On Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:30:16 +0100, Mike Scott Rohan wrote:
> The message <IqadnYjItfiE-1vVRVny
...@posted.plusnet> from "Bert Coules"
> <m
...@bertcoules.co.uk> contains these words:
<snip>
>> One point about Hagen that I've never been sure of: is his line at the
>> end of that first Gibichung Hall scene, where he describes himself for
>> the first time as "the Nibelung's son" meant to be what in modern
>> terms would be an Oh my God! moment for the audience, a radical
>> surprise plot twist?
>> I know that you'll now tell me that Wagner's audience would have been
>> familiar with the text, but *all* of them? If (please!) one could have
>> been there in the Fespielhaus in 1876, would there have been a
>> collective gasp?
> I don't think so. I think they would have picked it up from synopsis or
> even cast list, given that they'd have seen all three operas beforehand.
> Certainly Wagner doesn't go out of his way to make it a shock-horror
> revelation, more a brooding acknowledgement of something stirring deep
> within. Clearly his parentage is no secret within the family already; he
> refers to Gunther as "echtgeboren" and Gunther later calls him
> "schamloser Albensohn". No doubt they just don't realize the
> implications of his parentage, or that he's still influenced/possessed
> by Alberich.
>> (And a related question: did Wagner follow the appalling modern habit
>> of giving away the entire plot in a programme synopsis?)
> I really don't know, offhand; Derrick might. I know Wagner did write
> synopses of various kinds for the Ring, so one was probably available to
> Bayreuth audiences even of they hadn't read the text. Unfortunately I'm
> a bit occcupied to research the question right now.
notes for concert performances of "bleeding chunks". These include:
1. On the overture to 'The Flying Dutchman', for the series of three
concerts that he conducted in Zürich on 18, 20 and 22 May 1853.
2. On the overture to 'Tannhäuser', for a concert in Zürich on 16 March
1852.
3. On 'the entry of the guests', from the same opera, for the 1853
concert series.
4. A synopsis of 'Tannhäuser' act III for the same concert series.
5. For the same concerts, a short note on an extract from 'Lohengrin' act
II, for which Wagner wrote new music between scenes 3 and 4 (which I'd
love to hear but this music has been lost) and a concert ending.
6. A short note to accompany the final extract, the prelude to act III
and Bridal Chorus from 'Lohengrin', in a new concert arrangement (also
lost, regrettably).
English translations by Stewart Spencert of these programme notes can be
found in 'Wagner' volume XI, numbers 1 and 2, 1990. The original text of
item (1) was published, with misprints, in GS V, p.176-9. The remaining
items were included in SS XVI, p.167-8. The German text of several of
the notes can be found, not always accurately transcribed, in the rororo
opera booklets by Csampai and Holland.
I am not sure about the synopses of the 'Ring'. There were, of course,
detailed prose drafts as well as the 'Mythus' of 1848 but I don't know
whether Wagner made versions of them available to his audiences. He did,
however, publish the libretto of each of his later operas well in advance
of the first performance. That of 'Parsifal' was published at the end of
1877; Wagner famously sent a copy to the estranged Nietzsche with a
dedication from the "high Church councillor Richard Wagner". Nietzsche
did not get the joke.
--
Derrick Everett
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