Wagner Society in NSW Inc
Review

Report
Program
Keynote speakers
Speakers
Panel Discussion
Final Comments

Panel Discussion

The opening part of the discussion considered developments in production style with Bauer suggesting the Munich production of 1986-1987 signalled the start of a "post-modern" style, which at a recent revival looked 'very dated". Millington commented that there was evident in many more recent productions a backlash against the "regie-led style" with management "encouraging" producers to try and ensure a commercial success. In some cases producers would create the "appearance of radicalism through chic design".

Borchmeyer tackled the thorny question posed by Rieger about the meaning of Rosalie's designs for the immediate past production of The Ring Cycle at Bayreuth. He said that in conversations with Rosalie, she had avowed her desire to be true to the work, while noting that Wagner's symbols have to translated into symbols of our time, using the fundamentals of our society. For example, the huge walls hovering over the action were intended to represent power.

According to Borchmeyer, Rosalie also said that without Nature there is no solution to The Ring Cycle, but any avant garde artist has a problem in portraying Nature. Her solution was to create an artificially formulated Nature, as in the green umbrellas which represented Siegfried's forest.

In response, Deathridge posited that Wagner did not want to translate into, assimilate into, our times - he wanted to criticize them. Borchmeyer countered that Rosalie used artistic material of our times, but was not intending to "interpret" the work in "the spirit of our times". For example, Rosalie had deliberately introduced an archaic element by importing archaic imagery from other cultures.

In reply to a question about Wagner's anti-Semitism, Millington argued that there are representations of it in his works, for example, the music of Mime and Beckmesser is very similar in chordal structure and melody.

Deathridge commented that Wagner's anti-Semitism became a major issue in Wagner studies in the 1970s with the rise of a "neo-morality" which was an "anti-Semitic activity in itself" and part of the "holocaust industry".

Deathridge argued that it was more important to understand that Nazism had shown Wagner's works to be compromised in themselves and we have to work out what that means to us. Because of The Ring Cycle's power to persuade us to a point of view (in Wagner's case a semi-reactionary one) and appeal to conservatives, it is essential to address the rhetorical intention and mechanisms displayed in the work.

Rieger summed our choices as: "Do we succumb, do we rebel and reject, or do we appropriate the work into our own situation and needs?"

Terence Watson - 8 May 1999