Crossing Religious and Human Boundaries in Wagner's Ring
Yoon Park (Music: University of Glasgow)
| 1 | The heroines in Wagner's operatic works tend to share one obvious quality: they frequently appear as female redeemers, and Brünnhilde in the Ring cycle (a series of operas on the Nordic sagas: The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried, Twilight of the Gods) is probably the most famous example of this kind.[1] She is a daughter of Wotan (the head god in the Ring) and like the male Christian redeemer Jesus, represents the boundary between humanity and deity in several points. First, Brünnhilde represents the reconciliation between gods and men. Secondly, she experiences the sacrifice of death- symbolised by sleep- due to her compassion. Thirdly, she even becomes like a human being: the various human feelings like love, pain, frustration, and repentance are powerfully projected through her character. One interesting point is that whereas Wagner's characterisation of Brünnhilde remained almost the same from the first draft of Siegfried's Death in 1848 to the completion of the Ring cycle in 1874, the idea of Siegfried as a redeemer underwent a process of significant change and refinement. Prior to the Ring cycle, Wagner had planned to write, though never completed, two sacred dramas which clearly show his knowledge of various religious ideas: one is entitled Jesus of Nazareth; the other is a Buddhist drama, The Victors, which would have been another reworking of a religious idea, namely that of self-renunciation. It seems that Wagner was not afraid to cross religious boundaries to enhance dramatic impression, and this paper also investigates Wagner's use of both Christian and Buddhist notions of redemption in each of these works. In fact, the Ring is full of religious ideas like sacrifice, self-renunciation, rebirth, purification, love, and betrayal, and it is in this light that I shall first examine Wagner's basic conception of redemption through Siegfried whose character stands on the borders of Christianity. The second section looks into Jesus of Nazareth and The Victors, and Wagner's adaptation of major Christian and Buddhist ideas. The final section traces the way in which the idea of redemption is embodied through Brünnhilde's femininity in the Ring, and how her final self-sacrifice symbolises the crossing of the ultimate boundary between God and man. |
| Wagner's changing concept of the 'hero' on the borders of Christianity | |
| 2 | The starting point of the whole picture of the Ring is the gods' impending destiny and the need of redemption through a hero's death. In fact, Siegfried's mission of 'redemption through death', as it is sketched in Siegfried's Death, a prose draft written in October 1848, was the very initial concept of the Ring. As suggested in the overall breakdown of the fundamentals of Christian faith in the nineteenth century,[2] the gods of the Ring are humanised gods who are susceptible to power struggles and sins against existing laws, faced with human consciousness. The construction of Valhalla, a palace for the gods, symbolises the gods' intention to establish a new order but rather confirms their inevitable decline, involving even more force and deceit against the law. The gods themselves cannot undertake the mission to purge and redeem without committing further sins: only someone who is independent of the gods can perform it through his own free will. Confronting this dilemma, Wotan conceives a hero to reach a solution. The Rhinegold and The Valkyrie prepare us for the birth of this hero; Siegfried concludes with the apparent establishment of a reign of love, i.e. a new social order. But when Siegfried embarks on his journey in Twilight of the Gods with this new gospel, he immediately forgets his commitment to love and falls into the power struggles and brutality that prevail in the first two dramas. Although the overall synopsis of Twilight of the Gods shows little difference from that of Siegfried's Death in that both versions are based on the hero's death, one encounters two images of the hero. While the hero's sublime death in Siegfried's Death consistently fits into his mission of redemption as suggested in the original saga, Siegfried's actions in Twilight of the Gods are incompatible with some of the premises established earlier in the cycle: the hero appears to drive himself into his own ruin.[3] In this respect, Warren Darcy considers Wagner's treatment of Siegfried as one of the inconsistencies in the Ring due to its long-term expansion into a tetralogy. He says that Wagner 'abandoned his hero'.[4] Was the hero really abandoned? |
| 3 | In Siegfried's Death, Wagner cites Feuerbach's familiar slogan that the gods' self-destruction is already inevitable since they confront the 'freedom of the human consciousness'.[5] Within the context of this original scenario, Siegfried's actions in Siegfried's Death are not at all problematic. In the prologue of Siegfried's Death, the Norns, the demi-goddesses of destiny in Norse mythology, explain the power struggles surrounding the ring and the moral significance of Siegfried's mission: 'the free alone give peace.'[6] Without knowing the conspiracy behind the gods' actions the innocent hero follows only his instinct which certainly represents the free-willed hero's independence from the gods, though instinct can simply turn into brutality. In this respect, Siegfried appears to be close to fulfilling Hegel's concept of the 'world-historical figure, the hero who, heeding only inner necessity, unwittingly assists the dialectical process of history and ultimately benefits the human race'.[7] Obviously, an understanding of contemporary philosophical thoughts was absorbed into the composer's mind, as suggested in his numerous prose works. |
| 4 | After writing his major theoretical works in his Zürich period, Wagner wrote a verse draft of The Young Siegfried (June 1851) which later became Siegfried of the Ring. Given that Wagner's Art-Work of the Future (November 1849) was written in the spirit of Feuerbach, his main intention in The Young Siegfried was to embody the ultimate triumph of 'love' over 'power'. On the other hand, Wagner made the notion of the gods' demise crystallise by letting Wotan come into view on stage. Thus, the following expansion into a trilogy with prefatory prelude was motivated by Wagner's desire to dramatise the entire tragedy of Wotan.[8] The Valkyrie, Act II, and Siegfried, Act III, show how Wotan realises the gods' impending destiny and how he deals with it.[9] Thus, the 'bravest' and 'most fearless' is supposed to attain the ring unwittingly and make Alberich's curse powerless.[10] With Siegmund, Wotan failed to create a free hero due to his interference, and now he wills to witness a genuine free will; he wills his spear to be shattered on Siegfried's sword, and he steps aside to give Siegfried access to Brünnhilde and let them love. Here, the idea of 'redemption through love' is emphasised, which Wotan cannot control though he might be willing to do so. Out of Siegfried's first encounter with love, a logic emerges in which the events which follow inevitably lead to Siegfried's decline, as self-awareness facing 'love' is further elaborated by the concept of 'fear': 'what is this, coward, that I feel? Is this what it is to fear?'[11] Moreover, the parting scene in the prologue of Twilight of the Gods clearly reveals Siegfried's weakened dependence upon Brünnhilde which contrasts with the hero's previous dynamism. Consequently, an essential symbolism behind the potion of amnesia is that Siegfried is to regain his independence and vigour. |
| 5 | However, the resumed free will costs him his life in the end, though it offers the hero a new perspective of love. The moment of Siegfried's impending death, when Wotan's plans seem to get out of control, concurrently confirms Wotan's will. According to Wotan's principle that divine intervention is not permitted, his ravens witness the hero's death: 'if ever they come back again with good tidings; then once again the gods would smile for ever.' [12] As soon as recovering his memory of love, Siegfried is destined to suffer death at the expense of his innocence. Here, we hear the heart-breaking and solemn funeral march during the long procession, whose themes recall the hero's ancestry, glory and destiny. According to Darcy's analysis of musical motives, the scene simultaneously serves as a commentary on Wotan's plan for moral regeneration and as a lament for the 'futility' of that idea. [13] In fact, the funeral march concentrates on the culminating grief for the tragic hero by a huge aural summing-up of previous events. However, as it proceeds, it seems to go further. Certainly, it celebrates the ultimate achievement of Wotan's will with the successive motives of 'Siegfried's acceptance of his destiny', 'Siegfried', and 'Brünnhilde as a loving woman' (according to Donington's terminology), until the hero's body is brought to the heroine. Earlier in the Ring cycle, Wotan once concedes the power of love: 'who'll make me amend for the power of love?' [14] Therefore, Siegfried's death appears as essential: it combines the ideas of free will, love, and ultimate redemption. After all, the hero was not abandoned: his actions are developed to embrace the main ideas in a more elaborate form. In the last narration, as a summary, the dead hero's supernatural gesture of raising his hand brings about a sense of balance. [15] This reminds us of the hero's mission of redemption (the 'sword' motif) and the gods' decline (the 'downfall' motif), and inspires Brünnhilde's divine wisdom (the 'Erda' or 'Rhine maiden' motif). Not by the 'curse' motif or the 'Ring' motif, but by the 'sword' motif, a token of the heroic action, Siegfried represents a symbol of independent human will once again. Certainly, Siegfried's death is central to Wagner's thinking: originally, the hero's tragic death had a moral importance in itself to revive the decaying order. However, as Wotan comes into the foreground with a need for the 'eternal renewals of reality and of life' beyond existing laws, [16] Siegfried's death serves for an idea of 'redemption through love' that is more profound than the initial, moral frame of redemption. |
| The main religious ideas in Jesus of Nazareth and the Victors | |
| 6 | As a unique biblical reference, Wagner wrote a prose draft of a drama entitled Jesus of Nazareth between 1848 and 1849 in an atmosphere of impending revolution (the Dresden revolution took place in May 1849). Significantly, it emerged soon after the creation of Siegfried's Death and was followed by his major theoretical writings (Art and Revolution, The Art-Work of the Future, and Opera and Drama). Another reworking of a religious idea, namely Buddhist 'renunciation', appeared in the 1856 sketch for a drama, The Victors, after he had read Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation in 1854. This Buddhist idea adopted by Wagner seems to have enriched his Christian understanding of the nature of religion. One could argue that this view would ignore Wagner's well-known anti-Christian attitude. Against this, Carl Dahlhaus writes:
Although Wagner grew up at a time when the development of biblical criticism was shaking the foundation of many established church dogmas and compelled most enlightened intellectuals to look for a different, ideal religion or a substitute, his attitude towards the essence of Christian religion appears consistent. In a public address in 1848, Wagner spoke of 'the fulfilment of Christ's pure teaching which enviously they [the churches] hide from us behind parading dogmas'.[18] Similarly, in 1871, he wrote that the religion of the holy gospel does not consist of the 'pomp of church ceremony' but in its serious promises to 'comfort the human soul'.[19] His notion of religion behind his antipathy to the contemporary church body can be best seen in a statement made in 1864: 'only religion can give sublime and strengthening solace.'[20] Although Wagner studied a variety of religious and philosophical materials most attentively, it seems that the redemption idea in his prose writings originates in Christian vocabulary. In Opera and Drama (1850), Wagner wrote that the enthralling power of the Christian myths consists in the portrayal of 'a transfiguration through death'.[21] No wonder, despite his explicit contempt towards Christianity in this passage, Wagner never failed to embody this power in his works of art. Wishing to bring the unconscious- or spiritual- part of human nature into consciousness and to reach the ideal behind the outward form of an work of art, Wagner spoke of 'myth' as being true and inexhaustible through the ages.[22] Such a need probably made him remain as a creative reader of the religious and mythological references that were available to him. |
| 7 | Immediately following the completion of Siegfried's Death, Wagner's notion of redemption appeared more explicit in Jesus of Nazareth.[23] In 1849, probably with Feuerbachian inspiration, Wagner noted that Jesus preached the 'reign of universal human love' and led mankind to its 'consciousness of godlike might'.[24] In Jesus of Nazareth, the imposing figure of Jesus is projected through Wagner's inner vision after his prolonged study of the New Testament, to which he may well have fled for comfort in the trouble of that agitated time.[25] Wagner noted that Jesus could ransom his people from misery not through earthly kinghood but only through fulfilment of the supreme divine vocation, his choice to become the greatest 'sufferer'.[26] |
| 8 | The surviving sketches of Jesus of Nazareth consist of a prose draft for a drama, a biblical commentary, and a number of additional notes for dramatic potential for the main characters: Judas, Barabbas, Peter and Mary Magdalene. Significantly, Mary Magdalene, as a female protagonist, represents 'love' as well as spiritual insight. To dramatise this character, Wagner turned to St Luke's gospel, though the details of Jesus of Nazareth are generally related to St John's gospel.[27] Whether or not Wagner recognised that St Luke seems to be the most keen of all the gospel writers to portray and visualise parables and events, there is a remarkable scene in Act IV foreshadowing the dramatic effect. During the last supper, Mary takes a costly phial from her bosom, 'approaches' Jesus once more, 'pours' its contents on his head, 'washes' his feet, 'dries', and 'anoints' them amid sobs and tears.[28] In all, St Luke's gospel reveals both her actions full of devotional love and Jesus' response most uniquely.[29] To this, Wagner added that 'she has understood Jesus and his sublime resolve: she calls herself blessed to have served him'.[30] |
| 9 | As for Buddhist ideas, Wagner wrote to Röckel in 1855 that, while the original idea of Christianity is divine because it doesn't belong to this world, Buddha's teachings are superb because, through it our fellow-suffering makes us one with all things living.[31] In The Victors, Wagner combines the tumult of worldly love and Buddhist concepts like incarnation, chastity, Nirvana, and redemption. Some concepts such as incarnation were certainly new in that the heroine's anguish from hopeless love originates from her sin of mocking love in her previous life. More importantly, the concepts such as death, love and redemption in the Christian context underwent an elaborate philosophical contemplation by a main Buddhist idea, self-negation or destruction of the will. A text entitled 'Prelude to Tristan and Isolde' (c. 1860) tells of the 'bliss of quitting life, of being no more, of last redemption' in order to be free from the heart's 'desire without attainment'.[32] |
| 10 | Probably Parsifal developed the redemption idea to its furthest point without any doctrinaire conflict between the two religions. Parsifal renounces 'eros', love's longing which binds man to the suffering of the will and, instead, embodies 'agape' in order to achieve redemption. In the 'Prelude to Parsifal' in 1880, Wagner wrote of the biblical message of love, faith and hope: 'the promise of redemption through faith . . . Will redemption heal the gnawing torment of his soul? Once more we hear the promise and- we hope!' [33] It is remarkable that Wagner asserted that he should thank Arthur Schopenhauer for having 'revealed Christianity to me'. [34] According to Wagner, 'sacred drama' aims to 'save' the 'essence' of Christian religion through and for art. [35] The relations between art, religion, and philosophy in Wagner's mind can be suggested as follows: true art can clarify the religious allegories; philosophy supplies the religious dogmas with the greatest refinement of intellectual exposition. [36] In 1870, Wagner stated that it was 'the spirit of Christianity that rewoke to life the soul of music'. [37] Again, in his Religion and Art (1880), Wagner emphasises 'the allegorical value of the mythological symbols' for those who can see the 'deep truth' beyond the 'literal truth'. [38] He thinks that mysticism must not be taken too literally, and only in the 'language of tone' can mysteries be given an unambiguous tongue. [39] It can be seen in this notion that Wagner made many revisions in the ending of the Ring and finally turned from the recourse to verbal media to music to convey the true message. |
| Representation of the idea of redemption | |
| 11 | Wagner's efforts to condense the idea of redemption are best seen in his revisions of the final ending, Brünnhilde's closing speech. In the verse draft of Siegfried's Death completed in November 1848, Brünnhilde concludes the drama by proclaiming the restoration of Wotan's authority through freedom from the curse of the ring: 'one only shall rule! All-father! Thou in thy glory! . . . soon are we free!'.[40] The first revised ending, dating from December 1848, however, shows a considerable change, that is Brünnhilde's proclamation of the gods' demise and their redemption through hero's tragic death: 'blessed atonement for the gods . . . Depart without power. From your guilt has sprung the blithest of heroes whose unwilled deed has expunged it . . . In the midst of your anxious fear, I proclaim to you blessed redemption in death.'[41] The notion of Siegfried as the gods' redeemer was crucial to the original scenario but somehow missing from both the first prose draft and the verse draft of Siegfried's Death.[42] In the so-called 'Feuerbach ending', written in December 1852, the notion of love is added to that of redemption through death. By that time, Wagner had become keen on Feuerbach's philosophy as suggested in the visual effects in the words, 'radiant love, laughing death', the last words in The Young Siegfried.[43] Here 'love' is elevated over worldly power: 'blessed in joy and sorrow . . . love alone can be!'[44] However, though the notion of ultimate triumphant love remained authoritative, this dithyrambic form of conclusion was replaced by a more pessimistic and profound philosophy. |
| 12 | In 1856, Wagner planned the so-called 'Schopenhauer ending' which condemns rebirth and the will to live. Now, redemption means 'being redeemed from rebirth'. A similar notion is found in Tristan and Isolde (1857), but it was not versified for the Ring ending until 1871: 'free from desire and delusion, redeemed from reincarnation . . . Grieving love's profoundest suffering, I saw the world end.'[45] Instead of rapturous love, the resultant suffering came into focus as the final solution to realise the essence of existence and to reject the phenomenal world as Schopenhauer suggested. However, there is a crucial difference between Siegfried and Schopenhauer. To Schopenhauer, will is the universal tormentor of man, author of life as the great evil, while reason is the divine gift which overcomes will through its abnegation and leads to peace and Nirvana.[46] In contrast, for Wagner, Siegfried symbolises life-giving will. Wagner intended through the personality of Siegfried to present an existence free from pain and the redemption from all errors and vain pursuits.[47] Therefore, despite its profundity that might offer Wagner an insight into life and death, this ending also turned out unsuitable.[48] |
| 13 | However, the essence of the abandoned endings was preserved in the notion of 'redemption through love' of the final version:[49] 'in the mightiest love to be wedded to him', Brünnhilde now knows all things as she 'saw the world end'.[50] Reconciling all the conflicts, Brünnhilde drives the drama to its prophesied ending by returning the ring to nature and by surrendering herself and Valhalla to the flames. A spectacle supported by evocative and scenic events is musically realised in a series of motives: 'Valhalla', 'fire', 'magic sleep', and so on. This creates a single metaphor for the destruction of the old order and then is superimposed by the Rhine maiden motif that symbolises reconciliation with nature. Subsequently, the work dies away in the variants of the main motives- 'Wotan's spear', 'Siegfried's acceptance of destiny', and 'downfall of the gods'- and brings us to the last motif of the Ring, that is the 'redemption-through-love', which sounds recurrently and triumphantly. After Brünnhilde's last words of wish for union with Siegfried, highly chromatic, restless harmony ends up with a relatively simple and clear chord. Wagner's letter to Röckel in 1854 reads:
Indeed, Brünnhilde's mission is repeatedly prophesied throughout the Ring and her concluding lines function as a summation of all the previous events and a revelation for the future. If Siegfried's supernatural gesture inspired her to attain divine wisdom, now she is able to interpret all the background stories, though rather abruptly: 'All things I know, all is clear to me now! I hear the rustle of your ravens wings . . . rest now, you god!' [52] In all, the truth and the various symbolical meanings of the Ring seem to be founded on its inexhaustible sources taken from across the boundaries of religion and philosophy. [53] Too much love, too much truth, or too much beauty always threatens the world and motivates the negative response from the threatened, as seen in the case of Jesus' sacrifice. Just as to see things and life in a new perspective the Christian redeemer willed to go through human love and suffering, the hero and the heroine in the Ring achieve redemption in their union of love which could be renewed only through death. |
Bibliography
Dahlhaus, Carl, Richard Wagner's Music Dramas, trans. by Mary Whittall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979)
Danuser, Hermann, 'Musical manifestations of the End in Wagner and in Post-Wagnerian Weltanschauungsmusik', 19th Century Music 18/1 (1994), 64-81
Darcy, Warren, ' "The World Belongs to Alberich!" Wagner's Changing Attitude toward the Ring', Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung: A Companion, trans. Stewart Spencer (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993), 48-52
Donington, Robert, Opera and its Symbols (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990)
Donington, Robert, Wagner's 'Ring' and its Symbols: The Music and the Myth (London: Faber, 1963)
Durant, William James, The Story of Philosophy (London: Benn, 1926)
Ellis, William Ashton (trans.), Actors and Singers: Richard Wagner, 1896 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), Wagner's Prose Works 5
Ellis, William Ashton (trans.), Art and Politics: Richard Wagner, 1895 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), Wagner's Prose Works 4
Ellis, William Ashton (trans.), Jesus of Nazareth and other writings: Richard Wagner, 1899 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), Wagner's Prose Works 8
Ellis, William Ashton (trans.), Religion and Art: Richard Wagner, 1897 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), Wagner's Prose Works 6
Landon, Howard Chandler. Robbins, 1791 Mozart's Last Year (London: Thames and Hudson, 1989)
Reinhardt, Hartmut, 'Wagner and Schopenhauer', Wagner Handbook, ed. Ulrich Müller and Peter Wapnewski; trans. by John Deathridge (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1992), 287-296
Spencer, Stewart, trans., et al, Wagner's 'Ring' of the Nibelung: A Companion (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993)
Shaw, Bernard George, The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring (London: Constable, 1898; 4th ed. 1923; repr., New York: Dover, 1967)
Vetter, Isolde, 'Wagner in the History of Psychology', Wagner Handbook, ed. Ulrich Müller and Peter Wapnewski; trans. John Deathridge (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1992), 118-155
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[1] As a reference to this reading, Erich Wulffen wrote in his Sexual Mirror: On Art and Criminality (Dresden: n.a., 1928, pp. 366-367) 'to say nothing of a Germanic man . . . then there [in Wagner's works] is the idea of redemption through womankind'. Quoted in Isolde Vetter, 'Wagner in the History of Psychology', Wagner Handbook, ed. Ulrich Müller and Peter Wapnewski; trans. John Deathridge (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), pp. 118-155, p. 127.
[2] Durant, William James, The Story of Philosophy (London: Benn, 1926), pp. 327-28.
[3] See Warren Darcy, ' "The World Belongs to Alberich!" Wagner's Changing Attitude toward the Ring', in Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung: a Companion: the Full German Text with a New Translation, ed. by Stewart Spencer (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993), pp. 48-52, p. 48.
[4] Darcy, p. 49.
[5] Dahlhaus, Carl, Richard Wagner's Music Dramas, trans. by Mary Whittall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979) p. 114.
[6] Ellis, William Ashton, trans., Jesus of Nazareth and other writings: Richard Wagner, 1899 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. 4.
[7]Darcy, p. 50.
[8] Darcy, p. 51.
[9] 'My work I abandon; one thing alone do I want . . . the end!' (Stewart Spencer, trans.,Wagner's 'Ring' of the Nibelung: A Companion, London: Thames and Hudson, 1993, p. 153); 'fear of the end of the gods no longer consumes me now that my wish so wills it!' (Spencer, p. 257).
[10] Spencer, p. 258.
[11] Spencer, p. 266. Spencer sees it as unclear whether Wagner intended that Siegfried's death resulted from his 'fear' in his encounter with Brünnhilde or from Hagen's trick with 'false swearing' (Spencer, p. 371, n. 157).
[12] From Waltraute's (Brünnhilde's sister)'s narration. Twilight of the Gods, Act I, (Spencer, p. 303).
[13] Darcy, p. 52.
[14] The Valkyrie, Act II, (Spencer, p. 141).
[15] The murdered proves his innocence in the supernatural way. See Robert Donington, Opera and its Symbols (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1990), p. 122.
[16] Wagner's Letter to Röckel on 25 Jan 1854, quoted in Robert Donington, Wagner's 'Ring' and its Symbols: The Music and the Myth (London: Faber, 1963), p. 134.
[17] Dahlhaus, p. 143. Here, Dalhaus employs the word 'fundamentalist' to mean 'basic Christian faith' rather than the movement which began in the early twentieth century. Similarly, Robert Donington suggests that Wagner's unconscious process of creation would not necessarily coincide with his conscious attitude towards religions, especially the Christian tradition. (Donington, Wagner's 'Ring' and its Symbols: The Music and the Myth, London: Faber, 1963, p. 138).
[18] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 6, p. xxix.
[19] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 5, p. 288.
[20] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 4, pp. 26-27.
[21] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. xviii.
[22] Donington, Opera and its Symbols, p. 100.
[23] Its manuscript bears no date of origin but might have been planned in 1849 (see Spencer, p. 9 and Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. 284).
[24] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 6, p. xxix.
[25] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. xix.
[26] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. 298. He also called it a deed of 'free-willed suffering' (Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 6, p. 214).
[27] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. xix.
[28] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. 292. Luke 7:38 (New Revised Standard Version) reads: 'She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.'
[29] While in the other gospels Jesus interprets the deed of anointing as preparing for his burial, St Luke's gospel tells of the forgiveness of sins: 'her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.' (Luke 7:47)
[30] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. 292.
[31] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 6, p. xxx.
[32] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. 387.
[33] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. 389.
[34] Cosima Wagner's diary, 10 February 1879, quoted in Hartmut Reinhardt, 'Wagner and Schopenhauer', Wagner Handbook, pp. 287-296, p. 295.
[35] Wagner, Richard, Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen, volume 10 (Leipzig: n.a, 1871-1883; reprint: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1911-1916), p. 211, cited in Reinhardt, p. 294.
[36] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 6, p. 215.
[37] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 5, p. 121.
[38] Donington, Opera and its Symbols, p. 101
[39] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 6, p. xxxi.
[40] Ellis, Wagner's Prose Works 8, p. 50.
[41] Spencer, p. 362.
[42] Darcy, p. 50.
[43] Danuser, Hermann, 'Musical Manifestations of the End in Wagner and in Post-Wagnerian Weltanschuungsmusik', 19th Century Music 18/1 (1994), pp. 64-81, p. 75.
[44] Spencer, p. 363.
[45] Spencer, p. 363.
[46] Shaw, George Bernard, The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring (London: Constable, 1898, repr. of 4th ed., New York: Dover, 1967), pp. 111-112.
[47] Shaw, p. 113.
[48] Dahlhaus considered three reasons for the abandonment of this ending. Firstly, it is 'tendentious' because the meaning is already articulated in the musical language of the drama (letter to Röckel, 1856). Secondly, the 'theme' in the orchestra is not a musical metaphor of renunciation of will but an expression of 'rapturous love' celebrated in the 'Feuerbach ending', reminiscent of Sieglinde's song to Brünnhilde at the end of The Valkyrie which Wagner called the 'glorification of Brünnhilde' (Cosima's letter to Lippmann on 6 September 1873). Thirdly, it is dramaturgically inadequate: each ending of The Valkyrie, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods is consistent in expressing Brünnhilde's love for Siegfried and in foretelling a hope for the future (Dahlhaus, pp. 139-141).
[49] Both the 'Feuerbach ending' and 'Schopenhauer ending' were published in 1873 as a commentary to the main text (Danuser, p. 75).
[50] Spencer, pp. 349-350.
[51] Donington, Opera and its Symbols, p. 122.
[52] Donington, Opera and its Symbols, p. 349
[53] Wagner's Ring 'becomes more important to humanity every year, its truths more compelling, possibly because Twilight of the Gods is a closer reality than it ever was before'. Howard Chandler Robbins Landon, 1791 Mozart's Last Year, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1989), p. 10.
eSharp issue: autumn 2004. © Yoon Park 2004. All rights reserved. ISSN 1742-4542.