I neglected to notice that I was attending the Ring Cycle the first week back on the job.
Well, here is the one picture I took of me prior to going to The Ring.
Rather boring - but I was in a rush because I was driving from Bellevue to Seattle and then to downtown Seattle. Not a fun time.
I remember first watching bits of The Ring when I was younger. I didn't think much of it - I thought the music sounded very cool.
I was excited to go this time and the music was AWESOME. A singer must REALLY know what he or she is doing in order to sing Wagner and Speight Jenkins (director of the Seattle Opera) picked some amazing voices.
I loved Brunnhilde and Fricka - both the characters and the women who sang them (Janice Baird and Stephanie Blythe respectively).
The character of Hunding I did not like at all - I mean his best line to Sieglinde was "woman, fix me a drink then wait for me in bed." However, Andrea Silvestrelli's voice - oh my heavens. I thought I was going to pass out on the spot...seriously beautiful and super sexy voice. Like oozing sex.
Like I kinda felt dirty after.
Then some friends who my husband and I met up with during the intermissions told us that the singer who played Hunding in the previous production was even sexier.
How is that possible???
Richard Paul Fink sung/played Alberich. He was INCREDIBLE - I have never heard a voice like his!!! It was unbelievably rich and powerful; his character was creepy but you didn't want to miss one note that came out of his mouth.
There is one thing I didn't like about Der Ring - it was SO nihilistic and Nietzschian.
Basically the gods all die, and doubt themselves, and betray themselves, and get all incestuous. It is really creepy. Especially Siegfried who is the incarnation of the Nietzschian superman.
However, these underlying themes provided a lot of conversation between my husband and I.
The mythology is very similar the The Lord of the Rings and though Tolkien denied a connection, there exists a very strong connection between the two works. Both contain rings (dur), both contain superhumans who are fighting destiny, and both contain swords that are reforged.
However, Tolkien does not use Norse mythology to create a godless world, but takes what is true and beautiful to create a world that pre-figures a knowledge of God. Tolkien's work nods towards God and leads one to the true nature of God.
Wagner goes the other route. He deems the gods dead, he gives them that fate, and then creates gods with human frailties that it is hard to see how they are "gods" exactly. I did not understand how Wagner and Nietzsche ignore the idea, or deny the idea, of God's transcendence above time and space and anything our finite brains can understand.
God is Love - and while His Will at times is difficult to understand or comprehend, it is there. I never understood "Will to Power" - without God, I can do nothing.
Which is why I love how Brunnhilde and Fricka call Wotan on his $#*! - and also I want to be a Valkarie. I could totally rock a helmet with horns.
