Brush up on your Wagner -- online

So you're thinking of investing $350 to $2,200 per ticket -- or perhaps you already have -- and something on the order of 18 hours to see Los Angeles Opera's four-installments-in-eight-days presentation of Wagner's "Ring" cycle next May and June. (Sorry -- the frugal gourmand option, $100 for a handrail-obstructed nosebleed seat, is sold clean out.)

One way to prepare for the experience might be to take up a $10 offer from Opera America, the national service and support organization for opera companies and opera lovers. From April 6 to June 1, its Online Learning program will offer a course on the "Ring." The prep, with L.A. Opera serving as a partner, consists of eight weekly lectures, plus audio and visuals. The course covers Wagner, his musical techniques, the mythology behind the story and the history of "Ring" productions. There's also an online bulletin board for students to banter and debate.

The teacher is writer-educator Thomas May, a frequent writer of operatic program notes and author of the book "Decoding Wagner: An Invitation to His World of Music Drama."

A Culture Monster note: No word on whether L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has plans to sign up. 

This season's other online opera course, covering Puccini's "La Boheme," convenes Tuesday and continues through Nov. 17, taught by composer John Glover.

-- Mike Boehm

Photo: A scene from "Siegfried" from L.A. Opera's production of Wagner's "Ring" cycle. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Carie Delmar]

I can't help but question the ethics of the LA Times for promoting LA Opera's "Ring" and festival. Mark Swed's sterling reviews of the company's "Ring" cycle have been misleading. Please read Anthony Tommasini's take in The New York Times (Oct. 8) for a more realistic view. And now it is quite evident that the LA Times is promoting the "Ring" performances and festival with free advertising.

But the worst part of all of this is the contemptuous almost slanderous comment made by Mr. Boehm in reference to LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. Supervisor Antonovich deserves much respect for his stand to broaden the festival which honors a genocidal racist.

Antonovich was a high school history teacher before seeking office. He has taught at Cal State LA and Pepperdine and was a member of the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. He has done much to foster the arts for young people at the LA County High School for the Arts. He is an educator and no doubt has no problem with educating people so that they are well-prepared before attending a performance of the "Ring" if the curriculum is objective.

The problem which exists here is that a newspaper has become a publicist for its own gain. Opera America is a major participant in the festival with a national convention planned in LA. All of these enterprises reek of Wagner idolatry and send the wrong message to the public. Wagner's music is banned in Israel. It was used as the soundtrack for the Holocaust. Most of the members of the Wagner family were Nazis. One even ran a concentration camp.

There is something very wrong with this picture. I smell a rat!

[MarK]

My opinion of LA Opera's Sigfried is not very high - it is probably even more negative than Anthony Tommasini's measured criticism of the production. However, calling certain reviews "misleading" just because one disagrees with them is unreasonable and unwise. The truth is, many people did like the production and the critic has the right to his opinion. Calling Richard Wagner "a genocidal racist", on the other hand, is truly misleading and it further undermines legitimacy of anything else Carie Delmar was trying to say.
First, being anti-Semitic can't be considered racist because Jews are not a race. In fact, calling Jews a race may be deemed anti-Semitic in itself. Second, calling Wagner genocidal completely shatters the gravity of that word, since the man never killed anyone in his entire life and never even advocated any kind of mass murder either. He was, to be sure, a basically rotten human being, but there is a very long way from that to being "genocidal". One must use strong words carefully because otherwise they lose all of their power.
The man is not being celebrated. His music is. The man is being studied and discussed. Even Adolf Hitler should be studied and discussed. When we say "never again", we need to know what we are talking about. The reason Wagner's masterpieces deserve to be celebrated is that his compositions occupy a uniquely central place in the history of classical music and western culture in general.