Wagner by Michael Tanner

Author:Michael Tanner [Michael Tanner ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007393268
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

10

The Fearless Hero

It is easy to understand why Die Walküre is everyone’s favourite Ring drama, at any rate so far as affection, rather than awe, is concerned. It is the only part of the cycle which is regularly performed alone, though it leaves things very much in the air. It is also not hard to see why Siegfried tends to be the least popular member of the cycle. Without the complex dialectics of Das Rheingold or the suffusing warmth and pain of Die Walküre, it presents a full-length study of a youthful hero whose main acts are to forge a sword, kill a dragon, then a dwarf, shatter Wotan’s spear, and finally walk through a wall of fire to awaken an ex-goddess. This is the stuff of which fairy-tales are made, not parts of mythological epics.

The odd quality of Siegfried, which makes it more unlike Wagner’s other works than they are unlike one another, comes from its strange origins; without a grasp of the position Wagner was in artistically when he wrote the text, and the still more bizarre facts of its musical composition, one is likely to approach it in the wrong way. That by itself will constitute an objection for those in the grip of critical dogmas about the independence of works of art from their genesis and their creator’s intentions. Those who aren’t will be able to rejoice in its unique properties.

A brief recapitulation of some crucial facts: Wagner’s first idea was to write a single drama, Siegfrieds Tod (Siegfried’s Death), but he was dissatisfied with the proportions of action – Siegfried is, after all, meant to be a man of action – and explanation. One would have to take too much on trust, including the heroic deeds which Siegfried had performed and which would make his death a tragedy. So he moved backwards, composing a previous drama, Der junge Siegfried (Young Siegfried) in which the hero would be seen doing what otherwise would only be told. But he would, Wagner realised, have to be a character in a much earlier stage of development than the mature hero of Siegfrieds Tod, and the idiom in which he was portrayed would have to be correspondingly different. Writing to his intimate Theodor Uhlig in May 1851, he says, ‘Have I not already written to you about a non-serious subject? It was about the lad who leaves home “to learn fear” and who is so stupid that he never learns what it is. Imagine my shock when I suddenly discovered that the lad in question is none other than – young Siegfried who wins the hoard and awakens Brünnhilde! – The matter is now resolved…“Young Siegfried” has the enormous advantage of conveying the important myth to an audience by means of actions on stage, just as children are taught fairy-tales. It will all imprint itself graphically by means of sharply defined physical images…Both works, however, will form totally independent pieces, which only on their first airing will be presented to the public in this particular order.

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