The Ring

This is a protest on the first night of The Ring in Los Angeles. The scraggly group--who could really sing-turned out to be a group of angry music teachers demanding to know why LA County spent $14 million on The Ring, but is cutting music teachers. In addition, they protested, Wagner was pro-Nazi and an Anti Semite.

By the end of the opera on the first night, I thought this was all part of the drama and emotion stirred up by Wagner. Love him or hate him, he touches people in deep, dark places.

Regarding the protesters--at first I thought, Hey, they are right. Music teachers are worth more than The Ring. But then I thought about every public school I know--at least at the elementary level--and they all have to raise their own money to pay teachers. Does anyone still have music teachers in this city? I thought they were cut long ago.

And I know the Nazis loved Wagner. But can an artist be blamed for the actions of evil people who love their work 80 years after their death? That seems a little unfair.

But the Ring itself. Why did we go?

I don't even know. I bought the tickets in a moment of extravagance. They are Jonathan's Christmas present--four nights of opera (18 hours) packed into 8 days. It is the first staging of the Ring ever in Los Angeles. I don't even know Wagner, and from what I heard, I thought I probably wouldn't. But I can never say NO to a once in a lifetime experience. This may never happen again.

Ringheads from all over the world flew in for the performance. Before we went in, while we were sipping cheap champagne from plastic glasses out in front of the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in the sunshine, we met a guy who had flown in from England. This was his 20th Ring. He was giddy with excitement. (England rewards this kind of wacky eccentricity!)

Despite our promises to ourselves to enroll in online courses on Wagner and the Ring we had done no preparation except to read a very detailed synopsis from an old book on Opera that Jonathan had swiped from his grandfather's house after he died.

The British gentleman said The Ring was the greatest opera ever. a total experience. He said his first time did not affect him deeply. The second time left him hooked for life. Several years ago he was listening to the Flight of the Valkyries in his car and he drove into a wall. "It will be transformative," he promised us. "If you get lost, just follow the music."

The staging was magnificent, even from up in the nosebleed section where we were. (On the way down our four flights of stairs on the way out we saw a woman who really did get a nosebleed!)

It is hard to explain the power of the performance, which only grew stronger on night 2. It is not like opera in the traditional sense. It is not gorgeous harmonies or duets. I do not like the singing as much as Mozart or Puccini or Verdi. But the music of the orchestra, the power of the mythical story, the dark philosophical questions that are raised, they get you at your core and seep into you unbeknownst. The evil dancing dwarfs, the agonizing Gods, the guardian mermaids, they are all like a dream.

Jonathan and I both had strange dreams the night after the first performance. I likened it to a Jungian dream. It as if, with his music, Wagner unlocks our unconscious. He wiggles down into the murk and stirs you up in a way that just sneaks up on you. Weird.