There have been quite a few interesting and really thoughtful comments recently on how to begin to tackle Wagner. I have enjoyed reading and thinking about all of them, and have a few thoughts to add.
I really wonder if "listening" to any Wagnerian music-drama is the best way to first approach him. As everyone knows, Wagner's works were written to be seen, as well as heard, and the visual element can not really be divorced from the aural. Perhaps even more importantly, the words usually determine the music; therefore an understanding of what he is trying to convey is absolutely essential. I would like to sincerely suggest that a music drama on VHS or LD be the first line of attack.
But that is only part of the "problem." I think it imperative that one first understand what Wagner was trying to say and do. I'm sorry to say this, but without adequate preparation I doubt if Wagner can be understood, although to be sure many will enjoy some of the music alone. Would anyone really know that the opening minutes of Walkyrie are designed to create a specific mind-set in the audience? How skillfully Wagner depicts the frantic running associated with Siegmund. Is it important to know this? I think so.
For what its worth, the following is an edited part of the intro to the Addendum of my first book on Wagner. It relates only to the Ring, but I feel that it applies to all his music dramas. Of course, it is merely my opinion, and it might prove irrelevant, or worse, to others. My apologies for the length, but of course it can easily be trashed.
For vast numbers of music lovers, The Ring of the Nibelung remains an incomprehensible mystery. Even dedicated opera lovers sometimes wonder how to approach Wagner's Ring for the first time. After all, there are several practical problems: it is a deeply intricate and sometimes convoluted work written to raise important questions regarding man and society; the music is not always tuneful and for long stretches of time one could become bored; and, it is so long! To complete the cycle requires four evenings totaling fifteen to sixteen hours of concentrated listening.
The Ring is an innovative experience in which the audience is expected to assume an active role by sensing a number of intellectual and emotional situations. It involves complex questions relating to the growth and decay of civilization, while containing enough entertainment value to satisfy most people who approach it seriously. Still, to enjoy opera does not necessarily mean that one will appreciate this work. There is a fundamental dissimilarity between opera and Wagner's staged festival play, and he intended these differences to be glaringly obvious. Detesting passive spectators who went to the theatre for a night out, or as a diversion from the dreariness of life, he refused to pamper to anyone's superficial gratification for pleasure. All too frequently opera represented a mindless form of diversion, even though the best of them contained some exquisite tunes.
With most Italian and French operas, the process of becoming familiar with a new work for the first time is not difficult. Excellent informative books are available in most book stores. The occasional opera goer, or one not willing to do too much advanced preparation, may arrive at the theatre early, buy a libretto, and read the plot; or glance over the program notes before the performance. If some particulars are forgotten, sit back and listen to the music. Sooner or later some melody should make the evening worthwhile. This approach will not work with the Ring. Without a good background, Wagner's Ring is almost impenetrable. Nevertheless, anyone interested in the economic, political, and social problems affecting mankind, may approach this work without hesitation.
Is all of this advanced preparation really necessary? Regrettably, the answer is yes, and for a practical reason: except for a few brief, albeit highly charged and exciting musical show-pieces, the music alone seldom commands undivided attention. Undeniably, some of the music is known even to those who are unfamiliar with Wagner's name: the entrance of the gods into Valhalla; several sensuous parts of the first act of The Valkyrie; the bombastic ride of the Valkyries ; the fire music which closes that drama; the forest murmurs in Siegfried; and the Rhine journey and funeral music from Twilight of the Gods. But when added up, these musical tidbits total about one hour, or less than one-fifteenth the time to perform the cycle. Without adequate preparation the music, by itself, is not likely to engage anyone's concentrated attention. Wagner was aware of what he was doing, and it was deliberate: Whenever words are of special importance, they must be heard and understood, and that sometimes meant reducing the orchestra to a level even lower than chamber music.
Attending The Ring cycle was not meant to be a vicarious emotional experience at the expense of one's intellectual faculties, but exactly the opposite. At its conclusion, one is expected to be so intellectually stimulated that the important philosophical, political, economic, moral, and social questions should prompt a re-evaluation of our civilization. No other composer demanded this of an audience. Wagner forces us to understand some of the world's problems and shortcomings so that we may ultimately help change the course of history, or share responsibility for not having done so. He anticipates that his arguments will be taken seriously, for he is concerned with the issue of power, together with man's mental and physical enslavement of others. It depicts, as he once so clearly described to his wife, "the curse of greed for money, and the disaster it brings about." This premise was the principle reason why he wrote the cycle. In so many ways The Ring of the Nibelung is a morality play built upon an integrated philosophical base. It is as timely now as when written. Wagner intended to expose the reasons why man brought so much misery, unhappiness, and anxiety upon himself. If man would only recognize that the blind craving for power was wrong, if not evil, he could "tear it out by the roots and establish a righteous world in its stead." This statement represents a major focal point. The cycle is replete with Wagner's ideas regarding man and human nature. Beyond this, is another important layer: Wagner's psychological capacity for intuiting the essentials of human behavior.
Therefore, in a mythical creation largely of his own making, Wagner used symbols, allegories, and metaphors as a way of presenting a new moral message, asking that we listen to him, and question our values, and our society. In The Rhinegold, the Prelude, he establishes most of the major metaphors, while in The Valhyrie (Day One), Siegfried (Day Two), and Twilight of the Gods (Day Three) he illustrates, allegorically, how they develop. By calling Rhinegold a Prelude, he differentiates its purpose from the remainder of the cycle. Designed to show the creation of the world order that is to be portrayed, he assumes for himself "the agonizingly difficult task of forming a nonexistent world." Emerging slowly out of a void, his model eventually embraces the four cosmic elements: water (Rhinegold), air (Valkyrie), earth (Siegfried), and fire (Twilight of the Gods): "Mark my new poem well - it holds the world's beginning, and its destruction!" Since man's problems did not develop overnight, but evolved over hundreds, even thousands of years, four nights are needed to portray the totality of the drama. Time is necessary not only to establish a perspective, but to illustrate how the problems and their complications evolve. Ultimately a major portion of the model world disintegrates during the final catastrophic ending of Twilight.
Although the cycle incorporated most of Wagner's lifelong concerns, it is sometimes difficult to understand why he deliberately ignored certain incidentals. Taken as a whole, the work cannot be comprehended on a literal level; but it can be understood by recognizing and accepting the fact that Wagner is presenting a series of symbols and not a plot which could be read and understood as if one were studying history or reading a novel. For example, the opening scene of Rhinegold. Who could imagine a man singing and talking as he walks around on the bottom of a river? As this is physically impossible, its depiction can never be viewed as actually happening, for it would defy the laws of nature. To have used real characters to depict real events in history would have proven equally unworkable and counterproductive. However, by using myth, Wagner successfully removes the story from the confines of any one national state, geographical locale, or historical time-period.
Through the music, Wagner reinforces the words, and creates an aura of feeling and understanding. It supports thoughts, feelings, and emotions. More importantly, music can express the unconscious and conscious secret thoughts of the participants. By a remarkably simple but effective innovation, Wagner offers a way of getting inside another person's mind. A few brief musical notes, sometimes only two to eight notes long, can reveal a psychic thought or feeling that is not directly told to us. Therefore, music drama is more than the combination of music and drama. It is an extraordinary psychological innovation. Sometimes Wagner will use several different themes within a phrase to deliberately illustrate a mental conflict between two ideas, as each struggles to dominate. Or it may be used to express a psychic battle between a conscious and an unconscious thought. Just as any individual may be gripped by two contrary ideas at the same time, so Wagnerian drama may, at times, express the confusions, uncertainties, and paradoxical ideas of its participants. Now it is possible to grasp why the music alone rarely stands out by itself. This doesn't mean that music is merely the handmaiden to the drama; but the drama determines and dictates the kind of music that is necessary to understand the problem. The musical setting achieves its purpose only when it contributes positively toward our understanding. One can see why the composer felt it so necessary to have a specially designed theatre built so that his creation could be performed exactly as conceived.
The Ring of the Nibelung represents a vivid portrait of nineteenth century Europe at a time when the forces of the industrial revolution, capitalism, agrarianism, and power politics were at their height, and often on a collision course. Far from being outdated by the passage of more than one hundred years, it is as timely now as when first performed. This would not have surprised Wagner. Indeed, it would have validated his thesis regarding the timelessness of major ideas. Wagner's ability to fuse and integrate the four entities comprising the Ring into a unified musical and dramatic prose cycle, remains unparalleled. Musically or dramatically, nothing of this magnitude has ever been attempted before or since.
Cheers. The struggle is worth it! Alan