one aimed at
resurrecting the principles of Greek drama. So, he dispensed with “number
opera”, with its distinct arias, ensembles, choruses and recitatives, and
came up instead with something labelled the Ges-amtkunstwerk, the “total art
work”. In the Gesamtkunstwerk, everything – orchestra, singers,
scenery, acting; even, ideally, the theatre itself – was a vital,
inseparable part of the whole. In this way, Wagner was able to express
complex psychologies. His was not the all-action opera of the French and
Italians, but an internal drama. It was a big idea, one that, despite the
limitations of the literal interpretations that were the order of his day,
has given today’s interventionist directors huge opportunities. A Ring
production can have a Marxist leaning, since one message of the opera allies
itself to Proudhon’s assertion that property is theft. It can be inspired by
the nihilism of Schopen-hauer, since all comes to naught. Or it can be
psychoanalytical, a Jungian examination of the mind. And so on. Fertile
ground for continuing controversy.
The music is unique both in its epic scale and in its sound world, structured
in vast paragraphs and unified through the device of the leitmotif, a
snippet of music – a chord, a phrase – that signifies thought, character,
mood or symbol. These snippets may not be consciously recognised and
labelled, but their presence and interreaction subliminally convey meaning
and nuance. Wagner’s role in the evolution of music is crucial. His mature
language is a rich-textured, multi-layered sound, full of detail but never
confused. He uses a large orchestra, not just for its brute force, but for
the range of colours it offers. And he pushes the bounds of tonality to the
limit. Undoubtedly, the most talked-about chord in all music is the
so-called “Tristan chord”, from Tristan und Isolde. Isolated, it doesn’t
seem to be alluding to any key. And when Wagner resolves it, he lands on
another chord that leaves the music lingering, suggesting longing, or maybe
ecstasy, or maybe death prolonged. It is just a small step from here to the
atonal world of Arnold Schoenberg and others.
Indeed, without Wagner, there would have been no Schoenberg, no Richard
Strauss, no Gustav Mahler – not, anyway, as we know them. Debussy, for all
his railings against Wagner, took on the German composer’s idea of opera as
an integrated art form and a window onto the innermost psyche in Pelléas et
Mélisande.
So, Wagner opera remains in heavy demand whenever it’s in town, which is
often. Keith Warner’s finally complete production of The Ring at Covent
Garden, to be staged three times this autumn, is so oversubscribed that
patrons are being sold tickets for the rehearsals. At Bayreuth, the waiting
list for a ticket stretches back 10 years. People return to Wagner again and
again, not simply to see yet another production or to hear a particular
singer, but because they know that even if it’s the wrong singer for them
and the 10th time they have seen the staging, they can be pretty sure
another layer will reveal itself, another thought stirred.
What about those uncomfortable connections with the Nazis, though? Wagner, it
is true, was more or less adopted as the quintessential Nazi composer in the
early 1930s. Hitler adored his music. But that was hardly the long-dead
composer’s fault. Another problem was that Winifred, the British-born wife
of Wagner’s homosexual son, Siegfried, was close to the Führer. In 1933, it
was even rumoured that the pair were to marry. This relationship is
fascinatingly charted in Jonathan Carr’s forthcoming book The Wagner Clan,
and, in a rather different way, in AN Wilson’s quasi-historical new novel,
Winnie and Wolf.
Winifred inherited the directorship at Bayreuth on her husband’s death, and
thereafter Hitler began subsidising Bayreuth’s coffers more generously
even than Ludwig II had done. Bayreuth in turn mounted productions of Die
Meistersinger that became ever more tub-thumping celebrations of the
glorious fatherland. The institution was “Nazified”. DeNazification was
attempted after the war, by replacing Winifred with her sons, Wieland and
Wolfgang. Despite radicalisation of production styles, it has proved hard to
rid Bayreuth of every trace of bad odour as long as it has remained in
family hands.
There is no question, of course, that Wagner was resolutely antisemitic,
becoming more so as he grew older. But how much that had to do with pure
prejudice and how much it was down to his resentment that the Jewish
composers Meyerbeer and Mendel-ssohn held artistic sway in Paris and Germany
at times when Wagner was eager to make a name for himself in those places is
debatable. Certainly, in his notorious 1850 essay Judaism in Music (penned
under a pseudonym), he is ready to characterise all Jewish music, and the
music of these two men in particular, as superficial. That was an unfair
judgment, particularly upon Men-delssohn. But whether he believed also that
the only solution to perceived Jewish economic and political dominance was
their physical annihilation is another matter. He was, after all, a
libertarian revolutionary, forced to flee Dresden in the suppressed 1849
uprising there, and he numbered many Jews among his friends. But the Jewish
issue is not one to be belittled, and it is an aspect of Wagner that has
guaranteed he will remain for ever a talking point.
Indeed, Wagner’s antisemitism and his association with the Nazis – or, rather,
their association with him – still means that there are many who cannot bear
to hear his music. Until fairly recently, it was impossible to encounter it
in the state of Israel, until that great Wagnerian Daniel Barenboim decided
to throw his considerable moral weight behind the matter. And as that devout
Wagnerian Michael Portillo pertinently asked in a New Statesman article a
couple of years ago, why is it that a love of Wagner is so often taken to
signal right-wing, antisemitic tendencies when a love of Richard Strauss, at
least on occasion a Nazi sympathiser, signals only the height of good taste?
Love the music or not, Wagner cannot be ignored. Larger than life in his own
lifetime, posthumously he gets no smaller. The Bayreuth feuding might be
what’s in the news, but it’s the art that perpetuates the reputation. And
whether it’s young Katharina Wagner who takes the reins of the family
business, or her half-sister Eva, or indeed her cousin Nike, one cannot
change the reason for or the importance of Bayreuth’s existence.
It rests its head on your shoulders and whispers in your ear
It always amazes me how people speak about the "intolerant" Wagner (which he was) by demonstrating how completely intolerant they are about the musical tastes of others. Wagner used mythological material to get at astounding truths and the language of myth is our only universal language. As to the music--personally I find it divine. No one can question his impact on the composers who followed him and the art form itself. Was he a horrible human being? Yes--but so were Picasso, Rousseau, Marx, Ibsen and too many others to count. Let us focus on the art and not the artist as someone else says and let everyone decide for themselves if that particular piece of art is worth their time.
B. Gonzalez, Toronto, Ontario
The stupids will go on and on about the music ,the man , and write endless books about the same which tells us more about the stupids than about Wagner ,it is all endless gossip, and ego trip point of view -when it really boils down to only one thing " a matter of musical taste " you either like the music or you don't.
ariel, Boston,
"Who else would make a "hero" of that bloated braggart Siegfried--violent, stupid, grandiose, and clueless?" Well, Tosca is vain and gullible, Butterfly probably traumatises little Sorrow for life, Ramades is clueless to give away the battle plan - judging composers by the wits of their characters doesn't get us very far.
Hugh Young, Porirua, New Zealand
There is no doubt that Wagner's innovative music is galvanising and profound.
The part of the deal that causes outrage is the staging. I greatly prefer live concert performances of Wagner. I still treasure the memory of a concert performance of "Die Walküre" which I attended many years ago in London.
The awful truth is that when the action is static the unedifying spectacle of hefty, middle-aged singers heaving about in inappropriate costumes, often ludicrously supposed to be socially relevant, reduces the effect of the music and its content to bathos.
On the other hand, the sight of great singers and musicians losing themselves in the spirit of the music is inspiring.
I recommend the Tolkein Ring movies to those who crave spectacle.
Janet Kenny, Point Vernon, Queensland, Australia
Who on Earth believes that "a love of Richard Strauss ... signals only the height of good taste"?
As for Wagner's importance, he wrote a few good tunes, and made important innovations in orchestration and structure, but I (like most people, I suspect) find him largely dull. Also, as John Borstlap said below, Wagner initiated the phenomenon of gigantism in German music - his closest musical descendants would all benefit from a little more discipline and a little less egoism.
Ford, Sydney,
Has Amos N Lenox ever heard Wagner in the theatre? Thirty years ago I heard my first 'Ring' cycle at the English National Opera, conducted by Sir Charles Groves, and was completely hooked - so much so that at the end of Gotterdammerung I wanted it all to start again! The sheer momentum of the cycle carried me along and the time simply flew by! The 'Ring' can do this; 'Meistersinger' is wonderful music but far too long (for me) ... but different scenarios result in different music, and the effect on the same individual is bound to vary.
Garry Humphreys, London, England
In the literary arena, Proust and Dickins certainly lack brevity of ideas but they are still given their due. Regarding Wagner's tall blonde heros and short quirky villans, consider his audience. If Wagner were Italian I'm sure the opposite would be true. Should we ban Shakespear because of Merchant Of Venice? No. I think too much is made of an artist's philosophy. You can't fault the artists for their fans.
Rich Hill, Prospect Park, PA/USA
Wagner's music is often brilliant. Wagner himself was an overbearing, egotistical, immoral man. Then, after his death, he had the misfortune of becoming Hitler's favorite composer.
His music was used beautifully in the Movie, Excalibur--probably the best low-budget movie ever. Wagner's music actually works better in film than in opera, where it can enter the artistic milieu at crucial moments, then fade out. The problem with his operas is that the moments of brilliance are separated by long periods of just average stuff.
Given the terrible history of Nazism, I can understand why many cannot appreciate Wagner. More often than not, great artists are also terrible human beings--it seems to go with the territory. Also, an appreciation of great art does not (contrary to popular belief) make a person good or moral. Hitler not only loved Wagner, but also (recent news stories revealed this) had a secret stash of well-used records of Tchaikovsky, Borodin, and other Slavic composers.
Paul Weber, GILBERT, USA/Arizona
And Leni Rieffensthal just made a movie. So like what's the big deal, right?
starry de cysis, Mountainview,
So NJ Levitt thinks "On that view, the cumulative effect of Wagner's music, especially his most mature work, is to reveal a shriveled and rather nasty persona unable to see his way past self pity." He's right, of course, about Siegfried; try as I might, I find him very hard to like. No matter how mistreated and ill-raised, I still would not care to associate with him.
But unable to see his way past self-pity? Spend six hours with Die Meistersinger, and reflect what a mature Wagner through Sachs looks to say. The revolutionary of 1849 has been replaced by a wiser man more willing to see where others are correct, not hating of his enemies, and eager to guide and assist that "angry young man" to a better art. The text of the Ring was written by that young revolutionary, but Meistersinger is the mature Wagner. I don't see the self-pity.
Tom Schmidt, Brooklyn, New York
Someone here said, "It is well known that Hitler loved Jewish music in private."
Not so. That's a meme spreading from the article earlier this week revealing that Adolf's large record collection included a Tchaikovsky concerto that happened to be performed by a Jewish violinist, and two Beethoven sonatas that happened to be performed by a Jewish pianist. That is not "loving Jewish music in private."
In fact, Hitler hated Jewish composers and banned and exiled a significant number of them. Several of them he had murdered in the camps. Keep the record straight.
(Also remember Wagner died 50 years before the Nazis ever came to power. Guilt by association is bad enough. Back-dating it is stupid.)
David Johns, Seymour, USA/TN
I'm one of those dreadfully old-fashioned folk who believe that an artist with a powerful talent, as Wagner assuredly was, creates a body of work whose main revelation, when all is said, is the character--the soul, to be even more old-fashioned--of the creator. On that view, the cumulative effect of Wagner's music, especially his most mature work, is to reveal a shriveled and rather nasty persona unable to see his way past self pity. Brunhilde doesn't die for love of Siegfried, nor Tristan and Isolde for love of each other. They all die for RW! It's easy to discern the infantile narcissism of Wagner's plots. Who else would make a "hero" of that bloated braggart Siegfried--violent, stupid, grandiose, and clueless? The standard line amongst Wagnerians who recognise these failings in the text is that all is redeemed by the music. But in my view, it's in the music that one finds the most intense and indefensible moral corruption, all the more repulsive because of its cleverness.
NJ Levitt, New York, NY
Wagner's thought is self indulgent tripe. I regard his stories as akin to Walt Disney (not that I am against Disney).
But his harmonies and orchestrations are to die for.
So i love the music when the mood takes me, and more or less ignore the words if my mood so inclines, as Anton Bruckner the great Austrian symphonist (died 1896) did.
But why cannot Wagner be ignored? I will ignore him if i want to. He is just a composer, no more no less. There are greater things than culture
As for Wagner's moral legacy, there are for more important things to worry about. Let Puritans think a love of Wagner's music equals anti semitism if they need something to keep them warm at nights. Their attitude is nothing to me
Steve Meikle, Christchurch , NZ
....the hell with all the funny theories....just listen to Wagner for music...love or hate it.......take what you want...just like you would do for Sinatra or Elvis.
JOHN AMBROSE, NORTON, OHIO...USA
Any article on Wagner that leaves out an even passing mention of his decade-long friendship with Nietzsche misses something profoundly important.
Joseph F. Conte, Uniondale, NY
So very easy to peck out a moral high road on a key board, so very hard to better his music or approach his output. It it's too difficult, his morality too stressful, why listen?The off button is as close as your fingers and you'll be spared all that nasty angst.
Tony Flynn, Gunning, NSW Australia
As they say, 'Trust the art, not the artist.'
Lee Merrick, Newport Beach, CA
The importance of Wagner does NOT lie in his 'reforming spirit' but in the artistic quality of much, not all, of the music. Much of Wagner's 'reforms' had a desastrous influence upon European music: absurd size of orchestras, blown-up gestures, muddy harmonies and false heroics, symphonies and operas that sag under their own weight... Bad Bruckner, Mahler and Strauss can be traced back to bad Wagner. As for psychological depth: Mozart has it all as well, and leaving the theatre after a Mozart opera gives the feeling of having drunk champagne, after Wagner it is mostly exhaustion and feeling drugged and elevated in the same time. Wagner, often misjudging scale and balance, was an insecure artist, hence the enormous lengths and too much talking & explaining in the texts, and the sudden absence of inspiration over long stretches, and great music in other episodes. It is an uneven art, but the best bits touch the sublime. And Tristan was followed by Meistersinger: hysteria by classicism.
John Borstlap, Amsterdam, Netherlands
I doubt very much that Hitler or the Nazi Party understood Wagner very well at all but merely plagarised this great music to suit their own flawed ideology. It is well known that Hitler loved Jewish music in private. It is very wrong to associate Wagner with Hitler and the Nazis. Richard Wagner was not alive during the Nazi period. It is also wrong to hate Wagner for being an anti-semite without at first understanding him and the times in which he lived. Wagner was extremely paranoid, perhaps even bi-polar. The words "conspiracy" and "Jewish" are frequently found together, especially when it comes to matters of money, which Wagner could not manage at all. He was always in debt, lived well beyond his means for much of his life, and "borrowed" as much and as often as he could from friends and patrons. It is testament to the greatness and purity of his music that we find Wagner's flawed personality so hard to reconcile with.
Wagner's music will last forever and we are all in his debt.
John Harper, Oxford, United Kingdom
Very fine article and an excellent introduction to Wagner. I would only add what is often overlooked: that at the base of all the ideas and achievements lies one of the greatest melodists who ever lived, a pure composer who rivals Bach, Mozart and Beethoven in the ability to create wonderful musical themes and variations. Without, this, the rest of his achievement would be forgotten.
Charles Zigmund, Pleasantville, NY
Wagner musical thinking is philosophcial among all music poetry.
Juan Carlos Rico Diaz, Mexico City, Mexico
Two quotes:
"If it sounds good, it is good" - Duke Ellington
"Wagner's music is better than it sounds" - Mark Twain
I agree with Ellington. Wagner has become a cult. The music is most dull, plodding, and a waste of time.
Amos N, Lenox,
Great article! Only the mighty influence of Wagner could have led the fawning Bruckner ( the symphonic Wagnerite) to compose one of the greatest Adagios (for his celestial Seventh Symphony) ever to be heard. Those Wagnerian tubas intoning the opening phrase lead the listener later to peaks of spiritual ecstasy and sublimity. It's unfortunate that Wagner's music was hijacked by the Nazis for their own ends. But as Edward Said wrote in his essay on Wagner in the aftermath of Dniel Barenboim's performance of an extract from Tristan in Israel for which the maestro received official flak, "How many poets, writers, musicians, painters would there be left if their art were judged by their moral behavior? And who's to decide what level of turpitude can be tolerated in the production of any given artist?...This is not to say that artists shouldn't be morally judged for their immorality or evil practices; but that an artist's work cannot be judged solely on those grounds and banned accordingly."
SD Goh, PJ, Malaysia
Very interesting article. The problem I have always had with Wagner's music is that it takes him an hour to say something in his music that Beethovan can say more clearly in five minutes. Now that is genius.
David Morris, Hay on Wye, Powys
The heroes are tall, blonde and noble. The villains are short, , quirky and apparently bent on destruction. And the man who wrote the stuff thought Jews were the agents of destruction. Just how hard does one have to work to join those dots up?
As to the artistic merits of this dubious fare, Debussy had it right. When a Wagnerite said to him "There are some divine moments in Wagner", he responded :"Yes and some pretty turgid half hours as well!"
ian morrison, Auckland , New Zealand