| . |
Wagner Society in NSW Inc
By Patrick Carnegy On 8 May 2007, Patrick Carnegy's book won the Royal Philharmonic Society prize for "creative communication" (an award sponsored by the Guardian). According to Stephen Moss, the Guardian 's reviewer (on 9 May): “It's not a phrase he likes; best classical music book of the year will do.” Moss's opening gambit indicates something of the approach taken in parts of the review: “Was Wagner a demon? A hero? Both? Neither? The world at last has a definitive history of the German composer's work on stage.” Moss continues: “Carnegy, 66, is worryingly sane for a Wagnerian: no obvious tics except for the occasional deep sigh; not unduly besotted with the great man (he recognises the flaws as well as the genius)….” I personally take offence at the suggestion that I am not sane: unfortunately, Moss is given to such ad hominem turns that detract from otherwise sensible comments he makes. I guess that is the price of selling newspapers! Carnegy clearly has good credentials for writing about Wagner: assistant editor of the Times Literary Supplement in the 1970s, music books editor at Faber in the 1980s and dramaturg at the Royal Opera House from 1988 to 1992, as Moss points out. But again Moss cannot resist a dig: “but above all, he has survived 40 years' immersion in the dangerous waters of Wagnerism. Shame the same can't be said for all the crazies who flock to productions of the Ring. Why are Wagnerians so obsessive?” It rather undercuts Moss's claim to be a serious journalist to resort to such wild generalisations and stereotyping and to indirectly insult his interviewee. Fortunately, Carnegy remains in level-headed contrast when he explains the obvious to Moss: "There is great psychological depth in Wagner. He takes each of us down into parts of ourselves that we perhaps don't very much like, but that we do recognise. Because Wagner goes so much into these dark places - think of all those primeval promptings in the Ring - it's very raw and direct. You can go in knowing that Wagner is grappling with things that have gone badly wrong in the world, and perhaps wrong with you and me as people as well, and work it through." Taking this small cue from Carnegy, Moss momentarily appears to turn serious: “Those mighty musical epiphanies are important, too - transfigurative outpourings such as the Liebestod in Tristan und Isolde , which appear to make sense of the disorder, bind the wounds”. But one cannot help wondering if the words are simply paraphrases of Carnegy who is also quoted as saying: "They [the “musical epiphanies”?] are metaphors which produce some sort of consolation, some kind of closure," says Carnegy. "It's Nietzsche's idea: that music and art help the unbearable to be bearable." Moss notes that Carnegy's work includes a “vigorous defence of ‘directors' opera'. He denies that Wagner had a prescriptive view of his work, and applauds those who attempt to mine it for fresh meanings. ‘People who say that Wagner knew exactly how he wanted his works produced - so what right have you to stage the Ring on Mars or down a salt mine - are wrong,' he says. "Wagner was precise [in his stage directions] because the theatrical world into which he launched his works was a total mess, and the quality was very poor. The reason he took such trouble was defensive: it wasn't so much that he knew what he wanted, but he jolly well knew what he didn't want." Carnegy's position will undoubtedly provoke debate with the Wagnerians who prefer a traditional approach to productions of Wagner's works. Moss quotes Carnegy as saying: "My book is an attempt to answer the question, 'Why is it a good thing that operas can and should be done in very different ways?' Some of these ways are good, some are dreadful. I try to concentrate on those landmark productions which offered something genuinely new and interesting - a way of looking at Wagner that is new, yet which comes from within Wagner." According to Moss's article, Carnegy's love of Wagner's work, like many other Wagnerians, began with a visit to Bayreuth (in 1967) where he was “bowled over” by Wieland Wagner's radical new Bayreuth style with its use of lighting as propounded by Adolphe Appia in the late 19 th Century. Moss also notes that “Carnegy does not attempt to minimise Wagner's anti-semitism, but argues that his music dramas transcend the overtly anti-semitic essays in which he outlined his theories. ‘In the end, the art, and especially the music, redeems some of the dross and the manure that goes into the making of it. Any attempt to write off Wagner as nothing but the expression of an absolutely monstrous view of human nature and humankind is totally mistaken.'” Moss again attempts to demonstrate a superior knowledge of the true situation by asserting: “The argument is not entirely convincing. Wagner's anti-semitism did find its way on to the stage in the characterisation of Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger and the Nibelungs in the Ring. The art cannot be wholly divorced from the theorising.” While the latter comment is valid in a general aesthetic sense – and Carnegy's earlier comment recognises the relation between manure and flowers – Moss's assertion that Beckmesser and the Nibelungs are anti-Semitic characterisations is still the subject of intense debate among honest and thoughtful Wagnerians. Moss again reveals his hand as a petit agent provocateur. According to Moss, Carnegy's book contains a detailed account of the changing styles of Wagner production, which most Wagnerians would know is intimately entwined with the development of theatrical theory and practice for the last 150 years. For this analysis alone, Carnegy's book would seem to be essential reading for any Wagnerian. Moss, however, points out that Carnegy “identifies no landmarks over the past two decades, perhaps because directors now face a double bind, political as well as aesthetic. Wagner's works, the Ring in particular, are enmeshed in arguments over their association with Hitlerism and anti-semitism. ‘Modern productions have got a bit lost,' says Carnegy. ‘The overwhelming guilt about Wagner, and the question of whether it's OK to like him, has become a very big thing that people are trying to grapple with on the stage through postmodern takes on it. There is an unease before the vastness of what the Ring is and what it can mean.'" Sadly, there is much truth in Carnegy's comment, but equally sadly it is people like Moss who perpetuate stereotypes and misunderstandings about the relationship between Wagner and later history that contribute disproportionately to the “unease” of directors and audiences in responding to the “vastness of what the Ring is”. Moss attempts to balance the Wagner-Hitler equation a little by acknowledging that “Wagner can't be blamed for the Third Reich” but then undercuts the comment by adding in poor language “even if he did supply the mood music” – supply suggests that Wagner was somehow contracted “avant la lettre” by the Nazis. Moss continues: “But after Hitler, Wagner productions - in Europe , at least - could never be entirely ‘guilt free'". He quotes Carnegy's response: "The politics we have to cope with today is simply the fact that Hitler existed, loved Wagner to bits, was there at Bayreuth , and there are all the photographs to prove it. Modern productions have to find ways around that." While that point may be true for the previous and current and perhaps next generations of directors who are closely connected with European history, it is not an historically immutable given. Productions of, for example, the Ring Cycle, in other parts of the world, such as the Kirov's and Adelaide's 2004 productions and, from written reports at least, the 2006 and 2007 Bangkok productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walkure , suggest that it is possible for a director to extract him or herself with integrity and imagination from this alleged European impasse. The Editor suggests that you do not bother with the review, but read the book as it promises to be informative and stimulating. However, the full review can be read at the Guardian's website http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329816247-99941,00.html . Carnegy has also written Faust As Musician; A Study of Thomas Mann's Novel Doctor Faustus (published by New Directions). The Editor would be delighted to publish your review or comments on the book . [Editor June 2007]
|