Harry Davis details his coolness toward Wagner:

>In earlier years I had read a few of the more scabrous Wagner essays, and
>those foolish and sometimes vile pieces were the foundation for a rejection
>of Wagner decades ago, not just because of his "jew hating" writings, but
>also because other statements seemed silly, poorly reasoned. ...

I'm not a great fan of Wagner's essays, excepting what he has to say about
drama.  To me, he is *the* great dramatist of the 19th century, and I'm not
forgetting Ibsen.  To me, Wagner's value lies in his stage works.

>...  As for the Ring, it's a wandering and inconsistent juvenile fantasy,
>laden (as are other Wagner works) with heavy personal baggage related to
>incest and betrayal.

In my opinion, a bit narrow.  To me, the Ring is the great 19th-century
drama and capable of supporting many interpretations.  For one involved
interpretation, see Shaw's Perfect Wagnerite.  I actually think the use of
incest - dangerous material, I grant you - brilliant, since it is not used
for titillation or pornography and it makes vivid the world of the sagas.
"Juvenile" is the last adjective I'd apply to the Ring.  A juvenile work,
it seems to me, would end either in triumphant heroism or unalloyed bathos,
and the Ring ends ambiguously.  The Ring is full of adult choices.  I think
of Wotan especially - the god who acts knowing he can't really change the
outcome.  What's so juvenile about that?

>The librettos and plots, just as is the case with the other works, is
>overwhelmed by gorgeous music, - emotional, sexy, violent, powerful.
>In 20th Century terms Wagner might be pictured re-writing violent.
>sex-oriented comicbooks into verse form and setting the result to music.

Comics have learned from Wagner, though they've yet to equal him.

>...  I reinforced the assessment that he was a complete and irredeemable
>ass, an egotistical nut, a psychological mess, a vile and destructive
>personality.  It isn't the case of Wagner having spawned Hitler and he
>didn't cause the holocaust, which comments seem to be common.  Wagner was
>one of the larger and more flaming jerks on the globe.  For me that's quite
>enough to drop him.

That's your prerogative.  I agree he's an unlovely personality, but that
same figure gave us the incredible humanity of Meistersinger - essentially
a Roman/Renaissance comedy of marriage raised, as Shakespeare did in The
Tempest and Midsummer Night's Dream, to a whole 'nother level.  Since I'm
not going to have dinner with Wagner anytime soon, I refuse to deny myself
the considerable pleasures of the operas.  Cutting off my nose to spite
etc.

>A personal perspective: Mark Reizen rendered a moving performance
>of Wotan's farewell to Bru"nnhilde.  I feel sad that this marvelous
>singer/actor, said to be a jew, as far as we can tell a thoughtful and
>decent man, by the nature of his assignment had to turn off his critical
>apparatus and accept the part. ...

What makes you think he turned off his critical apparatus? Reizen may
genuinely love the music.  Some Jews actually like Wagner's works.  I
myself have never seen explicit anti-Semitism in any of his operas.  If
Wagner thought of Mime as a Jew, I don't, since I don't recognize myself
in Mime.

Steve Schwartz