COUNTDOWN TO “THE RING” — Part 3: The Power of the “Ring,” or what makes “normal” people come to the opera wearing Viking helmets?

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
________

Los Angeles Opera’s first presentation of Wagner’s complete Der Ring des Nibelungen begins May 29 with three cycles of the four music dramas (to use Wagner’s own description) scheduled during the ensuing month (Click the LAO Web site link HERE for detailed information). For LA Opera, the cycle is a landmark achievement, both because it’s actually getting done (as opposed, for example, to Washington National Opera, whose cycle has been stalled midstream, so to speak) and because of the high quality of the four productions.

This eight-part series — posts will be every Tuesday — will examine the cycle from different angles, all of which are designed to help answer the question, “Why should I attend?”
________

People arrive at the opera in Southern California wearing everything from tuxedos and formal gowns to jeans but if you’re coming to the first of the upcoming Los Angeles Opera Ring cycles, you’re likely to see a few people wearing horned helmets and breastplates. Moreover, before the operas and during intermissions, you’ll undoubtedly hear people discussing, in many languages, how many complete Rings they’ve attended — when I was at the Kirov Opera’s Ring in Orange County four years ago, a woman from Sydney told me that was her 50th Ring.

What is it that causes “normal” people to wear Viking helmets and incur the debt of a small nation to see the Ring over and over again? In a single word, “Wagner.” In the words of C.S. Lewis, “music [is] one thing and Wagnerian music quite another, and there [is] no common measure between them.”

There are a number of extremely popular operas in the repertoire, among them Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Tosca, and Verdi’s La Traviata (there’s a pragmatic reason — ticket sales — why companies mount them so frequently) and then there’s the Ring. I can’t imagine writing an eight-part series on any other opera, nor would you want to read it.

Those addicted to the Ring can often remember exactly when their infatuation began. My first experience with Wagner came when we tried to play the Ride of the Valkyries in high school orchestra (no, we weren’t reading the original manuscript). There was no moment of magic, just terror in trying to master the notes.

Many years later I attended a production of Die Walkure in Montreal and became hooked. I’m not alone; many people come to the Ring via Die Walkure because the characters and the emotions are very human and believable; any father with a daughter has to resonate with Wotan’s Farewell and, indeed, with most of the third act.

However, what really sent me down this wonderful/maddening trail was Time-Life’s reissue of the legendary Decca/London recording of the Ring, produced by John Culshaw with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir Georg Solti. I began buying it via mail order in 1973 while living in Montreal. This now-legendary recording was largely responsible for spurring the growth of stereophonic LP records and, later, of compact discs. The recording is still so good that LAO Music Director James Conlon has been using excerpts for the musical illustrations in his preconcert lectures.

The first shipment, wrapped in a beautiful case (I still have it), contained Das Rheingold; an illustrated libretto; three books — Robert Gutman’s Richard Wagner: the Man, his Mind, and his Music; George Bernard Shaw’s The Perfect Wagnerite; and Culshaw’s Ring Resounding, the fascinating story of how the operas came to be recorded.

Most importantly, that first set included Deryck Cooke’s Introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen, a stunningly erudite explanation of many of Wagner’s leitmotifs (leading motives) used throughout the Ring. If you don’t have this (it’s available on CD) and you’re going to attend the LA Opera Ring, I highly recommend ordering it now and listening to it several times.

From the first time I played the records — Kirsten Flagstad singing the role of Fricka, her last recorded opera; the thunderous pounding of 18 specifically pitched anvils; Donner’s hammer-created thunderclap (achieved, relates Culshaw, by suspending a piece of sheet metal, 20 feet high and five feet wide, from the ceiling of the Sofiensaal in Vienna where the recording was made and hitting it with a gigantic sledge hammer) — I was on the highest of highs. I couldn’t wait for each shipment to arrive. I even called to ask whether they could just send the remainder all at once (no dice, I was told). My former wife thought I was nuts, not the first person to hold that opinion.

The thunderclap scene is just one of many great stories from that Ring recording. Two others are the company’s search for a Siegfried (still a major problem for every opera house) and finding an unknown tenor with a breathtaking voice. Even though he had never sung the part before, his voice, believed Culshaw, was perfect. Unfortunately, he wasn’t willing to put in the time to learn the role. I’ve always wondered what became of him; it was not the best of career moves.

Another favorite story concerns the destruction of the hall at the end of Götterdämerung. By this time, I had listened to the other three operas, delighting in the music (including a superlative performance by Birgit Nilsson), and all the while wondering how Culshaw and Co. would handle that cathartic conclusion. So, too, apparently was Culshaw, who relates that one of his associates finally solved the problem when heard what he was sure was the perfect sound on his car radio, and thus — when it was superimposed over the music — it proved to be.

In addition to the Time-Life series, I own the Met’s version of the Ring on laser disc (I’m too cheap to buy the DVDs) and a DVD called The Golden Ring, which is a documentary about the making of the Solti/Culshaw Ring (it, too, is still available) That’s not nearly enough to make me a card-carrying, full-fledged Wagnerite but I love each and every one of them.

The Golden Ring documents my all-time favorite story about the Solti/Culshaw Ring recording. Near the end, Brünnhilde calls for Grane, her horse, which she will ride onto the funeral pyre. Suddenly, as Nilsson is in full voice, a door opens and in walks a horse! Nilsson’s reaction is priceless, but so was the entire Decca/London recording, still unmatched, in my opinion, more than 45 years after it was completed.

The fact that I’ve written this much about my own experience and could easily double it is typical of Ring lovers. Back in 1974, I never really believed I would see a live performance of the Ring. By now, I was back in California and traveling to New York or Bayreuth, or even (as eventually was possible) to Seattle was financially out of the question. I eventually saw two versions on disc and a Siegfried live in San Diego, but not until 2006 did I see a complete Ring in person. And now, here we are in Los Angeles, ready to experience it all.

NEXT WEEK: The Power of the Ring Music

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
Part I
Part II
________

(c) Copyright 2010, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

Comments

[Bob Montgomery]

Bob, I was right there with you! Till 1973, my only close experience with Wagner was some excerpts in high school and college band. But in 1973, I found the Solti/London LPs in the Stockton CA library. I checked out, listened, then copied them disc by disc on a reel to reel tape deck I then had. I about wore them out over the next decade, and also devoured the Culshaw book when I later found it.

Among other things, those discs certainly made me a lifelong fan of the Vienna Phil.

I saw Rheingold and Walkure last year downtown. A dream come true.

Best, Bob Montgomery