Wagner has crammed within The Ring Cycle all of the idealism and hopes for a better world that were so prevalent in the 19th century. His initial inspiration for the piece came just after the 1848 uprisings in what is now Germany. These marked the beginnings of people's attempts to wrest control of their lives away from the corrupt and moribund petty princes who ruled them. It wasn't until almost thirty years latter, 1874, that he was finally able to finish the complete cycle.
During those years, Europe had been witness to massive upheavals both politically and socially. The seeds of nationalism that Napoleon had planted during his years of occupation were starting to bear fruit as city-states began to merge into countries and the power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire began to ebb.
As in Wagner's operas, the old corrupt order was being torn down and destroyed, to be replaced by something that was hopefully superior. Unfortunately, men really are far more fallible than the Gods, and instead of the bright new world prophesied by Wagner in Gotterdammerung we ended up with World Wars One and Two and our current world situation.
In what was considered a rarity, and a sign of Wagner's sheer genius, is the fact that not only did he write the music for these operas, he also wrote the libretto. His desire to have complete control over the piece didn't end with just the completed operas, but extended to its staging. He wanted a whole new opera house built specific to the requirements of Ring Cycle
Bayreuth Festival Hall is to this day considered the shrine to all things Wagner. Opera aficionados make pilgrimages to Bayreuth to see Wagner performed there, believing that unless you've seen it at Bayreuth, you haven't seen Wagner performed to its fullest potential.
Bayreuth has been home to many unique and wondrous performances of all of Wagner's work, and The Rings Cycle has always taken pride of place when performed in the house that was built specifically for its production. Is it any wonder than that even a mono recording from 1953, has a certain power to it because it was recorded live from the stage of Bayreuth itself.
In what possibly was the first postwar performance of The Ring Cycle at Bayreuth one of the best Wagner casts available had been assembled. The conductor was Austrian Clemens Krauss. Ironically, what should have been the high point of Herr Krauss's career was also the last recording he ever made, as he died the following year at the age of 61.
Article comments
1 - Mark Bellinghaus
Very interesting article, thank you, gypsyman! Just a little but important correction in your headline; correctly it is "Der Ring der Nibelungen!" As I am being judged all over for my typos in my comments, ever since I am on this wonderul blog-land, I am happy to return the favor. Since German is my FIRST language.
Interesting piece - unfortunately associate many people Wagner with Hitler! That is very unfortunate, as the Nazi's used his music for their propaganda films! Wagner was sponsored by King Ludwig II. the Bavarian (gay) King, "Micheal Jackson" of Germany and his time. Way before Hitler was even born. He built the Castle Neuschwanstein, which Disney copied for his "Cinderella-castle" in Disneyland! Wagner's music is heavy - but it has it's fans, too!It is unique and was tried to copied, not only by people like John Williams in recent times.
2 - gypsyman
Mark,
Thanks for the comments; are you sure about the title, because if you look at the CD cover it very clearly says DES, unless that's a really stylized "r". I'll do a quick Google search and see what I can turn up.
cheers
gypsyman
3 - gypsyman
Mark.
The Goethe Institute lists it as Des so I'll stick with that. It may be dialect, I know my sister-in-law is from the Rhine vally and she speaks some language unknown to most Germans, so it could be Wagner wrote in dialect. Remember he was writing before there was a unified Germany, all individual states, and as you point out it was for his Bavarian patron, good old Ludwig, so who knows what dialect they spoke then.
Interesting tidbit about Ludwig being gay, by the way, didn't know that.
gypsyman
4 - Mark Bellinghaus
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Just found this on Google - grammatical it is correct "der" but it is shown in both forms...when my parents refered to the records - they clearly used the word "der". Just FYI!
Cheers,
Mark
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Der Ring der Nibelungen.
von Wolfgang Hohlbein, Torsten Dewi
5 - Mark Bellinghaus
I was born in Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatine - I literally was digging in the Rhine river for the treasure of the Nibelungen! As we all still believed in it! It was dumped into the Rhine...but by now it must be in the ocean, somewhere...lol!
6 - Mark Bellinghaus
Great suggestion for anyone who knows the name "Luciano Visconti" he did an amazing epos about Ludwig II. with Helmut Berger in the title role (he also was his lover). Visconti is besides Fellini one of the greatest in Italian movie history!The end of Ludwig II. was never clear - there are rumors about a murder - or was it suicide?! Just like Marilyn Monroe! But the evidence points to murder. He was most likely drowned. The Starnberger See (like) is a wonderful lake outside Munich.
You are welcome to also visit my Blog - I am talking to a witness right now...later, Mark
7 - nugget
great article gypsy.
8 - Bliffle
Excellent article! Thanks.
9 - El Bicho
Good, thorough write-up. I've always been curious about this opera.
"And all because the absolute power offered by the Ring forged from gold stolen by a wretched dwarf also holds a deadly curse..."
How do you say, "My Precious" in German?
point of clarification, Elmer sings "Kill The Wabbit."
10 - Mark Bellinghaus
To#9 El Bilcho:
The closest translation would be: "Mein Liebchen".
11 - Stephen V Funk
Nice article. I'm partial to the Solti/DECCA Ring Cycle but it's all good. Also the Levine/Met DVDs are the next best thing to being there.
12 - Howard Brown
"Des oder Der?" I am not a native speaker, but working back from the English translation -- The Ring of the Nibelungs -- means we need the genitive case in German to express possession: it's the Nibelungs' ring. Plural. I believe the plural of Nibelung in German would be Nibelungen (duh!) -- or 'die' Nibelungen. And the genitive form of 'die' is 'der.'
So.. Der we are. Der Ring Der Nibelungen. Now, if the title were to mean Alberich's ring, wouldn't it be "Der Ring Des Nibelung?" Alberich is one Nibelung among a tribe of Nibelungs -- or Nibelungen.
On the other hand, the German of 1870 might not have been as grammatically uniform as it became by the turn of the century, which leaves us with the title as published: "Der Ring Des Nibelungen."
I can only add a firm, New York "go figure!"
As for this recording of "Der Ring" -- I grabbed it as soon as it re-emerged on Opera d'Oro, and it is a wonder, well worth getting on it's own, and a supurb compliment to the high-priced spreads.
Next up for me: the completion of the Keilberth/Bayreuth Ring of 1955, in stereo via a pioneering Decca team. The Ring that Culshaw surpressed. The two available dramas -- Die Walkure and Siegried -- add a new dimension to the what we have learned about the Rings of the Fabulous Fifties.
13 - Jerzy (from English Wikipedia)
The grammar and translation of the title is correctly discussed here
under heading 2, "Das/Der".