# Questions for the Master



## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

On Saturday I bought Christian Thielemann's book My Life with Wagner (just before I saw the hi-def cinema version of the Met's Lulu, which was utterly superb). I am clearly goi8ng to enjoy the book a great deal too. 
CT says he would not like to meet Wagner (whom he idolises), for various reasons, but if he did he would ask two questions. 
First, how did someone so musical and so intelligent get it so wrong about Mendelssohn?
Second, why is so much of the first act of Meistersinger scored ff, which is impossible to sing against. 
Excellent questions, conductor's questions. 
What would you ask?


----------



## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

I am not a conductor, so I would ask the Master:


1. Did you support the Revolution of 1848-1849 just to find an audience for your music, 
or you really believed in the renewal of the society through the revolution?

2. Which Wagner wrote the Ring? the supporter of the Dresden revolution
or the Schopenhaurian? 

3. Would you ever read Adorno's "in search of Wagner"?


I am more interested in a combination of artistic and ideological views,
because that was how Wagner saw his compositions.


----------



## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

1. What is the future of Germany and how can we make sure it - and your heritage - survive in the future?

2. What do you think about the "heathen revival", that is about people who worship those deities you made into opera characters as actual deities?

3. What is the meaning of Parsifal? Is it the Christian salvation through chastity, or is it the Freudian liberation through experiencing sexual love?

4.


Richard Wagner - Autobiographic Sketch said:


> For the first time I saw the Rhine-with hot tears in my eyes, I, poor artist, swore eternal fidelity to my German fatherland.


You were only 29 when you wrote that - the same age as I am now. Now, was it only for publicity, or was it for real?

5. How did the king die - if you can possibly know it of course?


----------



## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

clara s said:


> 2. Which Wagner wrote the Ring? the supporter of the Dresden revolution
> or the Schopenhaurian?


Wouldn't the answer be both? The supporter of the Dresden revolution wrote the libretti, but the Schopenhaurian wrote the music (at least to the last two operas). Interesting question, though. One seldom gets to see the development of a work over two decades of a thoughtful artist's life.


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Steatopygous said:


> On Saturday I bought Christian Thielemann's book My Life with Wagner (just before I saw the hi-def cinema version of the Met's Lulu, which was utterly superb). I am clearly goi8ng to enjoy the book a great deal too.
> CT says he would not like to meet Wagner (whom he idolises), for various reasons, but if he did he would ask two questions.
> *First, how did someone so musical and so intelligent get it so wrong about Mendelssohn?*
> Second, why is so much of the first act of Meistersinger scored ff, which is impossible to sing against.
> ...


Knowing Wagner he'd still insist he got it right about Mendelssohn.


----------



## clara s (Jan 6, 2014)

gardibolt said:


> Wouldn't the answer be both? The supporter of the Dresden revolution wrote the libretti, but the Schopenhaurian wrote the music (at least to the last two operas). Interesting question, though. One seldom gets to see the development of a work over two decades of a thoughtful artist's life.


having in mind that Wagner read the World as Will and Representation for the first time in 1854,
while he had written the libretti from 1848 to 1852, and the music from 1853 to 1857 and then stopped
for 12 years and finished the Cycle in 1869, 
yes, it is very interesting to see how the work proceeded through all these years.

Although, he may have not been influenced so much by Schopenhauer, as it is thought he had.

Also, a very intesting point is that he stopped the Ring for 12 years,
because he had an other interest...
Mathilde Wesendonck and he turned to Tristan and Isolde

well...


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

A few answers from the Master (he called me the other night; for those interested, he has a high-pitched voice, like Mime):

_1. Did you support the Revolution of 1848-1849 just to find an audience for your music,
or you really believed in the renewal of the society through the revolution?
_
I believed in everything I said and did, at the time I said and did it.

_2. Which Wagner wrote the Ring? the supporter of the Dresden revolution
or the Schopenhaurian?
_
The second Wagner revised the first Wagner's work when he realized what it really meant.
_
3. Would you ever read Adorno's "in search of Wagner"?_

No. That Modernist _Schwein_ wouldn't know me if he found me.

4. What is the future of Germany and how can we make sure it - and your heritage - survive in the future?[/I]

_Ach!_ The _Volk_ are blockheads, but the alternatives are even worse. Germany is hopeless, but so is everything else. The only decline I didn't foresee is climate change.

_5. What do you think about the "heathen revival", that is about people who worship those deities you made into opera characters as actual deities? 
_
_Sch**sskopfen!_ It's opera (I mean _Musikdrama_)! Last question, please.

_6. What is the meaning of Parsifal? Is it the Christian salvation through chastity, or is it the Freudian liberation through experiencing sexual love?
_
Salvation through _what?!_ But seriously, it was Freud who sought liberation through Wagnerian love (and failed miserably, hence the cigar).


----------



## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

^ Are you sure it was him and not Mendelssohn?


----------

