Hi everyone!
Well, I took advantage of the student ticket thingie, and went to the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday. It was a rare chance (for me) to see Wagner. So I sat through all five hours of Die Walkure. It was the same production, with the same singer as Wotan, that we watched part of in class. VERY impressive.
Many opera companies do radical productions of Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen (as the four opera cycle is called) including setting it at the turn of the 20th century, or making it a parable for industrialization. The met, though, is very traditional. So the performance was "safe." It didn't break any new ground, but it was very satisfying. Plus they have megabucks there, so they can do it right!
And all of this cost me only $35! When I queued up to buy my ticket I noticed that the sign said "Students with valid ID, up to age 29." Hmmm... what to do??? Well, I pulled down the hood of my jacket to cover my grey hair, and boldly asked for one ticket. It worked :). All in all a good day's entertainment, at a VERY good price.
How is this Dionysian? Well, the music, for one, is VERY Dionysian, and this was the opera that Wagner had just completed when Nietzsche wrote The Birth of Tragedy. It has the very Dionysian "Ride of the Valkyries" music at the beginning of Act III that everyone has heard. The Valkyries sing it as they carry the dead warriors back to Valhalla. Still, I can't get the image of Lt. Col. Kilgore out of my head. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like....VICTORY!" Again, a VERY Dionysian image.
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2 comments:
Nors mythology in general is extremely dionysian it seems since there is so much disorder in the views of the afterlife and many aspects of raiding tribes are so chaotic that they could no be called appalonian.
One of my friends gave his pet bird a viking funeral when he passed. It was one of the most touching things i have ever seen.
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