Potential Translations of the Ring: Brief Upload For Feedback.

 Potential Translations of the Ring:


Version 1: 

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)

Dramatis Personae

• Siegmund (a mortal, son of Wotan by a mortal woman)
• Sieglinde (Siegmund’s twin sister)
• Hunding (Sieglinde’s husband)
• Wotan (chief of the gods)
• Fricka (Wotan’s wife, goddess of marriage)
• Brünnhilde (a Valkyrie, daughter of Wotan and Erda)
• Valkyries (Brünnhilde’s sisters: Gerhilde, Ortlinde, Waltraute, Schwertleite, Helmwige, Siegrune, Grimgerde, Rossweisse)

---

ACT I

Scene 1

A large room in Hunding’s dwelling: the interior of a rustic house built around a huge ash tree whose trunk stands in the middle, supporting the roof. It is night; a storm rages outside. The door in the rear has been flung open by the wind. Siegmund stumbles in, exhausted and wounded.

Siegmund (entering, half-collapsing):
I’m stumbling in from a cruel chase…
My strength is gone.
Where can I find shelter?
This house stands open.
(Falls onto a fur-covered bench by the hearth)
The storm hunts me no longer here…
My heart, calm down—
rest now, battered traveler.

(He rests, eyes closed. The storm continues to rage outside. After a moment, Sieglinde appears from an inner doorway. She notices Siegmund, startled but also concerned.)

Sieglinde (softly):
A stranger lies there,
struggling with his breath!
Worn from exhaustion,
wounded—surely on the brink.
(Approaches carefully)
Let me see if he yet lives.
(She leans closer, studying him)
Though his eyes are shut, his chest still rises and falls.
He’s breathing—he clings to life.

(Siegmund slowly lifts his head, sensing someone near.)

Siegmund (faintly):
Water… water, if you have it…

Sieglinde:
Stay still—I’ll bring you a drink.
(She quickly fetches a horn of water and kneels by him)
Here, quench your thirst and gather your spirit.

Siegmund (drinking, then breathing deeply):
Your kindness heals me.
Thank you, gracious woman.

Sieglinde (taking back the horn):
Misery must have hounded you here.
Who harmed you so?

Siegmund (attempting to rise):
Misfortune follows me wherever I wander.
I bring trouble to any who shelter me.
I should leave you so no harm befalls you too.

Sieglinde (firmly):
You can’t stir from this house
until you’re stronger.
I’ll tend your wounds, poor traveler.
Rest here, safe by the hearth.

Siegmund (managing a slight smile):
Your voice is calm, your eyes are kind—
I can only trust you.
(He takes a breath, relaxes)
The storm outside might still rage,
but I’ve found shelter in your gaze.

Sieglinde (standing):
Wait here—I’ll bring you something to refresh you.
(Hurries out through the inner door)

(Siegmund, recovering, glances around the space. He notices the sturdy ash trunk at the center, the rustic walls, the dim glow of the hearth. Outside, thunder rolls faintly as the storm dies down.)

Siegmund (to himself):
Whose home have I stumbled into?
Fate leads me on a winding path—
my enemies were closing in,
and I had no fight left.
Yet I found an open door,
and within, a caring soul.
If only I could leave this curse behind me—
the curse that dooms every bond I make.

(He winces, recalling his flight. There’s a brief hush, then Sieglinde returns with a cup of mead or wine.)

Sieglinde (handing it to him):
Drink this—
let it bring warmth to your soul.

Siegmund (drinks gratefully):
Deep thanks, woman.
My sorrow lessens with each kind deed you show me.

(He looks at her more intently now, noticing her pallor and hidden sadness.)

Siegmund (softly):
But you—your eyes are burdened…
Are you not also trapped in pain?

Sieglinde (startled):
What do you mean?

Siegmund:
I see a wounded spirit behind your gentle gaze.
A torment unlike mine, yet still akin.

Sieglinde (looking away):
You read me too well, stranger.
There is sorrow here…
(A distant sound of a horn is heard offstage—she tenses)
My husband will soon return…
(Quietly) He has a heavy hand.
Your presence in his house may anger him.

Siegmund (resigned):
Then I’ll leave before he comes,
for I’d rather not bring conflict to you.

Sieglinde (decisive):
No—stay.
Whatever my husband’s wrath,
I stand firm:
you’ve taken refuge in our hall,
and sacred custom protects our guest.
No one can harm you under this roof
while I draw breath.

(They exchange a look of mutual sympathy and a growing sense of shared fate.)


VERSION 2 

ACT I

Scene 1

(A storm rages outside. A large tree grows through the center of the timbered hall. A single door stands at the back. Siegmund pushes the door open and staggers in, exhausted.)

SIEGMUND
The storm-winds chase me on every side;
My strength has fled, there’s no place to hide.
No friend, no fortress to shield my fears—
I beg for rest in a stranger’s sphere.

(He collapses by the hearth.)

SIEGLINDE (entering anxiously)
Ah! Who can this be, brought low by woe?
His breath is faint, his eyes sink low.
A stranger’s face, yet sorrow I see—
Let pity guide me: come, rest with me.

(She fetches water, kneels beside him, and offers him a drink.)

SIEGMUND
Kind hand that eases a haunted soul,
Your gift revives me, renders me whole.
My name? I hide it from friend and foe,
For grief and shame by that name might grow.

SIEGLINDE
No name is needed for mercy’s art—
A wounded wanderer speaks to my heart.
Drink deeper still, let this house impart
The welcome denied by a cruel night’s dart.

SIEGMUND (drinking deeply)
The water’s healing, your gaze so warm—
Yet fate still hunts me with tireless storm.
My limbs may tremble, but life’s not done:
I stand revived by the grace you’ve shown.

SIEGLINDE
Take comfort here, in the old oak’s shade;
My hearth’s no prison, do not be afraid.
Though storms may rage on every side,
Within these walls let your cares subside.

SIEGMUND (rises slowly, looking around)
The hush of this hall is strangely bright—
A hidden glow in the gloom of night.
I see your face, your gentle grace,
And wonder what sorrow might haunt this place.

SIEGLINDE (with a sudden distant look)
The gloom runs deeper than lightning’s gleam;
Locked in silence, I live in a dream.
A forced betrothal, a loveless vow—
This house is Hunding’s, though empty now.

(She looks away, as though fearing she’s said too much.)

SIEGMUND
Hunding—your husband? Then whose are you,
Your eyes so lonely, your spirit so true?

SIEGLINDE
I bear his name, not born by choice;
He rules my days with a heavy voice.
Yet I, who kneel to his hardened pride,
Feel solace’s spark when you’re by my side.

(A sudden gust of wind rattles the door; thunder rumbles outside.)

SIEGMUND
Unkind the storm, unkind the blade
That hunts me still—my life it craves.
But here, a moment’s sweet reprieve—
Your gentle voice bids me believe.

SIEGLINDE
Then stay, poor wanderer; bide a while,
My door stands open where strangers smile.
Though darkness thickens, your eyes I trust—
No harm shall touch you, safe in my trust.

(They share a moment of silent empathy. The storm continues to rage as the scene shifts, preparing for Hunding’s entrance in the next scene.)

Version 3

DIE WALKÜRE

ACT I

Scene 1

(A large room in Hunding’s dwelling. In the center, a mighty ash-tree trunk rises through the roof. A hearth near it. At rear, an entrance door; at the right, a side door leading further inside. It is dusk; the fire on the hearth is low. As the curtain rises, Siegmund opens the outer door. He looks exhausted and wounded. He enters, sees no one, then closes the door behind him and staggers to the hearth.)

Siegmund
Who owns this hearth?
Here must I rest.
Fleeing, I found
No friend’s open door;
The storm that chased
Me, wearied and sore,
Has driven me deep
Into strangers’ care.
Deadly my fate,
Death follows my trail:
I’ll face what danger
Dwells in this hall.
(He collapses by the fire)
No spark from the embers…
Cold gloom for my bed…
Yet the heart that hunts me
Burns hotter instead.

(He leans against the hearth and slowly recovers his breath. Suddenly he hears a door within open; Sieglinde appears, quietly, and notices the stranger in the dim light.)

Sieglinde
A stranger lies there,
Stretched at our fire!
Weapons and wounds—
He wavers in pain.
(Softly approaching)
What sorrow is yours?
Share with me here:
Drink from our water,
Ease off your fear.

(She brings him water.)

Siegmund
Your kindness pours
Like cooling rain:
My wounds you would wash,
My woe you would tame.
(He drinks)
So fresh is your gift,
So kind is your gaze,
Like a moonbeam you stand
Where darkness stays.

Sieglinde
Though bitter at times
Grows the drink in this place,
No stranger shall thirst
Or die in disgrace.

Siegmund (restoring the cup)
Refreshed I am,
Relieved of ill.
Your eyes, your voice—
They grant me still
Comfort unspoken,
A calm so rare;
A stranger am I,
Yet you show me care.

Sieglinde
Fear not the master
Who’s soon returning;
But rest while you can,
Your wounds are burning.
(Examining him more closely)
Your brow is bloody—
A blow from a sword?

Siegmund
Spears and swords
Have all grown my foe.
Foes ringed me around—
I fled from their blow.

Sieglinde
Then stay you here,
I shall tend to your pain:
You shall not fall
To your huntsmen again.

Siegmund
In truth, if harm
Awaits me in hide,
Misfortune has never
Failed to be my bride.
But your voice, so gentle,
Has guided me home:
If rest is my fortune,
No farther I’ll roam.

---

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Bayreuth Festival Restructures Sesquicentennial Season Amid Financial Strains

In a decision that underscores the economic realities of our time, the Bayreuth Festival has announced significant adjustments to its 150th anniversary season in 2026, necessitated by financial constraints. The festival, a cornerstone of the Wagnerian tradition, will see four productions removed from its ambitious sesquicentennial lineup.

Katharina Wagner, the current festival director, cited the financial pressures of labour contracts and the challenge of increasing revenue as the primary reasons for the cuts. The festival remains 55% self-financed.

Initially, the festival had planned an exhaustive program featuring all ten of Wagner's mature operas, with the anticipated debut of Rienzi on the festival stage. However, due to rising labour costs, the 2026 season will now focus on a curated selection of Wagner's works.

The revised schedule will include
Rienzi, Der Ring des Nibelungen,  Wagner's final opera Parsifal, and Der Fliegende Holländer, recognized as the first of his mature compositions.

The festival will regretfully forgo Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg revivals for the 2026 season.

Notably, the 2026 Ring Cycle will feature a distinct production, separate from the Valentin Schwarz staging that premiered in 2022 and will conclude in 2025. The director for Rienzi will be announced next summer, with 2026 being the exclusive year for this presentation.

In keeping with tradition, the season will commence with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony a homage to Wagner's own conducting of the piece during the cornerstone ceremony in 1872, and its later performance at the festival’s 1951 post-war reopening.

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Wagner Was A Socialble Chap: Now On Bluesky

Sadly, Twitter is not the place it was for those interested in the arts a few years ago - never mind 15 or so. So, we are more active on our Facebook page and on Bluesky Social. Sadly. While it is still in beta, it remains invitation-only (although it is possible to simply go on a ‘waiting list’), but we hope that this changes soon. It seems much more civilised – at least for now – than Twitter. We hope that it can become the reliable news source that Twitter once was. If you are on Bluesky Social, please connect with us at this address https://bsky.app/profile/thewagnerian.bsky.social  or find @thewagnerian.bsky.social

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Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90 (Arr. for Violin & Piano by Fazil Say) : Liebestod

From the new album: "Liebestod - Works for Violin and Piano" from Friedemann Eichhorn & Fazıl Say

Turkish pianist and composer Fazil Say is joined by his long-standing friend, the violinist Friedemann Eichhorn, in an album of mid-19th-century German repertoire. Influenced by Liszt, Say's ingenious transcriptions of the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde are heard here in world premiere recordings. The composite F-A-E Sonata of Dietrich, Schumann and Brahms is seldom encountered as a whole, while Schumann's Violin Sonata No. 1, though written at a time of unhappiness, contains moments of glorious beauty and intimacy.

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From Wascally Wabbit to Wagner

From 2016, but still, who can't resist an excuse for Bugs and Elmer perform Wagner:

Many of the people involved in the Washington National Opera's production of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle say their first exposure to opera came from the same source--Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoons

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A Concerned Author Suggests What Form The New, 1914, Covent Garden Ring Cycle Might Take

Those who critique the arts are ever-abounding in opinions. And the question of what constitutes a “superior” rendition of the Ring Cycle has long been a source of contention. As proof, presented here is a page from “The Illustrated London News" of the 25th April 1914, which employs both words and images to examine various possibilities for the scenic design of Wagner’s magnum opus. Also included is a schedule of all the operas by Wagner that would grace the stage of Covent Garden in the forthcoming season. To complement this, they offer two portraits of the esteemed Herr Johannes Sembach, portraying Siegmund in Die Walküre and the eponymous hero in Lohengrin. Clicking on the image should allow you to read the text. From the archives of the V&A

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Review: "The Cambridge Companion to Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen

This is a review that has been long in the making, as long as Wagner spent on the Ring Cycle - or so it has seemed to me. It started and changed many times in the most stiff and formal way. An early draft begins something like this:

"The Cambridge Companion to Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is a valuable and comprehensive guide to one of the most complex and influential works of art ever created. The book consists of fifteen chapters, divided into four parts: Myth, Aesthetics, Interpretations, and Impact. The contributors are experts in various fields, such as musicology, literature, philosophy, history, and performance studies, and they offer a range of perspectives on Wagner’s tetralogy and its reception.

The first part, Myth, explores the sources and meanings of the myths that Wagner adapted for his epic drama. Jason Geary examines the influence of Greek tragedy and myth on Wagner’s conception of drama and music, while Stefan Arvidsson traces the origins and development of modern mythology in the nineteenth century and its impact on Wagner’s worldview."

Dull! Dull! You could read as much on the publisher’s website. And for those readers that would prefer to read as such, there are many to find. But for us - and by being here I hope to include you - the Ring is a living work of art. The ultimate union of music and theatre, literature and philosophy, mythic and social, the conscious and unconscious. It lights up the dawn of modernity. Without it, and Wagner’s other work, there are no giants such as Strauss, Schoenberg, and Mahler - or at least as we know them. Here lie the seeds of psychoanalysis, maybe cinema and surely the film soundtrack. So any good book on this masterpiece deserves something else. And by goodness is this the book that at last, after many, many tries, begins to do this work justice. Is it perfect? The only perfection can be found on the shining, unreachable heights that hold Plato’s Forms. Nothing on this earth can ever be perfect. But in the wise editorial hands of Mark Berry and Nicholas Vazsonyi, with only a few slips, this is the best we have got so far. So with that wandering, opening out of the way, onto: 

The Cambridge Companion to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen"
Editors: Mark Berry · Nicholas Vazsonyi
Sep 2020 · Cambridge University Press

Der Ring des Nibelungen is a great work of art, a living thing that breathes and burns with the fire of Wagner’s soul. It is a drama of myths and men, of gods and heroes, of love and power, of life and death. It is a music that speaks to the blood and the nerves, that stirs the passions and the senses, that awakens the spirit and the mind. It is a vision that challenges and transforms, that inspires and provokes, that reveals and conceals.

This book is a guide to that work, a companion for those who want to know it and feel it. It has four parts, each with different voices and views. The first part tells of the myths that Wagner used for his drama, how he took them from the Greeks and the Germans, how he made them his own. It shows how Wagner was influenced by the tragedy and the myth of ancient Greece, how he admired the art and the philosophy of Aeschylus and Sophocles. It also shows how Wagner was fascinated by the saga and the legend of medieval Germany, how he explored the history and the culture of the Nibelungs and the Volsungs. It explains how Wagner combined these sources into a new mythology, a modern mythology that reflected his own ideas and feelings.

The second part tells of the music and the drama, how Wagner wrote them and shaped them, how he made them one. It shows how Wagner developed his theory and practice of music drama, how he aimed to create a total work of art that integrated music, poetry, action, and spectacle. It also shows how Wagner composed his music and his drama, how he used leitmotifs, themes, and motifs to create a musical narrative that expressed his thoughts and emotions. It explains how Wagner structured his music and his drama, how he formed a cycle of four operas that spanned from the beginning to the end of the world.

The third part tells of the meanings of the Ring, how Wagner saw the world and the people in it, how he showed their struggles and their choices. It shows how Wagner portrayed the characters in the “world” of the Ring, how he gave them depth and complexity, how he made them human and divine. It also shows how Wagner explored the political implications of the Ring, how he engaged with contemporary issues such as nationalism, revolution, democracy, and capitalism. It explains how Wagner expressed the metaphysical dimensions of the Ring, how he used music to create a sense of depth and transcendence, how he searched for a new religion and a new morality.

The fourth part tells of the responses to the Ring, how people have heard it and seen it, how they have loved it or hated it. It shows how Wagner’s work has been received and interpreted by critics and commentators from its premiere to the present day, how it has generated debates and controversies over its artistic value and its social impact. It also shows how Wagner’s work has influenced subsequent composers and musical genres such as Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg, film music, and musical theatre. It explains how Wagner’s work has inspired other arts and media such as literature, visual arts, cinema, television, and video games.

The book is well done, well made, well filled. It has many things to say and show about Wagner’s masterpiece. It has many things to learn and enjoy for those who care for it. It is written by experts in various fields who share their knowledge and insight with clarity and passion. It is edited by scholars who have organized it with care and skill. It is illustrated by images and musical samples that enhance its beauty and meaning. It is referenced by notes that provide sources and suggestions for further reading.

It is for everyone who loves or wants to love Wagner’s great work of art. It is for those who are familiar with it or unfamiliar with it. It is a friend for those who seek to understand and appreciate Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.

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Reviews Of Solti's Recording of the Ring Cycle by: AI, Fredrick Nietzsche and Hanslick.

It is nearly impossible to peruse a newspaper these days without encountering someone expressing fear regarding the rise of AI. Much of this apprehension, a concept that science fiction has been exploring since Issac Asimov's works in 1939, seems to have emerged recently due to advancements in AI language models like CHAT-GPT and its main competitor, Google Bard. Considering this, we pondered what insights this program would offer if we requested a review of Solti's recording of the Ring. You can find the review below. But reviewers are fickle creatures and we thus asked it to write a negative review, which it quickly did. However, our curiosity extended further. What if  Wagner's, at first, most ardent admirer, Nietzsche, and most infamous critic, Hanslick were alive in the present day? What opinions would they express regarding Solti's recording? The following results, although their accuracy is uncertain, provide captivating reading.

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Parsifal Study Day 13 May 2023 Manchester

 

Should you be in Manchester, well worth attending

Wagner Society Manchester

PARSIFAL STUDY DAY

13 May 2023

9.30am until 16.30

Anthony Burgess Centre, Manchester, M1 5BY.

The Societ's president,Derek Blyth, will guide us through

this complex work.

Cost £20 for members, £25 for non-members, £5 for students.

For tickets contact

susi.wagnersocietymanchester@gmail.com

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New Edition Of The Wagner Journal Published

The March 2023 issue (vol.17, no.1) of The Wagner Journal has been published and contains the following feature articles:

• Wolfgang Mende on Wagner’s compositional process as revealed in his sketches
• Genevieve Robyn Arkle on Wagner’s use of the turn
• Derek Hughes on new witnesses of Toscanini’s Bayreuth
• Chris Walton on a bizarre legal case involving wire-netting at Tribschen
• Interview with Keith Warner about his new Meistersinger for Vienna


Plus reviews of: the Ring at the Berlin Staatsoper, Die Meistersinger in Vienna and Der fliegende Holländer in Toronto; Parsifal Suite (constructed and conducted by Andrew Gourlay) and Wagner by Arrangement, vol. 3 (arr. Ben Woodward); DVDs of the Ring from the Deutsche Oper (2021), dir. Stefan Herheim, and Bayreuth (1979/80), dir Patrice Chéreau; Laurence Dreyfus’s novel Parsifals Verführung and Charles Ellis: Wagner’s ’Ring’

www.thewagnerjournal.co.uk

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Wagner & Desire

All things partake in the Oneness of Reality and therefore all things are interconnected. The sacred threads that weave through the various art forms reveal this truth. The interconnectivity of the ancient art forms is best depicted in the paintings of the nine muses of Greek mythology, who dance in a circle with joined hands to the music of Apollo’s lyre. The 19th century German composer, Richard Wagner had excelled in the binding of all art forms into a coherent whole. Through his works, he delved to the essence of the human condition, and along the way, presented a synthesis of the arts such as had never been experienced before. In this short essay, we will explore some of the spiritual and philosophical inspirations for Wagner’s operatic works and how the underlying themes of the Will and Desire can not only shed light on our human drama but reveal the correspondence of music with Nature.

BUDDHISM AND SCHOPENHAUER

Often the profoundest insights into the mysteries of existence appear to us in the simplest of guises: a crimson-petalled rose, a fractured prism of light, the rotating symbol (e.g. Tai Chi and the Ouroboros). But intimations of such deep significance also appear to us through the most familiar of sounds. In many cultures, the sounding of bells marks life’s transitions---from celebratory marriage bells to the sombre tolling of funeral bells. However, Buddhist temple bells (called Bonsho), have always carried the analogy of the impermanence of Man. The reverberations begin from an indefinable moment and resonate until dissipating into the silence from which it emerged. This interval comprises the totality of a person’s earthly life; a life which comes into being with a great cry, makes a noise in the world for a brief time, and comes to an end as its energy dims and diminishes toward Death. Such reminders of our transient nature impel us to regard life as valuable and intensely meaningful. It also reinforces the need to view ourselves with humility in the face of the cosmos.

The 19th-century German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer was one of the first Europeans to encounter the ancient writings of Buddhism and Hinduism. These teachings informed his worldview and his contributions to philosophy. Although his understanding of these religious systems was not particularly orthodox, Schopenhauer became an instrumental philosophical link between the East and West—a divide much spoken about, but ultimately illusory in its deepest analysis. Schopenhauer’s incorporation of Buddhist and Hindu ideas heavily influenced the trajectory of Western philosophy as well as the life and work of German composer, Richard Wagner.


Many Buddhistic themes regarding reincarnation and karmic energies course through Wagner’s operas, particularly in Der Ring des Nibelungen (referred to here simply as The Ring Cycle) and Parsifal. In fact, many scholars, including a practising Buddhist monk, have hypothesized quite compellingly, that Parsifal is in fact the final opera of the Ring Cycle.1 It is argued that several of the major characters from the Ring Cycle reappear in reincarnated form as the main actors in the Parsifal opera, having to counterbalance, through specific meritorious (kusala) karmic deeds, the evil or non-meritorious (akusala) karma they brought into being at the beginning of the drama. These Buddhist notions were not accidentally stumbled upon. Wagner became familiar with Buddhist writings through the works of Schopenhauer which he industriously read and reread throughout his life.


It should be noted that Wagner’s intentions for the Ring Cycle (including Parsifal) was the creation of what he termed a “Bühnenweihfestspiel” or “stage festival play”. Combining the sacred symbolism and ritual of ancient Greek stage tragedy, with the musicality of Beethoven and poetic genius of Shakespeare, and further informed by Buddhist-inspired metaphysics and philosophy, he aimed at a “total synthesis of the arts” (Gesamtkunstwerk). In his operatic works music, theatre, aesthetics, philosophy, and mysticism hold hands and share the stage in portraying the human drama.

Continue Reading At: The Autumn Salon

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Watch Now Complete: RHINEGOLD Wagner – Birmingham Opera Company

Birmingham Opera Company, known for staging opera in empty warehouses and disused factories, here performs RhineGold in the relatively conventional surroundings of Birmingham Symphony Hall. The production is from August 2021 with the pandemic still dictating so much of our lives. This did not stop the company gathering an orchestra of 87 players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a stellar international cast performing alongside local volunteers. Conspicuous in his absence is the company’s founding director, Graham Vick, who passed away just as rehearsals were beginning. True to Vick’s spirit, his long-term collaborator Richard Willacy brings an operatic masterpiece close to the community that the company serves, with no fear of social commentary. This is an urban RhineGold; Rhinemaidens are selfie-taking party girls, Alberich is cycle courier, and Wotan is first seen giving a press conference for FNN: Fake News Network. This RhineGold, complete with the new English translation by Jeremy Sams, can be seen as a step closer to Wagner’s vision of a total work of art acting as a lever of change in society.


Avaible Till March, 2033


CAST The Gods: Wotan Eric Greene Loge Brenden Gunnell Fricka Chrystal E Williams Freia Francesca Chiejina Froh Amar Muchhala Donner Byron Jackson Erda Gweneth-Ann Rand The Nibelungs: Alberich Ross Ramgobin Mime John-Colyn Gyeantey The Giants: Fasolt Keel Watson Fafner Andrew Slater The Rhine Girls: Woglinde Zoe Drummond Wellgunde Felicity Buckland Flosshilde Georgia Mae Bishop Orchestra City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Music Richard Wagner Text Richard Wagner Conductor Alpesh Chauhan Director Richard Willacy Translation Jeremy Sams Sets Stuart Nunn Lighting Matthew Richardson

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Watch Now: PARSIFAL: Hungarian State Opera

Streamed LIVE on OperaVision on 15 April 2022 at 19:00 CET and available until 15 October 2022: 

CAST

 Amfortas: Michele Kalmandy 

Titurel: István Rácz 

Gurnemanz: András Palerdi 

Parsifal: István Kovácsházi 

Klingsor: Károly Szemerédy 

Kundry: Andrea Szántó 

Pages: Eszter Zavaros, Anna Csenge Fürjes, Tivadar Kiss, Barna Bartos 

Flower maidens: Lilla Horti, Ildikó Megyimórecz, Lusine Sahakyan, Beatrix Fodor, Boglárka Brindás (student), Melinda Heiter, Bea Egyed, Laura Fehér, Virág Rovó P

arsifal’s mother / Voice from above: Judit Németh 

Grail knights: József Mukk, András Káldi Kiss 

Young Parsifal: Benjámin Taba 

Child Parsifal: Milos Katonka 

Chorus: Hungarian State Chorus 

Orchestra: Hungarian State Opera 

Music: Richard Wagner 

Conductor: Balázs Kocsár 

Director: András Almási-Tóth 

Set Designer: Sebastian Hannak 

Costume Designer: Lili Izsák 

Lighting Designer: Tamás Pillinger 

Choreographer: Dóra Barta 

Chorus Master: Gábor Csiki 

Dramaturg: Enikő Perczel 

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March Issue Of The Wagner Journal Available Now

And a rather good one it is. Highly recommended - perhaps essential. It is worth buying for Justin Mueller's item on Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s classic 1982 film Parsifal - alone. Also includes:

Derek Hughes challenges the theory of a conspiracy of silence surrounding anti-Semitism in the Wagner circle

• Justin Mueller on Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s classic 1982 film Parsifal
• Chris Walton on the other Minna Wagner, an actress frequently confused with Wagner’s wife
• Roger Allen’s new translation of Wagner’s important essay ‘On the Destiny of Opera’
• Tribute to Norman Bailey by Niall Hoskin
• Christopher Wintle on Wotan’s offspring


plus reviews of: Stefan Herheim‘s Ring from Berlin, Richard Jones‘s Valkyrie from ENO, Tristan und Isolde in Mannheim, Die Meistersinger at the Met, the Wesendonck Lieder in London and The View from the Villa in Musselburgh; CDs featuring Lise Davidsen, Elīna Garanča and Anna Netrebko; a new study by Anno Mungen of Wieland Wagner‘s wartime productions, David Vernon‘s Disturbing the Universe: Wagner‘s Musikdrama and a revised edition of Paul Dawson-Bowling‘s Wagner: the Complete Experience and its Meaning to Us

www.thewagnerjournal.co.uk

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Watch Now: The Complete Herheim' Directed Ring From Deutsche Oper Berlin

ARD 1 Has made the entire 2021 Deutsche Oper Berlin Ring Cycle available online, free. This will be until 13, July 2022. Act one of Walkure below as a taster. To watch the entire work, follow this link. For full cast and production details follow this link.

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Watch Now: Die Walkure. Longborough Festival Opera 2021

Only available until 26, February 2022. Watch it, while you can

Following Longborough Festival Opera’s critically acclaimed Das Rheingold, Wagner’s epic tale of Der Ring des Nibelungen continues with Die Walküre, conducted by Longborough’s Music Director Anthony Negus,  semi-staged by Amy Lane. A predominantly British cast.

Siegmund: Peter Wedd

Sieglinde: Sarah Marie Kramer

Wotan: Paul Carey Jones

Fricka: Madeleine Shaw

Brünnhilde: Lee Bisset

Hunding: Brindley Sherratt

Gerhilde: Meeta Raval

Ortlinde: Cara McHardy

Waltraute: Flora McIntosh

Schwertleite: Rhonda Browne

Helmwige: Katie Lowe

Siegrune: Carolyn Dobbin

Grimgerde: Katie Stevenson

Rossweisse: Emma Lewis

Orchestra: Longborough Festival Orchestra

Music: Richard Wagner Conductor: Anthony Negus Director: Amy Lane Lighting Designer: Charlie Morgan Jones Choreographer: Lorena Randi Video Producer: Stagecast Assistant Conductor: Peter Selwyn Répétiteur: Kelvin Lim Language Coach: Dominik Dengler English subtitles: Sophie Rashbrook Head of casting: Malcolm Rivers in partnership with The Mastersingers Artistic Advisor: Isabel Murphy

Reduced orchestration: Francis Griffin

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Tristan und Isolde: 11, 000 Years Old And Counting

The Ain Sakhri Lovers

It takes little for us to shoehorn another story to become one involving Wagner's work. It's also not that difficult, given how much Wagner used mythic archetypes in his work. But as we emerge from lockdown, hopefully, (as to is this site) and places we love reopen, we are taken again to, one of many, a fascinating artefact found in the British Museum. 

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3 Months Of Online Wagner Events With The Wagner Society: April to July 2021

In these very strange times, various organisations have turned to the internet to continue their work. No less so, than the Wagner Society Of London. While it remains impossible to meet up, they have lead the way here, with a constant stream of online, Zoom events with famous singers and conductors together with lectures. This continues at least until July. All highly recommended.  If you wish to join any of these events or lectures a nominal charge of £5, for members or £10 for none members is made.

For more information visit the Societies webpage here

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You Have Four Days To Watch Göteborgsoperan's Siegfried Premier, Free Online

We have been lucky enough to catch Daniel Brenna's wonderful Siegfried, live, a few years ago and cannot recommend anything he appears in enough - and this production has much else to recommend it. Provided free by Göteborgsoperan

The film was shot at the Gothenburg Opera in December 2020. The role as the Wanderer (Wotan) is played in act one and two by Fredrik Zetterström and in act three by Anders Lorentzson.

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Post Lockdown, ENO To Begin New Ring Cycle

We, shall be looking at this closely, especially if it is as good as ENO seems to think

Directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Martyn Brabbins, The Valkyrie will form the first part of a complete Ring Cycle over the next five years.

English National Opera (ENO) is to bring Wagner’s Ring Cycle to the London Coliseum, starting with The Valkyrie this Autumn, subject to any further lockdown restrictions. Directed by the award-winning Richard Jones, and marking the first time in more than 15 years since ENO last staged The Ring, all four parts of The Ring Cycle will be staged at the London Coliseum over five years. Rhinegold will premiere in 2022/23 followed by a reprise of The Valkyrie, and new productions of Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods in 2024 and 2025 consecutively. The Metropolitan Opera is co-producing.

The Valkyrie will be an unparalleled theatrical experience, which will plunge the audience into a thunderous storm of human emotion. Jones – who has won 8 Olivier Awards and has had a long and enduring relationship with the ENO – will direct an incredible cast who will rehearse in Covid-secure bubbles. Martyn Brabbins, ENO’s Music Director, will conduct the award-winning ENO Orchestra. The production will be designed by Stewart Laing; with Adam Silverman as Lighting Designer, Sarah Fahie as Movement Director and Akhila Krishnan as Video Designer. ENO have commissioned a new English language translation from John Deathridge.

The Ring feels extraordinarily of the twenty-first century yet mythological at the same time. How can love and empathy exist in a world of vaulting egos vying for infinite power?

Annilese Miskimmon, Artistic Director, ENO said: “It is thrilling to announce this new ENO Ring Cycle, starting with Valkyrie this Autumn. Richard Jones’s theatrical vision is designed to be emotionally and narratively gripping both for long-time Wagner-lovers and for those seeing this amazing opera for the first time. This epic story of a rebellious warrior maiden who defies the gods in defense of humanity combines myth with modernity alongside some of the most powerful and recognisable operatic music ever written. An unmissable experience for opera lovers old and new, we are delighted to welcome them all to the London Coliseum to join us at the beginning of this Wagner journey through the complete Ring over the next 5 years.”

Richard Jones, Director, said: “The Ring feels extraordinarily of the twenty-first century yet mythological at the same time. How can love and empathy exist in a world of vaulting egos vying for infinite power? Produced by two of the worlds’ great opera companies I can’t imagine a more pertinent operatic response to the times we find ourselves in.”

Stuart Murphy, CEO, English National Opera said: “There is no greater mark of ENO’s ambition than to stage Wagner’s Ring Cycle as we return to the London Coliseum stage following the pandemic. It is fantastic to be doing so with the brilliant Richard Jones. We can’t wait to welcome those new to Wagner into ENO’s auditorium and take them on an unforgettable and thrilling journey.”

Martyn Brabbins, Music Director, ENO said: “Innovation and vibrant theatricality will be front and centre of the new ENO Ring Cycle. With meticulous musical preparation and a cast of the very best singing actors we will bring Wagner’s extraordinary music vividly and beautifully to life. Our aim is to create as powerful, as immediate and as moving an experience as Wagner imagined.”

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Watch Now, Full Documentary: Pierre Boulez - Emotion and Analysis

Pierre Boulez and the Berliner Philharmoniker rehearsing and performing Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra

The conductor Pierre Boulez (1925 - 2016) best described his relationship with the music of composer Béla Bartók (1981-1945) as a “sympathy between musicians”. The Frenchman has been involved with the music of the Hungarian composer for over five decades. Bartók and Boulez belong to the 20th century’s most influential artists. A key work of Bartók is the Concerto for Orchestra, which was premiered in Boston in 1944. The Film „Emotion and Analysis“ follows Pierre Boulez in his rehearsals of this composition with the Berlin Philharmonic. 

The documentary provides a fascinating look into the methods of the great master of modern music. The rehearsals take place in the spectacular setting of the monastery Mosteiro dos Jeronimos in Lisbon which was also the location of the annual European Concert of the Berlin Philharmonic for the year 2003. Pierre Boulez explains in a series of interviews the historical origins of Bartók’s late work, his own personal style of interpretation and his role as conductor as well as his love of composing. 

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Watch Now, Full Documentary: The Colón Ring: Wagner in Buenos Aires

It was an ambitious project: staging Richard Wagner's powerful music drama, the Ring Cycle, in a single day. To honor Richard Wagner's 200th birthday in 2012, Latin America's famous opera house, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, hosted this one-of-a-kind production with abridged versions of the individual operas cut down to seven hours. 

The documentary film "The Colón Ring - Wagner in Buenos Aires," directed by Hans Christoph von Bock, follows each step of this challenging project. Those steps include considerable behind-the-scenes drama - itself worthy of a Wagnerian opera - that accompanied the production. Original director Katharina Wagner quit, as well as the original conductor and some of the cast, and it looked as if the production was doomed. But the film shows how the new director, Valentina Carrasco, got things back on track, allowing Wagner's vision of "The Ring of the Nibelung" to emerge as a Gesamtkunstwerk and an all-encompassing live theatre experience.

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Bayreuth To Get, At Last, Its First Female Conductor.

A new production of the The Flying Dutchman, to premiere during the 2021 season, will be directed Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv. The 42-year-old conductor will be the first woman to take the podium since the festival was founded in 1876. The role of Senta will be performed by the Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian. The festival's managing director, Heinz-Dieter Sense, is firmly convinced the show will go on next year, even if the fight against the coronavirus continues.

Although Lyniv and Tcherniakov are debutants in Bayreuth, they are by no means strangers to the classical music scene. In their home countries, the Ukraine and Russia, as well as abroad, the conductor and opera director have earned numerous accolades. Nevertheless, both describe the invitation to Bayreuthas a career high point. Tcherniakov and Lyniv have previously worked together on productions at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

Edit: Orginal photo, featured Lola Kirke from her role in "Mozart In The Jungle". We can only blame a webmaster clearly missing said series. Apologies. 

Oksana Lyniv: 'Wagner would be proud'

Lyniv was born into a family of musicians in Brody in western Ukraine. Her teachers at the Music Academy in Lviv advised her against persuing a career in conducting, saying it was not suitable for women. Instead, they recommended she learn to play the flute. Yet Lyniv remained set on her dream of conducting and eventually prevailed. She won third prize at the conducting competition in Bamberg, Germany in 2004 and thus had the chance to continue her studies in Dresden.

From 2008 to 2013 she was the associate chief conductor of the Odessa Opera House, where she made a name for herself conducting the orchestra through daring premieres, including an opera by Ukrainian baroque composer Dmitry Bortiansky. The young conductor continued her career in Western Europe as assistant to Kirill Petrenko at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In 2017, she became the first woman to take up the post of General Music Director in Graz, Austria

Read More At DW

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Bayreuth 2021 To Go Ahead And How To Get Tickets

At least we hope it will. Will include sections outdoors this year. You will have a very short window to buy, we suspect very limited tickets, online on June 6th.

In addition to the new production of “Der fliegende Holländer” (7 performances), there will be revivals of the productions of “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” (6 performances) and “Tannhäuser” (6 performances). A special feature of this year’s festival will be two concerts under the musical direction of Andris Nelsons and one concert under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann. In special children's version of  “Tristan and Isolde,” Stephen Gould will take on Tristan, https://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/programm/kinderoper/. The playing order, as well as full cast information, can be found at https://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/programm/auffuehrungen/. 

With the “Ring 20.21”, a multimedia project of the Bayreuth Festival, realized by BF Medien, a composition commissioned and sponsored by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Festival is preparing a special event: Three performances of “The Valkyrie” in the Festspielhaus will be framed by commissioned works in various artistic genres, which will mirror, comment on, continue or experience in a new way all parts of the “Ring of the Nibelung”. 

A musical theatre for “Das Rheingold-Immer noch Loge”, which reveals a few surprises, opens in the Festspielpark with a composition by Gordon Kampe based on the libretto by Paulus Hochgatterer, staged and realized with puppets by Nikolaus Habjan. None other than action artist Hermann Nitsch will create “Die Walküre”, and in a multimedia work (Jay Scheib) the audience can put themselves in the shoes of “Siegfried”. An installation by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota will conclude the cycle in the Festival Park with a work of art for “Götterdämmerung” that is as delicate as it is overwhelming and visionary. 

There will be no advance ticket sales for the 2021 season for all customers this year, which would normally have taken place in the fall. The order form will be sent in the coming weeks to the affected customers of the 2020 season who have waived their right to a refund. On Sunday, June 06, 2021, there will be an online instant purchase on our website. This ticket sale will then be available to all registered customers so that you will still have the chance to purchase tickets for the Festival in the 2021 season.

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Opera Meets Film: Yuki Mishima’s ‘Patriotism’ & Wagner’s ‘Tristan und Isolde

We really can recommend all of this series from David Salazar. We have included the full short film below.

Yukio Mishima’s “Patriotism” is arguably one of the finest cinematic adaptations of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.”

The 28-minute short silent film tells the story of Lieutenant Takeyama, a member of the palace, and his wife Reiko as they commit seppuku when Takeyama is ordered to kill his fellow mutineers. The film, set in the Noh theatre, is underscored throughout by Leopold Stokowski’s Symphonic Synthesis of “Tristan und Isolde.”

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Opera Meets Film: How ‘Promising Young Woman’ & ‘Tristan und Isolde’

We enjoyed this. Suggested.

Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a film section or a film in its entirety and highlight the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s instalment features Emerald Fennell’s debut feature “Promising Young Woman.”

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Is Richard Wagner the Most Controversial and Influential Composer Ever?

 We didn't choose the title, indeed edited it. Ignore some of the inanities of the introduction then read Alex Ross attempt to bring some clarity to the usual tropes. The interviewer warms up well as it continues, also. 

We talked to New Yorker music critic Alex Ross about his new book on the German composer, who has helped shape everything from James Joyce’s Ulysses to Star Wars.

By Cat Zhang

Imagine an episode of Billy on the Street in which the game show’s irascible host, the comedian Billy Eichner, hounds New York City pedestrians with questions related to the 19th-century composer Richard Wagner. “Miss, for a dollar,” he booms, interrupting a frazzled accountant in the midst of eating a croissant. “Do gay people care about Richard Wagner?” The woman lowers the pastry, slowly brushing the crumbs from her mouth. “Who?” “Richard Wagner,” Eichner huffs, gesticulating impatiently. “The opera guy? You know, Tristan and Isolde, the Ring cycle, Parsifal?” “Oh,” the woman replies tentatively. “Wasn’t he a Nazi?”

Wagner, who died in 1883, was one of Hitler’s favourite composers. His “Rienzi" overture blared at annual Nazi Party rallies, and his combination of pan-German nationalism, socialism, and antisemitism—well-documented in his 1850 essay “Jewishness in Music,” published initially under a pseudonym—is said to be a precursor to Nazi ideology. A 1940 article in the New York Times deemed him the “first totalitarian artist.”

But as Alex Ross emphasizes in his voluminous new book, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, there is a deeper debate over who gets to claim Wagner, politically and otherwise. In his early years, Wagner was affiliated with the left—the anarchists, the communists—and forced to flee Germany for his role in the 1849 uprising in Dresden. “You’re left with this divided legacy,” Ross tells me over the phone. Further complicating the story is the composer’s outsized impact on radical figures: philosophers and Black theorists, Soviet film directors and science-fiction novelists. The anarchist Emma Goldman allegedly remarked that Wagner’s music helped women release “the pent-up, stifled and hidden emotions of their souls.” Late 19th-century gay-rights campaigners construed him as a kind of ally; the author Hanns Fuchs classified him as a “spiritual homosexual.”

Ross’s book, then, is not so much about Wagner as it is his enduring influence on non-musicians: how his legacy has been translated and contested across identities, time periods, and artistic mediums. “He was really perceptive about how culture uses myth, and how the same patterns are replicated in one tradition after another,” Ross says. So while Beethoven or Bach may claim more influence over music, Wagner’s impact on neighbouring arts—like novel-writing, architecture, and painting—remains unparalleled. “Wagnerian” is still used as a descriptor for seemingly anything, from Travis Scott surfing on a bird to the quality of Bruno Mars’ sex. The many warring interpretations of Wagner, says Ross, reveal as much about the composer as they do ourselves.

Continue Reading At Pitchfork

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The Meaning Of The Ring?

There are, as many interpretations of the Ring as there are CDs. Tom Service thinks that at least he knows what it's not about - maybe: 

It’s a question that has taxed musicians, philosophers, politicians and audiences ever since its sensational premiere in 1876 in a specially built theatre in Bayreuth, a temple to the ego and ambition of its creator, Richard Wagner: what does the Ring cycle mean?

Is it an exercise in futility, as the mid-20th-century musical satirist Anna Russell says, in which you end up in the final bars of The Twilight of the Gods exactly where you started four operas earlier, with the same Rhinemaidens, the same river, the same gold? Or is the Ring a philosophical discourse on the limits of power and the limitlessness of love? Or a creation myth that contains its own destruction in the conflagration of the Gods and Brünnhilde’s suicidal immolation on the funeral pyre of her lover, the tainted hero Siegfried?

No one has found a universally accepted verdict. Yet what hasn’t been achieved in 144 years of countless books and treatises, Radio 3 listener Robert Boot attempted in just 10 words: ‘Gods homeward headed’ – that sums up the first Ring opera, Das Rheingold; ‘Close relations wedded’ – that’s Die Walküre, as Siegmund and Sieglinde consummate their incestuous love; ‘Auntie bedded’ – the third opera, Siegfried, since Brünnhilde and Siegfried are aunt and nephew through Wotan, the leader of the Gods; ‘Hero deaded’ – that’s the trajectory of The Twilight of the Gods.

Continue reading at Classical Music

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Rolling Stone Magazine Includes Wagner Book In Its "Best Music Books Of 2020"

It's not that often Rolling Stone Magazine features Richard Wagner, but I think we can never recall it featuring a book about Wagner in its "Music Books Of The Year" round-up. However, this year sees Alex Ross' "Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music" on that list.

Rolling Stone supported its inclusion with these words "Not an opera fan? Unfamiliar with the works of Richard Wagner? Not to worry. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross is one of the best music writers in the business, and his latest is a sweeping (operatic?) history of artistic culture in the West during Wagner’s life. The German composer and his music serve as the focal points around which Ross constructs a nuanced cultural history involving a constellation of bright artistic lights, from Nietzsche and Cézanne to Baudelaire. The author doesn’t neglect Wagner’s vocal anti-Semitism, weaving in a cogent discussion of the complex, often messy interplay between art and artist. This is a spirited history of music — and art in general — amid a particularly fertile historical period."

We waited a long time for Mr Ross' book but it seems even Rolling Stone thinks it was worth it. Well done Alex. 

The full selection can be found here

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Richard and the revolutionaries: why did lefties love Wagner? Alex Ross

In 1883, the year of Richard Wagner’s death, the theatre critic William Archer noticed a red-haired, bearded youth who was sitting day after day in the British Library with two volumes open on his desk: the French edition of Das Kapital, which Karl Marx had written in the same library decades earlier, and the full score of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. The young man was George Bernard Shaw, a staunch leftist who saw no conflict between the composer’s Romantic mythology and Marx’s historical materialism. In The Perfect Wagnerite, his anticapitalist reading of The Ring of the Nibelung cycle, Shaw wrote that the descent into Nibelheim, the realm of the enslaved dwarves, is “frightfully real, frightfully present, frightfully modern”. Both Wagner and Marx bear witness to the “predestined end of our capitalistic-theocratic epoch”.

Shaw’s perusal of Wagner and Marx must have raised eyebrows in 1883. It seems even more surprising now, given Adolf Hitler’s success in convincing posterity that the composer belongs exclusively to the extreme right. The Perfect Wagnerite was no isolated event, however. In recent decades, scholars have reconstructed a school of Wagnerian leftism, which gained purchase in Europe and America at the end of the 19th century. Socialists, communists, social democrats, and anarchists all found sustenance in Wagner’s work. After the Bolshevik revolution, Wagner had a brief vogue as a figurehead of proletarian culture.

The starting point for the Wagner left was the composer’s own revolutionary activity in 1848 and 1849, which forced him into exile for many years. His writings Art and Revolution and The Art-Work of the Future were classic, if eccentric, articulations of the idea that art could play a leading role in the struggle for social equality. His own work became a kind of dream theatre for the imagination of a future state. Of course, other ideologies exploited the composer in the same way. It would be a mistake to say that Shaw and his fellow leftists found the “true” Wagner. But it would also be a mistake to say they misunderstood him.

Although Wagner never mentioned Marx by name, he made scattered references to communism – occasionally positive, more often dismissive. The Wagner biographer Martin Gregor-Dellin heard a Marxist echo in notes that the composer made in the summer of 1849: “A tremendous movement is striding through the world: it is the storm of European revolution; everyone is taking part in it, and whoever is not supporting it by pushing forward is strengthening it by pushing back.” Wagner’s fanfare sounds more than a little like The Communist Manifesto’s introductory lines: “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.”

CONTINUE READING AT THE GUARDIAN

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Listen now: Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen – Explorations

We recommended this audio exploration of the Ring on release in 2013 - and we still do, although it's still not always easy to get outside of Australia. We noted then: "Recorded for the Decca label by Australian Wagner scholar, author and lecturer Peter Bassett, as an introduction to and commentary on Richard Wagner’s great cycle of four music dramas: Der Ring des Nibelungen. The recording uses extensive musical excerpts from the famous Decca recording featuring the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir Georg Solti. The set is distinguished from the fine introduction to the system of leitmotifs recorded by Deryck Cooke in 1967 by addressing Wagner’s magnum opus more broadly through its narrative, intellectual and aesthetic qualities"

If you still have not bought or listened to it, we recently discovered that it is available on only one streaming music site, the classical music only streamer, Primephonic.  Should you wish to listen to it - and try the service for two months free - a good friend of the site has provided a link to a two months free Primephonic subscription.  Click this link to take advantage of this, if you are not already a member.  Failing that, just go out and buy the four cd set. 

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