Around the “Ring”: A History
1813
Richard Wagner wills himself into existence.
1853–1857
Steams through the composition of Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, and the first two acts of Siegfried before hitting a wall. It’ll be seven years before he picks it up again, and 25 years altogether before he’s done.
1876
Wagner opens the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth with the first complete “Ring.” Critic Eduard Hanslick writes: “Who could endure four consecutive evenings of this exaltation?”
1883
Wagner dies, and his wife, Cosima, takes over the Bayreuth Festival. Viking horns, paste-on beards, and ropy wigs become the standard getups.
1889
The “Ring” arrives at the Met, abridged to suit the American attention span.
1906
Cosima retires, and son Siegfried takes charge. His namesake kills freely, and falls for a Valkyrie; the real Siegfried avoids contradicting his mother and is gay (but marries anyway).
1930
Siegfried dies, leaving his wife, Winifred, to run Bayreuth. She happily Nazifies the festival and cultivates Hitler, whom her children call “Uncle Wolfie.”
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(Photo: Nat Farbman/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) |
1941
The tenor Max Lorenz is a great Siegfried—and is bisexual, with a Jewish wife. Given a choice of sending him to the death camps or letting him sing at Bayreuth, Hitler chooses the latter.
1945
Wagner’s legacy is tarnished, his theater ruined, and Winifred is in disgrace. Bayreuth falls silent …
1951
… until her son Wieland Wagner rebuilds, opening the house with a highly abstract production bathed in Rothko-esque colored light.
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(Photo: Erich Auerbach/Getty Images) |
1966
Wieland dies. His younger brother Wolfgang will run Bayreuth for the next 42 years.
1976
In Bayreuth, the director Patrice Chéreau offers a “Ring” that opens not on the timeless Rhine but at a hydroelectric dam.
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(Photo: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera) |
1989
Otto Schenk’s production at the Met, with prop rocks and Day-Glo rainbow set, is so visually hidebound that it’s practically avant-garde.
2008
Wolfgang Wagner retires, leaving the family legacy to relatives who never sat on Hitler’s lap.
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