Magic Flute and Rhinegold - magical and symbolic operas

It is significant that three of my favourite - the most enduringly interesting, as a whole - operas should share an archetypal and 'Jungian' feel. These are Mozart's The Magic Flue [I mean Flute]; Wagner's Das Rhinegold (Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage is another, albeit musically inferior*). 

Perhaps this is because these are dramatically (situationally, as regards plot) is as high as opera can reach as an art form? 

After all, most operas are dramatic contrivances to produces scenes of strong and essentially 'populist' emotion - love at first sight, a love affair or the start of a marriage, the misery of broken love, pathos at loss, anger and vengefulness. Perhaps Verdi did this better than anyone - and his operas are composed of primary colours, black and white. 

It is the music which sometimes (and there are very few really successful operas - a couple of dozen perhaps) raises an opera above farce and melodrama and sometimes to sublimity. The plots of Mozart's Da Ponte-written operas -The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and (especially) Cosi Fan Tutte - are essentially horrible, shallow, facetious comedies of manners; which I would find intolerable as plays. It is the music of Mozart which raises these stock situations to the Heavens. 

The Magic Flute is my favourite opera, perhaps my favourite music. And this has to do with the fairy tale and archetypal aspects; but also the Masonic symbolism. Now, of course, Freemasonry is ultimately an enemy of Christianity and indeed probably an instrument of strategic evil. Yet here it is, structuring perhaps the greatest music ever written!

This is not uncommon in the arts; including the arts of genius. We are all sinners, including geniuses; and the greatest human creations are tainted with sin. But it is not the sin tow which we most deeply respond in the music of the Magic Flute - it is the Good. 

Because, after all, all evil contains some Good - and early Freemasonry (at the time and place of Mozart) had many good aspects - which rendered it a suitable and effective vehicle for the Magic Flute.  

Das Rhinegold has an extraordinary grandeur and symmetry - really marvelous orchestral writing and effects; and in general Rhinegold is a convincing and enchanting example of world building in opera. 

We feel we are inside the Teutonic legends - living in the heightened reality of gods, nymphs, dwarves, giants - indeed I merely need to think about the opera to get a halo effect on my lived experience. 

Yet, the 'message' of the work is again dubious. The plot is permeated with deception, greed, resentment, lust... and these are not really balanced by any great Goodness or nobility of purpose. It is, of course, the music - and not so much the singing (which is pretty arbitrary) but the orchestral part of the score - that makes the difference. 

In opera it is the music - not the play - which may reach the heights; and the music which can go beyond both the limitations and the explicit intentions of the composer. 

The lesson can be applied to other art forms, and other periods - even nowadays when the evil intent of art, literature and even music is very evident. 

When any artist (and artists nowadays are almost-never genuises, not even minor ones) taps into genuine creativity - he expresses the divine. Which is why there is good that may (with proper intent) be derived even from evil works - and most works (and all modern works) have a far greater admixture of evil than these three operas. 

* The Midsummer Marriage by Michael Tippett is another symbolic and magical opera - indeed, probably the last such to be written in a way that is (just about!) potentially accessible to the intelligent layman (rather than the professional musician). 

While the Wagner and Mozart are susceptible to Jungian analysis (as performed by Robert Donington) - Tippet actually wrote his opera from an explicit and deliberate Jungian schema.  

I would have to regard this Jungian schema as ultimately evil! - because it regards good and evil as light and dark sides of a personality; and aims not to acknowledge and repent sin, but it integrate it in the 'whole' Man. 

Yet, there is enough positive value in Jung to make it an effective basis for a Good opera. In particular - it addresses the problems of alienation and divided mind (the mundane and the enchanted worlds, materialism and spiritual); and the protagonists attain a kind of healing which is a positive outcome. 

With the Midsummer Marriage it is the music which (in parts of the score) raises the whole to greater heights than its flawed plot, clumsy language and (mostly) unmelodic vocal writing; and even than its explicit (wrong) intent. And, as with Rhinegold, it is the orchestra (not the singers) that has most of the musical good stuff.  

Thirty-fifth Anniversary of the Four-Day Wagner Ring-Fest

Almost exactly thirty-five years ago I listened to Wagner's opera sequence The Ring.

It was a memorable event, scheduled to come immediately after my medical school examinations but before I got the results. My companions were two music students - and they-block booked one of the sound-proofed studios in the bowels of the music department annexe - and all four volumes of the boxed set of The Ring in the famous 1958-65 version conducted by George Solti and featuring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

We therefore listened to these LPs on state-of the-art stereo, following the whole thing on scores, and with intense concentration. In the gaps between sections or operas, we continued to socialize, eat meals together, and discuss the operas; or else were reading books about Wagner.

Altogether it was a rather overwhelming experience, and I was dazedly wandering in a Wagnerian world for the next few months - whether walking in the Lake District, sweeping the corridors and cleaning toilets in a psychiatric hospital (as a summer job), or immersing myself in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

However, I have never done the same again - for the very good reason that the last part of Siegfried and the whole of Gotterdammerung were extremely disappointing to me as the supposed culmination of the cycle - being at a lower level musically, dramatically and spiritually than what preceded.

Indeed, my general feeling is that, qua opera, the first is the best - The Rhinegold; which has a visceral mythic power and unity. Some of the music in Valkyrie and Siegfried is more powerfully moving and appealing - but at a cost of some underlying incoherence. So my practice has been to listen to Rhinegold complete from time to time, but only to chunks of the second and third, and never again to the fourth.

Saturday morning music - The ending of Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner

The ending of Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner* is one of my absolute favourite pieces of music; for its dramatic complexity but also the unsurpassed grandeur of the sound and harmony. 

The mood (in this except) begins with a vision of the new home of the Gods Valhalla, expressed in great chords dominated by the special sound of Wagner's brass instruments. 

But then all kinds of more dissonant (and emotionally-discontented) harmonies break in as various characters reflect upon the terrible price paid for this paradisal residence. 

These complexities get more and more extreme almost to the very end, as the Rhine Maidens lament the theft of their gold; but at the very last minute the triumphal procession of the Gods becomes the theme with the most magnificent closing to any piece of music, with the enormous orchestra generating huge major chords to finish. 

The final impression is an almost irresistible mood of exaltation and excitement - despite all the sordid greed and lies that have gone before. 

 

This is musical drama, something that can only fully appreciated by following with a libretto, and understanding the dramatic context. 

Musical drama began with Mozart, in The Marriage of Figaro; when he uses the music to slow-down dramatic time in order to unfold, expound, and explore the emotions of participants. 

The action on stage gets almost suspended, so that the dramatic situation and words may be accompanied by touches of orchestration and harmony that bring-out depths and complexities in the character's current thoughts and emotions. 

As context for such "moments"; there must be dramatic progression in the action on stage if this to be effective; and the earliest operas were just too static for the contrast to be effective: an opera like Purcell's Dido and Aeneas is a series of (superb!) set-pieces, rather than a drama. 

In Wagner this is taken to an extreme which is, at times, almost intolerable! 

As the words are sung - very slowly - the orchestra unfolds in detail what the character is thinking; e.g. what he is reminded-of, and even foreshadows - by the use of Leitmotiven (and their development) as well as by Mozart's method of orchestration and harmonies. 

(See Bryan Magee's Aspects of Wagner for a more detailed description.)   

Rheingold ** is my favourite (by far) of Wagner's operas - and short and action-filled enough to be just-about manageable! 

So if you want to experience music drama at its peak, then you might try listening Rheingold while reading a libretto - or even better a score (which may be borrowed from a specialist library). 

* The linked recording is a live-one of the famous version done in English by English National Opera in the 1970s, and conducted by Reginald Goodall - which happens to be the one I own on CD; although I regard George Solti's Decca Ring recording as The greatest. 

** Be warned, I usually Anglicize/ misspell Rheingold as Rhinegold. 

Was Jesus really English?

Jesus in the forests of Somerset?

No, of course not! - although he may have visited the South West before his ministry; as Blake describes in his great poem song 'Jerusalem'.

But I have, certainly since age five when I began school and was first told stories from The Bible and showed naturalistic illustrations, felt an inner dissatisfaction and discomfort with the historical context of Jesus in Palestine. I found the Middle Eastern setting to be alien, and unappealing - and have never felt any serious desire to go and visit the Holy Land sites.

By contrast I spontaneously liked the settings for Northern, especially forest, stories of gods and the supernatural - and enjoyed such illustrations, and the general feel of (say) Wagner's Rhinegold opera. This even extends to equivalent places in North America - such as the Hiawatha environment (which is indeed a Christian poem).

CS Lewis felt much the same - and in both our cases this feeling was strong enough to repel us from Christianity for considerable periods. This is interesting, because it may well be such irrational cultural prejudices that prevent some people getting interested in Christianity - they shouldn't make such a difference (if we were serious people), but apparently they sometimes actually do; so it is worth thinking about them.

It would, at least, be reasonable to have accounts of Jesus that did not so heavily emphasise the Middle Eastern angle - or had other backgrounds. This kind of thing was, after all, normal in the past, in ages of greater faith - Shakespeare's plays are an obvious example: for instance one of his most English plays is Midsummer Night's Dream, which is supposed to be in Greece. Medieval religious art usually depict their subjects in the costume and setting of the artist's time and place. 

This is yet another way in which the historical emphasis which overwhelmed Christianity from the New Testament 'scholarship' of the early 19th century (originating in the German universities) has been so very damaging to faith. 

Yet Christianity is an historical religion - it is (or should be) the establishment of the reality of time as sequential and linear. Jesus was born in a particular time and place; and Christianity depends on there being a before and after the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

(This is one reason why mainstream Christian metaphysics - which emphasises strongly that God and ultimate reality is outside-of-time; and that time is merely a kind of temporary illusion of mortal earthly life - is so deeply and seriously mistaken.) 

On the other hand, there could be ways of talking about Jesus that simply accept the historical context as true and necessary; and then emphasise the current situation - e.g. in which Jesus is now the on-going ruler of this world, and engages directly with each person via the Holy Ghost. We could jump straight into the everyday life of Christian engagement with these spiritual realities - and these could be discussed in any setting, whether contemporary or ideal or fantasy...

This is, of course, what CS Lewis did so successfully with the Narnia Chronicles; to some extent, he wrote about Jesus and Christianity in an environment which had a powerful spontaneous appeal to him, personally - and it turned-out plenty of other people found this effective too.

Here is a really important role for the Fantasy genre (and another reason why Christian hostility to Fantasy is counter-productive); a way in which the imagination can interact with the Christian essence - in multiple ways, preferably - to make Christianity something that is more spontaneously attractive to more people. 

Jesus with his enchanted sword...

I can't comment! So here are my comments...

Problem gone. 

Commenting will resume as per... 

***

For incomprehensible reasons - I cannot at present comment on my own blog!

So, here (for the time being) is what would have been a comment in reply to Henry, for the post below:

@NLR - Not applicable in this case. I don't think I've done anything, and currently think its something to do with a bug in the recent "update" to the commenting format - just waiting to see if it gets fixed soon. Seems weird that commenters can comment but not me!

@as - I mean the relationship between the sexes, as they believe it ought to be.

@Henry - Interesting comment - especially the Rhinegold reference. 

By my understanding, the false model of the post-sixties sexual revolution wrt men and women, is opposed in the public arena by another false model from patriarchal and traditional religions - which regard women as a sub-man. 

As usual, both of the common and mainstream options are false, and have shown their major flaws over the past 200-plus years. 

Again as usual, we are left in the position of being individual men (or women) who must work out the right answer - from trial and error, experience and learning - with another individual woman (or man) - based on mutual love and mutual respect. 

Standard templates or blueprints for what men and women are supposed to be like, how supposed to behave, and what supposed to do - are net-harmful to this quest - as of here-and-now (even though some are less harmful than others). 

What's more they are bad for the soul. 

(Most "traditional" Christians who bang-on so relentlessly about sexual relationships; sound to me as if they would genuinely be much happier as Jews or Muslims -- also because of their conviction of the Monotheistic "Omni-God", to whom obedience and submission are primarily required. And indeed, that is where they may well gravitate... sooner or later. For them, women have no necessary or eternal theological function - only a temporary and biological job in this mortal life. When "trad Christians" also realize that (their idea of) Jesus has no necessary function in their theology - then they will recognize that they have picked the wrong religion for their bottom-line ineradicable convictions.)

Two types of art: imagination-stimulating/ open-structured versus virtual-reality/ manipulative

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The arts (and some other phenomena) come in two basic types which affect the imagination differently.

Some of the arts are like an alternative, virtual reality - they take the mind and draw it through an experience of stimuli and emotions. For example, cinema is of this type - the movie-goer is taken-into the world of the movie and moved-through the experiences.

Other arts of this type include theatre and opera, and most primitively the narrative song.

Such an experience does not allow, is not intended to allow, much space or scope for self-awareness or freedom - the ideal is an immersion in the sub-world of the art.

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But there are other kinds of art which allow space for the participant to become self-aware, aware of his own agency - these arts demand the use of imagination.

For example, the written poem - which historically was abstracted from a performed song, has a quite different effect on the imagination; relying far more on the reader than does the song on the listener. The written poem may be delayed, paused, re-read in part or in whole, in written sequence or any other sequence...

It seems that Shakespeare only became recognized as a great imaginative poetic writer (in the eighteenth century) when his plays were printed and read (indeed, the translation into German seems to have been a vital step in his recognition); this greatness was (presumably) not apparent when the plays were seen only in performance, because the audience were simply drawn-into the play, and experienced it as an alternative world in real time.

The novel, invented by Samuel Richardson with Pamela in the middle eighteenth century - was a major technical breakthrough in stimulating sustained activity of the imagination. On the one hand the novel provides considerable structure and guidance for the reader, on the other hand there is a necessity for the reader to provide a great deal from his imagination (e.g. character and setting visualizations, the 'acting' of the participants, much of the motivation and emotional responses).

In sum, the novel could be summarized as a play or movie that has been 'realized' by the novel-reader - who must take on roles of producer, actors, director, scene painter, costumier, editor etc.

Furthermore, compared with a play, the novel reader is in world 'out of time'; the play-watcher is necessarily drawn-through the play at the rate and pace of the performance - his mind filled throughout; but the novel reader proceeds at whatever pace he feels - and may pause or break away for any period, think and imagine, and then resume.

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Some music provides scope for imagination, space for the autonomous mind to know itself; but other music - especially songs and operas - take-over the mind, and draw it through a particular sequence, and at a set pace.

So, listening to instrumental music by JS Bach may provide a context for self-awareness of the autonomous soul; while attendance at Das Rhinegold by Wagner at Bayreuth would hope to be an immersive and overwhelming experience, a living of the world being depicted.

Some music (Debussy and Delius spring to mind) is very obviously designed as a background-tapestry for contemplation (or, in a more debased fashion, as mood or ambient music.) But other music is designed to overwhelm us, to control us, to compel us to recapitulate a fixed linear experience - outwith of vocal music, this was more a feature of later classical music, such as the 'late romantic' symphonies of Mahler or Bruckner or Tone Poems of Richard Strauss.

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This distinction applies to some church services as well. (Bearing in mind that some church services are not intended to be emotional or imaginative experiences, but function at a much more low key and matter-of-fact level.)

Some services take the participant through a particular set sequence of experiences and emotions which (more or less) 'fill the mind'. A successful Anglican liturgy is more or less of this type - and the effect of great language (from the Book of Common Prayer and the Authorized Version of the Bible)can be emotionally as overwhelming as any opera or symphony. But there is not much space for the imagination - nor is there intended to be.

At the other extreme was an experience of a full-on Greek Orthodox service on the island of Tinos back in 1978. I could not understand the language, and the meaning of the service was seen only in the very slow changes of visual theme (also, I was not a Christian then). But the service provided a backdrop or 'tapestry' of consisting of sonorous male-vice chanting, rich clothing and objects, ritual movement and music...

I experienced this as a sustaining context for a high level of awareness and the knowledge of freedom, with scope for the free imagination to work-within.

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Another way to think of this is that some (but not all) arts have (when they are working properly) the ability to wake us up!

It is this feeling of 'coming-to' in the world - when we have previously been 'asleep' or non-conscious.

This can be regarded as an emergence of the real self, coming out from behind the false/ phony/ social/ mass media or 'robot' self of trained/ instinctive/ automatic responses.

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The activation of the imagination (the real self) is certainly not confined to 'arts' - but can (and indeed should) be a feature of philosophy (in the board sense of the word - also including theology).

Real philosophy is of this type - and this explains why real philosophy is something that happens essentially in solitude, during reflection - not in company, not during teaching, and only seldom during discussion (when attention is usually grabbed, and the mind is usually filled, by the social context).

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My thesis here is that:

1. There is a need for stimulation of the imagination, because adult modern man is nearly always starting from a situation of alienation - and imagination is the destined cure.

2. Imagination needs structure, but it also need space.

3. Overwhelming experiences, immersive experiences (drama, movies, TV, etc)... these may be mistaken for imagination-stimulating, but they essentially keep-out the imagination. This is important! because sometimes they feel like imagination; and in a sense they are... but this is somebody else's imagination!

3. Imagination is more often about reading (in solitude), and landscape, and brooding-meditation and the like; in a nutshell, imagination is usually a start-stop business.

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Solti's Rhinegold: Genius all round

This is the closing section of Das Rheingold: the first (and best) opera of Wagner's Ring Cycle. As a composition and work of literature (Wagner did the libretto as well as music) it is extremely well-structured; and has a mythic power only exceeded by that greatest of all musical compositions: Mozart's Zauberflote.

As a college student, I spent a memorable four consecutive days listening to the Ring in the famous LP boxed-set recording by Georg Solti with the Vienna Philharmonic. This is not just a musical classic, but a classic of recording quality - showing that what was achievable in 1964 has never been surpassed; not least because it was analogue, like real life.

The above section is the close of Rheingold, which contains several enthralling passages. The sound of 'Thor's hammer (actually Donner) on anvil at 1:59 begins one such - and the very end of the opera (depicting the gods grandiose procession across the rainbow bridge into Valhalla) is literally hair-raising.

Solti was regarded as one of the truly great conductors, the Vienna Phil of this era was one of the great orchestras - and here Solti demonstrates what great conducting can be, when he plays upon the orchestra as if it was a single many-multi-instrument.

In particular, what Solti gets from the brass section - so large and vital a component of the Wagner effect (for which he invented several additional instuments) - is remarkable. The combination of brightness with internal balance of the brass chords, and they way the volume is shaped, is something quite beyond most conductors and orchestras - a whole extra dimension.