Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 4 Siegfried

O P E R A N O T E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O 32 | November 3 - 16, 2018 Game of Thrones aficionados might recall from the passionate scene between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen that ended the most recent season of the blockbuster cable series. Of course, Brünnhilde knows she is Siegfried’s aunt and doesn’t care. (Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons, doesn’t realize this inconvenient truth – at least not yet). Perhaps the best-known music of Act Three is the lulling passage sung by Brünnhilde that forms the central theme of Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll.” As the onetime Valkyrie contemplates her new life as a mortal woman, the music turns more introspective and intimate, a welcome change of pace from the scene’s romantic tension. For all his boyish charm and courage, Siegfried never really sees the big picture. He tells Brünnhilde, “My mind fails to grasp far-off things.” Siegfried can come across as limited or even, dare we say, ignorant. Götterdämmerung , the Ring ’s final opera, will show this heroic lad is not the master of all situations (John Culshaw, who produced the first complete recording of the Ring cycle in 1958-65, said of him, “Wisdom is not, and never will be among his attributes”). Whatever his faults, the confident and joyously happy Siegfried closes his eponymous opera wearing a beautiful, shining new musical mantle. Wagner’s 12 years away from the Ring truly paid major dividends. Richard Rothschild of Oak Park has written about opera for more than 30 years, including during a 21-year stint at the Chicago Tribune . Siegfried at Lyric, 2004/05 season: John Treleaven in the title role with David Cangelosi as Mime. . DAN REST Modern Match - Sieg fried Despite the centuries that separate the two, Wagner turned to ancient folktales as source material for his Ring cycle. Today, if the contemporary success of writer Neil Gaiman is any indication, we’re still gripped by mythology. Gaiman borrows from folktales, recontextualizing characters, symbols, and tropes in his fiction – Stardust, American Gods – and in Norse Mythology . In the introduction to this last work, Gaiman explains his lifelong love of myths, saying, “It was the fact that the world and the story ends, and the way that it ends and is reborn, that made the gods and the frost giants and the rest of them tragic heroes, tragic villains. Ragnarok made the Norse world linger for me, seem strangely present and current.” That sentiment surely would have been meaningful for Richard Wagner, who, despite using ancient source material, viewed his Ring cycle as revolutionary. His retelling of the myths was a way to reflect his understanding of his own place in culture. His conceptualization of Wotan, for example, differs from the classical character from which he is derived, and differs from Gaiman’s interpretation, Mr. Wednesday. While all these characters assume the form of a wanderer, and all are missing one eye, Siegfried ’s Wotan (a.k.a. The Wanderer) expresses frustration with Valhalla, hoping to cede power to a new race of men. Gaiman’s Wednesday, however, is quite the opposite; seeking to reinstate the gods’ power, he’s wary of the perceived human worship of media and technology. One could speculate that these different iterations of the same character reflect contemporary fears and consciousness. But there is another important question we must ask. Why, when we have Gaiman’s and Marvel’s and so many other retellings of these myths, do we still care so much about the Ring cycle? Though we’ve left behind so many of Wagner’s political and social ideas, his artistic work still looms large in the canon. Gaiman also has an answer for this in Norse Mythology: “That’s the joy of myths. The fun comes in telling them yourself – something I warmly encourage you to do, you person reading this.” Each time the Ring is presented, the potential is there for audiences to discover new lessons and ancient truths that resonate as much today as they did centuries ago. Lyric is attempting, then, to reclaim traditional theatricality from high-tech modern-world productions and allow audiences to experience the beauty of themusic alongside all the richness of a new Lyric production. As Siegfried grows from naive boy to culture hero, audiences can recall their own path to maturity and perhaps (we hope) the progression of society as well. In this way, Lyric does more than merely polish an old work. Through reimagining, the company repossesses the Ring cycle, creating a mythology that belongs to everyone. In the end, I believe we tell and retell these myths out of a deep-rooted need to understand our own culture through storytelling. That is what keeps Siegfried returning to stages, keeps Gaiman retelling his stories, and keeps our collective mythologies alive. - Meg Huskin The writer, an intern in Lyric’s marketing and communications department last spring, is currently the relationship marketing associate at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (Right) Eric Owens as Wagner's Wotan; (left) Ian McShane as novelist Neil Gaiman's character Mr. Wednesday. TODD ROSENBERG