I’ve been thinking a lot about the music of Wagner’s Ring. While we are making a piece of theater not an opera, we are adapting the operas. What does this mean? Especially because so much of Wagner’s artistry and intellect went the leitmotifs and how they construct the score, how they serve not only to carry the story but also comment on it, foreshadow events, tell us things the characters do not say and may not even know themselves.
I’ve been working on the research in this area with Gabe McKinney who’s interning this summer. Alongside a fairly complete investigation of the text and listening to the operas on CD, we’ve found two good resources that have helped our understanding of the piece. The first is M. Owen Lee’s little book “Wagner’s Ring: Turning The Sky Round.” The fact that it is “little” is deceptive; it contains such a wide-ranging discussion of many (most?) of the important angles one can look at the work from, where they come from and how they influenced the work, including political, literary, psychological, and, of course, musical ideas. But the “little” style is essential to what makes the book helpful: while not simplistic, it doesn’t lose itself in too many specific details which bog down and obscure much of the Wagner commentaries.
On the other end of the spectrum is a CD, “Wagner: An Introduction to Der Ring Des Nibelungen.” It goes through all the major families of motives, how they are generated, where they appear, what other motives they give rise to, etc. It becomes a bit overwhelming. It is tough to get through. Partially I think due to its rather maze-like construction. You get lost and turned around in the discussion with all of its examples, special examples, embryonic forms, definitive forms, and verbal sidebars. But the experience of really working at the music, led by someone who can get at the heart of what’s going on (or at least what generations of scholars have agreed is going on), is really eye-opening. How can we not include this part of the operas in our adaptation?
So, having worked back and forth through these resources and the text itself, I am starting to get a picture of, a feel for, the production.
Music I want to include:
The Four Overtures
The Ending
Music for Entrances of Characters
Music for Action Sequences
Music for Key Motifs
Music for Magic/Transformations
In using this music, I want to hear the motifs. I want to follow how they are introduced, where they change, how they become a new idea. This will require simplifying the ideas and clarifying their use. Most likely to re-introduce an original motif before transforming it into a new piece. To show what ideas are present in these moments.
Probably also NOT to use them as underscoring. I think we’d end up with far too much music if we underscore all of the scenes. We want those to really focus on the text and action. But I think the motifs we include should be important enough to stop the action, to enter into the space and demand attention. They should take their space on stage. If they aren’t important enough to do that, then they probably don’t need to be there.
But I want to follow the musical ideas: the beginning of the world, the emergence of Nature, the Gold as part of nature, the joy in the gold, that joy turned to despair, and the enslavement that follows, the tranformation of the power of the ring into the gods’ castle Valhalla, the shadow relationship of Wotan and Alberich, all the way through the piece.
One example: I’ve been struck since I first heard the Overture to the second opera, Die Walkure, with its emotion and sense of movement. I never would have realised that it is built out of the theme representing Wotan’s Spear/Will. This theme is interrupted and opposed by its opposite. In our production, I want to convey all of this to our audience. It is essential to setting up the action of this second segment of the story in the context of Wotan’s plan and efforts. This seems an essential place to begin with Wotan himself and his spear motive, to transform this motive before our eyes (ears?), so we can follow the ideas behind the music as the frantic chase, the storm, and the house of Hunding all appear before our eyes.
It is probably clear from that last example that our treatment of these musical motifs will inform not only the music of our production but also staging and design ideas as well.
