Wagner's the Coolest

So I rented Das Rheingold, the first in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen series. For those of you poor shmucks who are not familiar with Wagner's work, I shall take a moment to enlighten you.

Wagner was the coolest composer EVER (ok, so I may be a little biased because he wrote some amazing horn parts...). Der Ring des Nibelungen is what I consider to be Wagner's opus. It is actually 4 operas all revolving around some magical gold that lies deep in the Rhein River (hence the term Rheingold). Legend has it that only the man who renounces love can forge the gold into a ring, which would allow him to rule the entire world. Needless to say, the gold is stolen in the first opera and forged into a ring and it takes the Norse gods and the heroes they send three more operas before they return the gold to the Rheinmaidens to whom it belonged.

Sound familiar? That's right, Der Ring des Nibelungen operas inspired both Tolkien and Lewis in their writings. In fact, Lewis credits Wagner's music for introducing him to Norse mythology which later formed a basis for both his and Tolkien's writings. And let's face it, there is no escaping the whole idea of a One Ring to rule the world. Or the fact that the ring is stolen from it's original master when his finger is cut off...

The version of the opera that I watched was very, very good (it can be found on netflix). For being produced in 1980, it was well done. I must admit, though, that it was a little hard to wrap my mind around the costuming: I would never have put the Norse gods in fashions from the 1800's. Come on guys! Seriously, it's hard to picture Woton as king of the gods when he has poofy hair and wears frilly shirts. He wasn't so much a masterful figure as he was a dandy. And don't even get me started about Thor! His hammer looked like it came from a Bob the Builder play set. However, the music, the acting, the over all production was superb. It was just the costumes that got me.

Anyway, that's why Wagner is the coolest and I can't wait for Die Walkure to come in the mail! This is so exciting!! I haven't seen an opera in about a year. DVD's aren't really the same as seeing the real thing, but hey, right now, it's all I can get. Can you believe that Fort Myers doesn't have an operatic society? How lame is that?