#160 / The Ring

Wagner's "Ring Cycle" is a musical epic, soon to be performed by the San Francisco Opera. Wagner doesn't really have the best reputation (for some good reasons). As the Wikipedia article on Wagner says, "much heat is generated by Wagner's comments on Jews, which continue to influence the way that his works are regarded, and by the essays he wrote on the nature of race from 1850 onwards, and their putative influence on the antisemitism of Adolf Hitler."

Because I am signed up to see the San Francisco Opera production of The Ring of the Nibelung, I decided to read the story in an English translation by Andrew Porter. In this translation, at least, the story turns out to be rather understandable, and full of philosophy. The main point: greed and desire for wealth and mastery put the World of Nature at risk.

Wagner teaches ecology. Really! Click on the image for a review in the San Francisco Chronicle.