tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/the-ring-cycle-7999/articlesThe Ring Cycle – The Conversation2023-03-14T17:18:49Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2008912023-03-14T17:18:49Z2023-03-14T17:18:49ZWhy Old Norse myths endure in popular culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514666/original/file-20230310-14-72f1pc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C10%2C3477%2C1841&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Marvel Studios' The Dark World from 2013.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/chris-hemsworth-thor-the-dark-world-2013-image472865537.html?imageid=0BB208C1-FE37-4C76-9731-904462B5103E&p=1913542&pn=1&searchId=21f2e4a6290695fa2c8a3ce8bf511534&searchtype=0">Maximum Film / Alamy</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From <a href="https://www.eno.org/composers/richard-wagner/">Wagner</a> to <a href="https://morrisarchive.lib.uiowa.edu/exhibits/show/translations/anderson-oldnorse/anderson-oldnorse-ch1">William Morris</a> in the late 19th century, via Tolkien’s dwarves and CS Lewis’s <a href="https://www.tor.com/2021/03/17/better-things-ahead-the-last-battle-and-the-end-of-narnia/">The Last Battle</a>, through to last year’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/22/norse-code-white-supremacists-reading-the-northman-robert-eggers">controversial film The Northman</a>, Scandinavian gods and heroes have been central to the stories we tell ourselves.</p>
<p>As professor of medieval European literature, I have been exploring Old Norse mythology since my undergraduate days. I have always been fascinated by the ways in which the old myths remain vital and relevant in the present, particularly now in various pop-cultural forms. In my new book, <a href="https://thamesandhudson.com/the-norse-myths-that-shape-the-way-we-think-9780500252345">The Norse Myths That Shape The Way We Think</a>, I explore how 10 key Norse myths and legends have been reworked over the last 200 years.</p>
<p>Although these stories have been influential since their discovery in 17th-century Europe, in recent years Norse narratives have exploded across fiction, Hollywood blockbusters, rock albums, opera, video games and TV shows – these are just a few of the cultural spheres in which Norse myths have been put to work. Here I introduce three of the most important gods, the feminine divine in the form of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valkyrie-Norse-mythology">valkyries</a> and shield-maidens, and finally, the looming threat of <em>ragna rök</em> – the end of the world.</p>
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<h2>Gods and monsters</h2>
<p>The main gods – not so much the goddesses unfortunately – offer ways to think about different stages of masculinity. <a href="https://historiska.se/norse-mythology/odin-en/">Odin</a>, the all-father, is the leader of the Norse pantheon, creator of humankind and god of wisdom. He will die at <em>ragna rök</em>, devoured by the great wolf Fenrir.</p>
<p>Starting with the main character <a href="https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/odin/">Wotan</a> in Das Rheingold, the first part of Wagner’s <a href="https://www.classicfm.com/composers/wagner/guides/wagner-ring-cycle-where-start/">Ring Cycle</a> – and also in Neil Gaiman’s 2001 epic <a href="https://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/American+Gods/">American Gods</a>, and Douglas Adams’ 1988 comic novel <a href="https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/The_Long_Dark_Tea-Time_of_the_Soul">The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul</a> – Odin is a figure who senses that power is draining away from him. Yet he ingeniously seeks out ways of clinging to his waning authority, cutting dodgy deals and manipulating his own flesh and blood through cunning and deceit.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.marvel.com/explore">Marvel Comic Universe</a> has already killed off the aged god, for he embodies an older patriarchal principle, one that refuses to step aside for the next generation. </p>
<p>In Norse myth, <a href="https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/thor/">Thor’s</a> main role is smiting giants with his great hammer Mjöllnir, patrolling the borders of the gods’ and human territory to keep out enemies. An indomitable performer of mighty feats, he is not always taken seriously in the myths: a favourite story involves him being forced to cross-dress as a reluctant and implausible bride.</p>
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<img alt="A stained-glass window showing a viking warrior looks at the sea." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514504/original/file-20230309-570-xg4o05.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514504/original/file-20230309-570-xg4o05.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514504/original/file-20230309-570-xg4o05.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514504/original/file-20230309-570-xg4o05.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514504/original/file-20230309-570-xg4o05.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514504/original/file-20230309-570-xg4o05.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514504/original/file-20230309-570-xg4o05.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Viking warrior detail from stained-glass window at Miss Maud Swedish Hotel, Perth, Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Davis</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>So too, the modern Thor is often depicted as a bumbling loutish thug, reaching for his hammer instead of thinking things through. Contemporary writers, such as Joanne Harris and Francesca Simon, make him the butt of their tales for younger readers – the cross-dressing story makes for great comedy.</p>
<p>The god’s image has been rescued through his incarnation as the Mighty Thor. In Marvel comics and movies, he has learned maturity, how to wield and to restrain his power, and has come to care for others, both humans and his own people, the semi-divine Asgardians. Marvel’s Thor is constructing a new kind of masculinity, one that understands that violence is not always the answer and which has learned the value of forethought and compromise. </p>
<p>Half-god, half-giant, <a href="https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/loki/">Loki</a> is a strangely ambiguous being; in the Marvel Universe he is Thor’s adoptive brother, though not in the original myth. He gets the gods out of tight situations – often ones that he himself has caused – but he will march against them with their enemies at <em>ragna rök</em>. For novelist AS Byatt, he is the intellectual’s god, questioning and nonconformist, while Marvel and Disney have made Loki into a shape-changing, gender-bending cult hero, always ready with a quip as he double-crosses Thor once again.</p>
<h2>A female perspective</h2>
<p>Loki is also the father of monsters: his daughter Hel, goddess of death, is the heroine of Gavin Higgins and Francesca Simon’s chamber opera from 2019, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/22/the-monstrous-child-review-linbury-theatre-london">The Monstrous Child</a>. Hel is a sparky teenager living with disability and consigned to a grim underworld, a girl whose story takes in love, vengeance and learning the true extent of her powers.</p>
<p>Warrior-maidens and fate-goddesses rolled in one, the valkyries range high above the battlefield, determining who shall live and who shall die. Wagner’s <a href="https://thenorsegods.com/brunhilde/">Brünnhilde</a> is the most remarkable of the valkyries, the true heroine of his <a href="https://www.classicfm.com/composers/wagner/guides/wagner-ring-cycle-where-start/">Ring Cycle</a>, fulfilling her father Wotan’s will and finally bringing down the gods. </p>
<p>Valkyries were also imagined as the battle-trained women warriors who now throng such TV shows as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2306299/">Vikings</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4179452/">The Last Kingdom</a>, skilled fighters who battle on an equal footing with men. These women vividly dramatise aspects of contemporary femininity: effective in traditional masculine domains, wielding power and choosing their own lovers, yet still working out how to manage sexual relationships and motherhood alongside their professional identities.</p>
<p>Literally “the doom of the gods”, <em>ragna rök</em> lies in the mythic future for gods and humans: the powers of ice and fire will destroy the earth. Tolkien suggests that this inevitable ending shapes the northern spirit, kindling courage and resignation in the face of certain doom.</p>
<p>Wagner saw his Götterdämmerung (the twilight of the gods) as sweeping away the corrupt divine order, leaving a purified, empty world where free human beings could build anew. In HBO’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/">Game of Thrones</a>, humanity’s apocalyptic clash with the icy power of the Night King is resolved by one young woman’s courage and determination.</p>
<p>The Norse myths envisage a cleansed green world that rises again from the ocean, but the climate cataclysm towards which we are heading admits no such renewal. Perhaps we can learn from the gods’ bad faith and carelessness in time to avert the downfall that <em>ragna rök</em> foreshadows for us all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyne Larrington has recently published The Old Norse Myths that Shape the Way We Think with Thames and Hudson.</span></em></p>Ancient tales of gods and heroes and medieval Scandinavia help us make sense of things like masculinity, betrayal, revenge and the end of the world.Carolyne Larrington, Professor and Tutorial Fellow in English, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197172013-12-03T03:14:18Z2013-12-03T03:14:18ZWhy we must keep talking about Wagner and antisemitism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36740/original/pfypfhs5-1386034165.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bicentenary celebrations have re-invigorated the 'Wagner question' around the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As part of the wave of Wagnermania currently sweeping Melbourne — including Opera Australia’s <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a> and a month-long <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/festival/about_the_festival">Ring Festival</a> — a symposium titled <a href="http://wagnerandus.com.au">Wagner and Us</a> will take place at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music on December 5-8. </p>
<p>It will explore the ongoing cultural, political and historical significance of the German composer, and the difficult questions surrounding <a href="http://www.thewagnerjournal.co.uk/wagnerandanti-se.html">his antisemitism</a> will be on the agenda.</p>
<p>Richard Wagner is perhaps the most controversial composer in the history of Western art and his music and ideas have provided plenty of fodder for both public and scholarly debate. In 2013 – 200 years after his birth – he continues to be the subject of heated discussions and arguments. </p>
<p>Indeed, the bicentenary celebrations have re-invigorated the “Wagner question” around the world, and prompted dozens of new (and often controversial) interpretations of Wagner’s operas.</p>
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<p>As always, the composer’s infamous antisemitism has been a frequent topic of discussion in the media and a number of new productions have made reference to it. </p>
<p>In May, a Düsseldorf production of the opera <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=23">Tannhäuser</a> was cancelled after audiences were deeply upset by scenes depicting people dying in gas chambers. </p>
<p>Wagner’s antisemitism is inescapable for anyone thinking about Wagner and his legacy in the 21st century – yet the issue remains surrounded by misconception and ambiguity, particularly in the public sphere.</p>
<h2>Judaism and music</h2>
<p>In 1850, Wagner pseudonymously published an essay called <a href="https://archive.org/details/judaisminmusicda00wagn">Das Judenthum in der Musik</a> (Judaism in Music, or Jews in Music) in a German music journal. The work was a lengthy antisemitic diatribe against Jewish composers who, according to Wagner, were inherently unable to produce true art. </p>
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<span class="caption">The Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
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<p>Jews, Wagner argued, were incapable of authentic artistic expression because they lacked a nation and culture of their own. Although they could be clever and industrious imitators, they would never be capable of pure artistic inspiration.</p>
<p>Although many scholars have argued the essay was simply a product of Wagner’s jealousy over the success of Jewish opera composers such as <a href="http://www.meyerbeer.com/">Giacomo Meyerbeer</a>, the ideological framework supporting Wagner’s accusations was clearly well thought-out; it was not a spontaneously conceived argument that Wagner would come to regret. </p>
<p>In fact, it was later re-published under his name and translated into other languages. </p>
<h2>Hitler and the Bayreuth Festival</h2>
<p>Wagner’s writings on Jews in music are not particularly well known by the general public. Most people make the connection between Wagner and antisemitism because they know he was Adolf Hitler’s favourite composer and that there were strong ties between Hitler and the <a href="http://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/english/english_156.html">Bayreuth Festival</a>, a Wagner festival run by the composer’s descendants that continues to this day. </p>
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<span class="caption">Hitler in 1937.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>The Third Reich’s appropriation of Wagner’s music for political purposes has tainted the music for many potential listeners, and the furious debate that rages in Israel over an unofficial ban on live performances of Wagner’s music tends to obscure the facts. </p>
<p>We know Hitler was enamoured with Wagner’s music from a young age and that he maintained close ties with Winifred Wagner (Richard Wagner’s daughter-in-law) and the Bayreuth Festival – but there’s no evidence to suggest Hitler was directly inspired by Wagner’s <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-Brilliant-Troubled-Legacy-of-Richard-Wagner-216638401.html#Richard-Wagner-troubled-legacy-statue-631.jpg">ultra-nationalist</a> and antisemitic ideology. </p>
<p>Some scholars see Wagner’s ideas as a clear precursor to Nazism, whereas others warn against blaming Wagner for historical developments that took place after his death. </p>
<p>Such debates feed into another question that arises from discussions of Wagner and antisemitism, one which has been relegated mostly to academic circles: is there antisemitism in Wagner’s music?</p>
<h2>Antisemitic music?</h2>
<p>A number of musicologists have argued characters such as Beckmesser in <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=61">Die Meistersinger</a>, Alberich and Mime in The Ring, and Kundry in <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=701">Parsifal</a> are Jewish caricatures who are musically depicted in an antisemitic light. </p>
<p>Although this is a scholarly debate that involves close examination of the music, it effectively comes down to the question of whether we think it necessary to separate the man from his music, or whether we see his personal views and ideology as being embedded in his art.</p>
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<span class="caption">The Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby.</span></span>
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<p>Opera Australia’s Melbourne Ring Cycle does not grapple with questions related to antisemitism in any direct way – and that may be a relief for those who simply enjoy the music and are sick of the polemics that follow Wagner’s music around the globe. </p>
<p>Yet the very fact The Ring is being performed in a city with a significant Jewish community – and one that is largely made up of Holocaust survivors and their descendants – makes it imperative that we ask these questions, even if we cannot agree on answers. </p>
<p>The problem of Wagner and antisemitism goes to the heart of a much broader question about music and politics, and whether music has a role to play in the great moral dilemmas of our time. </p>
<p>And that is a question that should concern us all, Wagnerians or not.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>A roundtable on Wagner and antisemitism will form part of the Wagner and Us symposium, jointly hosted by the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Richard Wagner Society in Melbourne, December 5-8. For further information, visit <a href="http://wagnerandus.com.au">http://wagnerandus.com.au</a></em></p>
<p><br>
<strong>Further reading:</strong><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">Explainer: Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wagners-ring-cycle-works-people-up-but-why-19485">Wagner’s Ring Cycle works people up – but why?</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-melbourne-ring-cycle-is-a-once-in-a-century-celebration-19519">The Melbourne Ring Cycle is a once in a century celebration</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-fund-wagner-operas-or-statues-of-kyle-sandilands-19520">Should we fund Wagner operas or statues of Kyle Sandilands?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Orzech has been involved in organising the Wagner and Us Symposium at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and she will be presenting a research paper at the symposium.</span></em></p>As part of the wave of Wagnermania currently sweeping Melbourne — including Opera Australia’s Melbourne Ring Cycle and a month-long Ring Festival — a symposium titled Wagner and Us will take place at the…Rachel Orzech, PhD candidate, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194852013-11-26T03:23:28Z2013-11-26T03:23:28ZWagner’s Ring Cycle works people up – but why?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35866/original/rfmsjydq-1385086922.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Valkyries in Opera Australia's Ring Cycle aren't the only ones to feel emotional. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Opera Australia is currently performing Richard Wagner’s most famous work, Der Ring des Nibelungen – <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">The Ring Cycle</a> – marking the bicentenary of the composer’s birth, at a <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/neil-armfield-promises-a-ring-of-revolution-with-opera-australias-production/story-fn9n8gph-1226741165764">reported cost</a> of A$20 million. If that brings out strong emotions in you, you’re not alone. </p>
<p>From its first performance in 1876 in the German town of Bayreuth, The Ring Cycle has been controversial. Wagner is much more than a “mere” composer – he’s a cultural phenomenon, as the <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/festival/about_the_festival">long list of events</a> associated with Opera Australia’s sold-out run of The Ring Cycle demonstrates. </p>
<p>What is it about this enormous work that draws passionate reactions from both opera devotees and those who wouldn’t be seen dead in an opera house?</p>
<h2>Wagner’s influence</h2>
<p>Wagner himself has always cast a long shadow in the opera world. The German composer was born on May 22 1813, the same year as his Italian counterpart <a href="http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/verdi.php">Guiseppe Verdi</a> and 100 years before the British <a href="http://www.its.caltech.edu/%7Etan/Britten/britbio.html">Benjamin Britten</a> – and celebrations to mark the Wagner bicentenary are crowding out the other anniversaries. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34631/original/3cfvfwwy-1383796034.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wagner in 1871.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wagner was a divisive figure virtually from the outset of his career and as a gifted if inconsistent writer of prose, was able to present his views, including a particularly virulent form of antisemitism, on a variety of topics with force, never skirting controversy. Extremely critical of the state of opera in Europe in the mid-19th century, he saw The Ring as pointing the way forward.</p>
<p>In this he succeeded as no opera composer has done before or since. He completed <a href="http://www.wagneroperas.com/indexwagneroperas.html">13 operas</a> and we are still grappling with the ideas and artistic practice developed within them. His influence, more than that of any other composer, is still very present in the opera world.</p>
<p>Indeed, his influence extends into many aspects of European and world culture, not the least on an art form not invented in his day – cinema. Wagner’s <a href="http://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/english/english_156.html">concealed orchestra</a> at Bayreuth, the German town where The Ring was first staged, is an important precedent to the use of music in film.</p>
<h2>How The Ring changed opera</h2>
<p>The significance of The Ring lies both in its underlying theoretical frame and in the successful realisation of the ideas it embodies.</p>
<p>Wagner saw contemporary opera as decadent and dying, and, just as the “inventors” of opera did 250 years before, he went back to Greek drama for his inspiration.</p>
<p>The Ring itself is modelled on Greek tragedian Aeschylus’ great tetralogy, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Oresteia-Agamemnon-Libation-Eumenides/dp/0140443339">The Oresteia</a>, with three main dramas, preceded by a prologue. There had been several reforming impulses in opera, but Wagner’s innovations were the most comprehensive and influential.</p>
<p>The Ring changed the musical language of opera, effectively doing away with the musical structures such as <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/493574/recitative">recitative</a>, <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34102/aria">aria</a>, duets and larger ensembles that had constituted the dramaturgy of the art form. </p>
<p>Wagner turned back to drama and developed music that could accommodate the complexities but retain the flexibility of dialogue between two or more characters. That staple of opera, the aria, disappears, as do larger ensembles where two or more characters sing simultaneously. There is virtually no chorus in The Ring.</p>
<p>Fundamental in the structure of The Ring was Wagner’s evolution of what became known as <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/leitmotif"><em>leitmotivs</em></a>: recurring musical phrases that constitute a web of associations as the drama unfolds. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35868/original/mf7738mx-1385088148.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Melbourne Ring Cycle, by Opera Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Characters, emotional states, even ideas and a wide variety of other elements become associated with particular musical phrases, rhythms or harmonic progressions, thus creating a dense, constantly evolving, and fully enclosed dramatic world – the orchestra becomes the equivalent of the novelistic omniscient narrator, but also functions as a form of character stream-of-consciousness.</p>
<p>The musical complexity of The Ring is staggering – particularly when one remembers its composition occurred over a period of more than 25 years, interrupted by Wagner’s writing first one of the longest operas in the repertoire, <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=61">Die Meistersinger of Nürnburg</a>, and then <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=86">Tristan und Isolde</a>, a work which begins to dissolve the whole tonal system developed in Western music over hundreds of years.</p>
<p>As with the great tragedies of Shakespeare, The Ring is timeless. It can be interpreted and staged in a multitude of ways, inevitably revealing fresh insights into the world of the drama itself – and also offering new perspectives on our contemporary world. </p>
<p>The Ring is now often presented as an environmentalist drama suffused with an anti-capitalism sentiment, reflecting Wagner’s interest in Buddhism – he was contemplating an opera on the Buddha, but did not live to complete it.</p>
<h2>Is The Ring worth doing?</h2>
<p>Opera Australia evidently thinks so. Given its scale, The Ring is a hugely expensive undertaking for any opera company, but the significance of the work, whether one likes it or not, is undeniable. </p>
<p>For Opera Australia it will probably mean cuts in other areas, particularly in commissioning new work, which is regrettable – but the Wagner bicentenary is just too good an opportunity to miss.</p>
<p><em>Performances of the sold-out <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a> take place until December 13, 2013.</em></p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-melbourne-ring-cycle-is-a-once-in-a-century-celebration-19519">The Melbourne Ring Cycle is a once in a century celebration</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">Explainer: Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-fund-wagner-operas-or-statues-of-kyle-sandilands-19520">Should we fund Wagner operas or statues of Kyle Sandilands?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Halliwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opera Australia is currently performing Richard Wagner’s most famous work, Der Ring des Nibelungen – The Ring Cycle – marking the bicentenary of the composer’s birth, at a reported cost of A$20 million…Michael Halliwell, Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Opera, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195192013-11-22T05:30:15Z2013-11-22T05:30:15ZThe Melbourne Ring Cycle is a once in a century celebration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35870/original/jpgmhsvq-1385088822.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wagner has been inflaming people for a long time. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even if you’ve not had the chance to see it, you’ll know Melbourne is currently going to town over Wagner and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">The Ring Cycle</a>. There’s a clear historic precedent for this – but we have to go back a whole century to find it. </p>
<p>In 1912, Englishman [Thomas Quinlan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Quinlan_(impresario/) visited Australia with his travelling opera company as part of an Empire circuit. His company promised to sing “in English to English speaking peoples all the time, never leaving the red portions of the geographical map”. </p>
<p>Before departing Australia he posted a letter in major newspapers alerting readers that he would be back in 1913 and was willing to put on Wagner’s Ring Cycle – “if 1,000 subscribers could be found to provide an advance subsidy”. </p>
<p>Quinlan’s production would mark the centenary of the German composer’s birth. A century later, Opera Australia’s <a href="http://opera.org.au/whatson/melbourne_ring_cycle">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a>, directed by theatre veteran <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/neil-armfield-promises-a-ring-of-revolution-with-opera-australias-production/story-fn9n8gph-1226741165764">Neil Armfield</a>, is the centrepiece of this month’s <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/festival/about_the_festival">Ring Festival</a> in Melbourne.</p>
<p>The full Ring Cycle was performed in <a href="http://operainsider.info/index.php/historical-essay-wagners-ring-in-australia/">Adelaide in 1998</a> and <a href="http://www.lares-lexicon.com/AdelaideRing/adelaidereviews.html">again in 2004</a>, but it hasn’t been performed in its entirety anywhere else in Australia since Quinlan’s version. </p>
<p>Tickets for the current production sold out quickly – the <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">cheapest</a> going for A$1,000 a pop – and the best seats in the house for A$2,000. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35874/original/sx2wt2tr-1385090444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opera Australia’s Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because opera lovers can’t elect to go along for just one night of Wagnerian excess – the Ring Cycle is made up of four operas, <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=711">Das Rheingold</a>, <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/walkure?customid=454">Die Walküre</a>, <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=712">Siegried</a> and <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/gotterdammerung">Götterdämmerung</a> – it’s the whole cycle, or nothing. But this clearly hasn’t been a deterrent. </p>
<p>Quinlan encountered similar enthusiasm to that evidenced by the forthcoming sell-out shows when he put his proposal to Melburnians more than a century ago.</p>
<p>He asked for <a href="http://www.ask.com/question/how-much-is-a-guinea-worth-today">one guinea</a> each for dress circle tickets, less for stalls and gallery and no tickets issued except for the whole cycle. Quinlan made big claims about Wagner’s four-opera cycle: </p>
<p>“The Ring, which is the supremest expression of music drama, and which should be of incalculable service to the advancement of Australian musical art has to be done on a scale of splendid completeness or not at all. It does not admit of mediocrity.”</p>
<p>Quinlan obtained his subsidy easily and returned the following year with 475 tons of scenery and wardrobe, and 176 people. </p>
<p>The company, many of whom were recruited from Covent Garden, sang the operas in English and travelled with their own large orchestra. Members of the company knew each other well. </p>
<p>They were well rehearsed when they arrived and could thus set a truly punishing schedule as can be seen from the following list for Melbourne: </p>
<ul>
<li>opening night on the Saturday was Wagner’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/21/guide-wagner-die-meistersinger-nurnberg">Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg</a></li>
<li>Monday, Verdi’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/rigoletto?customid=134">Rigoletto</a></li>
<li>Tuesday, Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=711">Das Rheingold</a> (the first of the Ring operas)</li>
<li>Wednesday, Offenbach’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=15">Tales of Hoffmann</a>, matinée and Puccini’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/tosca?customid=792">Tosca</a> evening</li>
<li>Thursday, Saint-Saëns’ <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=22">Samson and Delilah</a></li>
<li>Friday, Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/walkure?customid=454">Die Walküre</a> (the second installment in the Ring Cycle)</li>
<li>Saturday, Gounod’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=695">Faust</a></li>
<li>Sunday, free</li>
<li>Monday, Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=712">Siegried</a> (the third of the Ring operas)</li>
<li>Tuesday, Verdi’s <a href="http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/Opera-Synopses/qt/Aida-Synopsis.htm">Aida</a></li>
<li>Wednesday, Tales of Hoffmann matinée and Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=23">Tannhauser</a> evening</li>
<li>Thursday Charpentier’s <a href="http://imslp.org/wiki/Louise_(Charpentier,_Gustave)">Louise</a></li>
<li>Friday, Wagner’s <a href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/synopsis/gotterdammerung">Götterdämmerung</a>, the final opera in the Ring Cycle. </li>
</ul>
<p>All up, the company performed 14 different operas in 14 days. Such a feat is unheard of today!</p>
<p>Although The Bulletin’s critic maintained steady ironic criticism of the libretto of The Ring – writing that “a God incapable of sterilising a gnome’s curse or stopping his wife’s tongue is not much of a person to write a four-volume opera about” – the majority of the critics raved about the Ring claiming a new epoch in Australia’s musical history</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opera Australia’s Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Audiences flocked to the Ring Cycle, despite expensive tickets – they cost twice as much as those to the other operas in the season – and there was an overall sense of gratitude to Quinlan. </p>
<p>(Tickets to The Ring Cycle are still much more expensive than those for other operas. The priciest tickets for Opera Australia’s production of Puccini’s <a href="http://opera.org.au/whatson/events/labohemesydney">La Bohème</a> in Sydney in January 2014 go for more than $300 – but it’s also possible to score a seat for $70.)</p>
<p>Melbourne was greedy for more, and a petition was put to Quinlan to put on another Ring Cycle. He obliged and it was a weary troupe that then moved on to Sydney.</p>
<p>Quinlan’s desire to perform in English had an evangelical edge to it. He was on a mission to introduce new audiences to opera and he stated confidently:</p>
<p>“I am quite certain that no other language will in future be acceptable to English-speaking audiences in any country that we have visited.”</p>
<p>Plans for further tours were stopped by the first world war, and The Ring was not staged in its entirety in Australia until 1998 when the State Opera of South Australia tackled it. Obviously antagonism towards Germany had an impact on performances of German opera in the periods after two world wars. </p>
<p>But opera programs after 1913 also showed a growing conservatism. Touring companies did not feel able to take risks, since the costs of box office failure were crippling. And when finally the first permanent opera company, the <a href="http://opera.org.au/aboutus/opera_australia/our_history">Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust</a>, as Opera Australia was first known, was established in Australia in mid 1956, risk taking was also not on the agenda.</p>
<p>Now 100 years later Melbourne audiences again have the opportunity to see the entire Ring Cycle in their home city. Sung in German this time, but as in 1913, with tickets far more expensive than those for any other opera – and sold out the day after the box office opened to the public. </p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>Performances of the sold-out <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a> take place until December 13, 2013.</em></p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-wagners-ring-cycle-der-ring-des-nibelungen-20475">Explainer: Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-fund-wagner-operas-or-statues-of-kyle-sandilands-19520">Should we fund Wagner operas or statues of Kyle Sandilands?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Murphy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even if you’ve not had the chance to see it, you’ll know Melbourne is currently going to town over Wagner and The Ring Cycle. There’s a clear historic precedent for this – but we have to go back a whole…Kerry Murphy, Head of Musicology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204752013-11-20T19:17:18Z2013-11-20T19:17:18ZExplainer: Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35547/original/vp54ydx3-1384823071.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Melbourne Ring Cycle is big, befitting the opera's stature. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It should come as no surprise in the nation that gave the world the Big Pineapple, the Big Guitar, the Big Sheep, and, for that matter, a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY6uJlI-t14">Big Ad</a>, that the size of a cultural artefact in and of itself is enough to impress us. </p>
<p>Build something large enough, or do something often enough, and it stakes a claim on our attention. No immediate surprise, then, that Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen also fascinates Australians, including many who might not otherwise give opera a second thought. </p>
<p>Extending over four nights, it consists of almost 16 hours of music written for immensely powerful voices singing over a colossal pit orchestra, and took about 26 years (from 1848 to 1874) to complete. If that is not a big enough list of “bigs”, the budget required to stage it is also of such a size that it can cripple even the most well-endowed opera company.</p>
<p>In the case of The Ring, however, size is most definitely not everything; there is more to our interest than that. </p>
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<span class="caption">Terje Stensvold as Wotan Jacqueline Dark in The Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
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<p>Wagner’s professed aim, in fact, was not to be grandiose <em>per se</em>, but to equal what he considered to have been the highest achievement of human creativity – Greek tragedy. The Greeks, he believed, had developed a kind of communal art-as-therapy where the polis came together to celebrate and reflect upon what had sustained and nurtured them both as individuals and as a community. </p>
<p>Moreover, their theatre had also involved a successful combination of all the arts: poetry, drama, costume, dance, music, song.</p>
<p>Subsequently, however, this Greek drama had disintegrated, if not degenerated, into its various components, so that by Wagner’s time (1813–1883) we had been left, as he saw it, with instrumental music without words, theatre without poetry, poetry without music, and so on. </p>
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<span class="caption">Warwick Fyfe as Alberich in The Melbourne Ring Cycle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
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<p>This was no mere historical observation but was instead, he believed, a sign of a larger societal decay. For him, opera in particular had become little more than entertainment for the weary professional classes, a frivolous and vulgar manifestation of a world becoming inexorably estranged from itself. </p>
<p>His critique, which helps explain much of the plot of The Ring, preempts much of Karl Marx’s theory of <a href="http://www.marxists.org/subject/alienation/">alienation</a> (Entfremdung), which similarly asserted that we were becoming estranged from the products of our labour and from each other.</p>
<p>So that is what the fuss is about. But what is The Ring itself about? </p>
<p>Well, the convoluted plot is principally derived from a collection German mythical stories called the <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/nibelungenlied.html">Nibelungenlied</a>, a sort of Northern European version of the <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iliad/">Iliad</a>. </p>
<p>Like its Greek counterpart, it involves gods and mortals incestuously interacting with one another in the manner of one colossal dysfunctional family and, taken out of context, the tale appears (like many opera plots before and since) to border on the ridiculous. </p>
<p>So too, however, do many of our classic myths, so we should not be concerned by this fact. The Ring is not meant to be realist drama, but rather a drama-as-allegory. </p>
<p>Its real dramatic content is not so much “out there” on stage as something found within in the minds of the characters, and in what is implied, what is alluded to, by their actions. Going to The Ring, then, is more like witnessing a collective dream, and like all dreams it demands, and rewards, interpretation (it is not for nothing that Wagner’s music dramas are also particular beloved by psychoanalysts).</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Ring Cycle, summarised.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Our portal into this inner world of The Ring, and also what ultimately makes it so compelling, is Wagner’s music. By doing away with the conventional structural forms of opera and composing instead a texture that he described as “<a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/texas_studies_in_literature_and_language/v055/55.1.rasula.html">endless melody</a>”, Wagner was able to create a complex and profoundly interconnected set of “leitmotifs” (sonic calling cards, if you like) that enable the orchestra not merely to reflect what is going on the stage action, but to become intimately fused with it, and indeed analyse it. </p>
<p>In effect The Ring ends up becoming one vast symphonic drama, with the orchestra as its most important character.</p>
<p>The broad details of the plot will be already familiar to those who have read (or seen) The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien. Both works involve giants and dwarfs and such-like, and concern rings that corrupt the wearer while giving him or her mastery over the world. </p>
<p>Both, indeed, are also implied critiques of industrialised capitalist society. For those wanting to know more of the plot in finer detail, a great place to start is with two clever on-line resources; a two-and-a-half minute (yes, almost 400 times shorter than the actual Ring) plot summary (see video above) recently prepared by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the justly famous comic (but ultimately reverential) analysis by the English-Canadian singer and comedienne Anna Russell, below:</p>
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<p><em>Performances of the sold-out <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">Melbourne Ring Cycle</a> take place until December 13, 2013.</em></p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-fund-wagner-operas-or-statues-of-kyle-sandilands-19520">Should we fund Wagner operas or statues of Kyle Sandilands?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It should come as no surprise in the nation that gave the world the Big Pineapple, the Big Guitar, the Big Sheep, and, for that matter, a Big Ad, that the size of a cultural artefact in and of itself is…Peter Tregear, Professor and Head, School of Music, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195202013-11-17T20:22:30Z2013-11-17T20:22:30ZShould we fund Wagner operas or statues of Kyle Sandilands?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35241/original/fwp8ck3w-1384390604.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Melbourne Ring Cycle is expensive – but it may be worth it. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Saunders</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cultural dollar is tight. Why spend taxpayers’ money on mounting Wagner operas rather than – say – erecting a mile-high statue of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1234216/">Kyle Sandilands</a> on the moon warning alien civilisations what to expect should they approach further? </p>
<p>The list of things considered culture is endless. Once dance, drama, ballet and opera ruled the performing arts roost. But now, in an age of user-generated content and zombie walks, it’s hard to defend opera’s pre-eminence. Should we even try? </p>
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<span class="caption">Zombie walks – not opera.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sheba_Also</span></span>
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<p>Isn’t everyone’s taste equally valid? You like <a href="http://www.hberlioz.com/">Berlioz</a>; I prefer boot-scooting. Why should one be thought better than the other, or attract public support to perpetuate its privileged status?</p>
<p>Wagner is expensive even by opera’s standards, and the <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/home">Ring Cycle</a>, which launches in Melbourne this evening, is expensive even by Wagnerian ones. </p>
<p>The production <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/neil-armfield-promises-a-ring-of-revolution-with-opera-australias-production/story-fn9n8gph-1226741165764">reportedly</a> cost Opera Australia A$20 million to stage. </p>
<p>It’s pricey for audiences too – it costs <a href="http://www.melbourneringcycle.com.au/ring_cycle/tickets/dates_and_prices">A$1000-2000</a> to attend four consecutive nights of The Ring Cycle). It’s the sort of signature event that has opera buffs audibly panting and others muttering about the cost of it all.</p>
<h2>To spend or not to spend?</h2>
<p>The free market works, at least in theory, by striking a balance between the supply of something (s) and its demand (d). A good (x) is provided to consumers by producers, who vary in number depending on the level of profit that can be made. </p>
<p>Fixing the relationship between (s) and (d) is the index finger of Scottish philosopher <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Smith.html">Adam Smith</a>’s “invisible hand”, the price mechanism (p). </p>
<p>Here is the source of all political objections to supply-side subsidy, be it for the car industry or for installation art: it queers (p), throwing out the delicate calibration between those who can provide a good and those willing to pay for it. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” explained in 60 seconds./movie>
If people want to watch Wagner they should stump up for a ticket without relying on government help, and thereby distorting a self-regulating means of exchange. The real-life problems with this idealised model give experts in the dismal science much to ponder. Two are especially relevant for culture.
Public and private benefits
The first is the extent to which art generates public as well as private benefits. If watching Wagner operas can be shown to produce more creative citizens, increase national cohesion or improve public morals, there might be a case for more generally supporting it.
A considerable amount of research has been done in this area, as the 2004 Rand report, Gifts of the Muse details. Attending the Ring Cycle may supress thoughts about Kyle Sandilands, for example – a public benefit many Australians would acknowledge.
Perfect knowledge
A second problem with the model is its assumption of “perfect knowledge”. Consumers are supposed to acquire – it’s never clear how or from where – an in-depth understanding not only of their own needs but the complex strategic goals of different producers.
Pietari Inkinen rehearses The Melbourne Ring Orchestra.
Aidan Corrigan
Competition only works where there is the possibility of “substitution” – that is, of replacing one good with another of similar benefit in order to maximise personal satisfaction.
Obviously this is much easier with goods that are homogenous and divisible (bread, bricks, toilet paper etc). The more singular (x) is, the more it resists substitution or – another way of saying the same thing – the more knowledge you need to substitute something for it.
In the real world people’s preferences as revealed by the price mechanism are not a guarantee of good market outcomes because people:
a) often don’t know what they want
b) haven’t the wherewithal to find alternatives
c) can’t tell when they’re being sold a crock
Such “market failure” is the reason usually advanced for arts subsidy and unlike the private/public benefit argument it touches on culture’s intrinsic qualities as a “merit good”.
Societies need to educate their citizens to make informed cultural choices and provide cultural services which ensure the ongoing development of desirable norms and values.
Does ‘one-off’ art trump market failure?
Enter Wagner like a rampaging Valkyrie. At a certain point a ground needs to be established for people to define themselves as choice-making beings, a pre-economic level of experience to assist cultural tastes to come into existence in the first place.
The Melbourne Ring Orchestra rehearses.
Aidan Corrigan
How can we judge the value of Wagner operas unless we have a chance to go to one every now and then? Our immediate needs are only part of the benefits equation.
Economists recognise “existence value”, the price consumers will pay to ensure (x) continues to exist regardless of whether they use it or not; “option value”, what they will pay to ensure they can use it; and “bequest value”, the price they will pay so their children and children’s children can use it.
The cultural experiences that shape us most deeply are the resolutely singular ones. You can quantify their benefits but not their value.
That doesn’t mean they don’t have one, only that it does not lend itself to aggregate numerical assessment.
The Ring Cycle is an example of “one-off” art. It does not supply an ongoing market need for long, gloomy operas about Norse heroes. It provides an experience that helps define us as human beings so we can make meaningful choices thereafter (including a few economic ones).
Get to know Wagner first
Every once in a while you have to take a chance with art if you want a life fully lived. It’s expensive, yes, and there are no guarantees. You can certainly object to subsidising a particular staging of the Ring Cycle.
But you have to know a bit about Wagner first – his operas are potentially a transformative encounter.
The silent shadow of the price mechanism is opportunity cost – what we stand to lose if we do not buy (x). Many Opera Australia patrons this month will be seeing the Ring Cycle for the first time and for some it may indeed be a “life-changing experience”.
In terms of supporting the production with public money, under what circumstances can we afford not to?
<em>Performances of the sold-out Melbourne Ring Cycle take place from November 18 to December 13, 2013.</em></span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Meyrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The cultural dollar is tight. Why spend taxpayers’ money on mounting Wagner operas rather than – say – erecting a mile-high statue of Kyle Sandilands on the moon warning alien civilisations what to expect…Julian Meyrick, Professor of Strategic Arts, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.