I just recently learned that Wagners Ring Cycle was what tolkien based lord of the rings on. Looks really good. Opera really gets on my nerves sometimes though because the acting ability of the singers can be atrocious and when it is i believe it ruins the whole thing. Opera is supposed to be about a multimedia experience with art/poetry/song/music/acting/dance and all sorts
it is really good...if yer don't mind sitting in the opera house for three nights running lotsa peeps do an abridged version on stage tho'.....worth it just for Ride of the Valkyrie
Four nights actually. And it's really worth it, seeing the full thing. If you don't like the acting, listen to it on CD. You can follow along with the booklet and just let your mind imagine the action. Wagner lets you do that, his imagery is very vivid.
Actually, "The Lord of the Rings" wasn't so much based on Wagner as on the same Northern European mythology. Actually, Tolkien said of Wagner's Ring, ""Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." I do enjoy both of them, though. Although, not so much Wagner's ring as some of his other operas. The Grateful Dead cancelled several of their 20th anniversary concerts to see The Ring Cycle at the San Francisco Opera. Apparently, they were great fans.
Tolkien was a bit stubborn, admittedly. Both rings were cursed, gave enormous power and caused all to strive for them. It did not really feel like the ring was as central to Wagner's work as it was to LOTR, it was just part of the plot and it was important in a literal sense to what happens, whereas in LOTR it was important symbolically and at the centre of the events through most of the book.
I had to write an essay on Wagner as part of my study of 19th Century music, I didn't know anything by him except Valkyries and the wedding march but he really was a fascinating guy. He practically invented the techniques used by modern film score composers as well as completely reinventing opera - in fact he didn't like to call his works operas, he preferred the term "music drama". Unfortunately he was also a massive racist, but hey.
Der Ring des Nibelungen was my first Opera. Got it as a birthday present from my father. Although I love that one, I'm not big on Wagnerian opera. I think my two favorites are Il Trovatore and Don Giovanni. How metal is it when you're so evil that a statue comes to life and drags you down to hell? Best scene in stage entertainment. -BlkBks
I dreamed I wrote a libretto called "The Terrorist." It was about the relationship between Jesus and Judas, and the politics of the time. In the dream, Philip Glass wrote the score.
Nowadays the singers are expected to act. I'm studying opera in school and we have to take at least four semesters of acting classes. Maybe 50 years ago the singers were bad actors, but that doesn't fly in the industry these days.
