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February 20, 2006

Alles blickt erwartungsvoll auf Siegfried, welcher über der Betrachtung des Ringes in fernes Sinnen entrückt ist

These days, I've watched a DVD of Wagner's "Ring", the production from 1976, directed by Chéreau and conducted by Boulez. Never cared much for Wagner, but was quite impressed with the music now, it's like the raw mother of all movie soundtracks. Good production, too. I couldn't shake off the idea that I'd very much like to see a Marx Brothers opera scored by Wagner from start to finish. How about an adaptation of "A Night at the Opera"? Can't you all just see the huge Bayreuth stage with Groucho Marx rising from a dinner table in a lush restaurant and singing with a big baritone voice over a typical Wagnerian chord progression: "Niiiiiiiine dollars foooorty for diiiiiiiinner?" Violins dramatically fiddling in the background, Groucho stretches out his arms, booming over two octaves: "Thiiiiiis is an ouuuuuuuutrage!." Dramatic crashing of drums, the wind instruments go ape, Groucho turns toward the woman he had dinner with, throws her the bill, cymbals crash, he starts singing in a lower key, with tragic determination, accompanied by low strings: "If I were youuuuuuuu, I wouuuuuuuuldn't paaaay it." Then he walks off in his archetypical walk to the sounds of the Siegfried theme, while everybody else faints. Heck, I'd like to see that. Anyway, I think I like the "Götterdämmerung" part best, especially the beginning, but what's with that ending? It doesn't seem to make any fucking sense, the Rhine daughters (or whatever they're called in English) have got the ring back, so why does Walhalla burn down? Insurance fraud? I mean,if a James Bond movie came out in which bloody Secret Agent 007 saved the world yet once again in the last minute, by blowing yet another Eastern European/terrorist/whatever bogeyman into tiny bits as usual, and then the world would end anyway, just for kicks, people would complain about the logical inconsistency. But since Wagner is supposed to be Kultur, no one complains if he does the same thing. I mean, am I the first one who's complaining?

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