Upcoming Lectures by George Hastings
Richard Wagner and the Evolution of Consciousness
Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Friday, January 13, 7:30 pm
North Carolina Branch of the Anthroposophical Society
Oak Lodge at Camp New Hope and Conference Center www.newhopeccc.org/
Google Map
Timetables of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in Relation to Mayan Predictions for 2012
Washington D.C., Sunday, January 15, 7:30 p.m.
Washington Branch of the Anthroposophical Society
Washington Waldorf School
4800 Sangamore Road
Bethesda, MD 20816
www.washingtonwaldorf.org
Timetables of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in Relation to Mayan Predictions for 2012
Washington D.C., Wednesday, January 18, 7:00 pm.
Washington National Wagner Society
Tenley Branch Library, 4450 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington DC
For directions: http://dclibrary.org/tenley
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Outstanding Ring Cycle Website
Paul Heiss has recently completed a 1,000 page book, The Wound that Will Never Heal, on Wagner’s Ring cycle. Who, you might ask, is going to read 1,000 pages on anything these days, especially about Wagner’s philosophical beliefs and how The Ring reflects them? Actually, Mr. Heiss’ work is very readable, and it’s available on the internet:
According to the author none of the other tens of thousands of books and articles on The Ring even tried to unify the entire story, with one exception. (That author died without completing his book.) It took Paul Heiss 38 years to write this one, and he is alive and well.
The book is not just a great resource for the serious student of psychology and/or Wagner, it has a place for the person who just wants to know more about the subject. The text is color coded to simplify who said what. He follows the libretto chronologically and every time one of the 178 leitmotivs (repeating musical themes used to evoke a connection to a character or situation) is used you can click to see a few bars of the melody and hear a one-instrument musical interlude from this. It’s a great way to get familiar with the operas.
I am very selective about what books I read about Wagner; there is a great deal of Wagner trivia out there. I haven’t yet read all 1,000 pages of The Wound that Will Never Heal, but I’m working on it and have learned a great deal from it already.
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Upcoming North American Wagner Productions
Gotterdammerung, New York Metropolitan Opera
Jan 27, Jan 31, Feb 3, Feb 7, Feb 11
Live Simulcasts of New York Metropolitan Opera productions held at Local Theaters
Gotterdammerung
Feb 11, 2012 12 noon, eastern time.
Altered settings
There is a great deal going on in the world of Wagner. However, this website focuses on the esoteric aspects of The Ring and Parsival operas; it does not attempt to cover other aspects of Wagner. For those who are interested I recommend checking out the websites of the various Wagner Societies around the country to see what they have going on. A good place to start is the Wagner Society of New York http://www.wagnersocietyny.org. They have the web addresses of all the societies world wide. You may want to join your local Wagner Society, or, when traveling, visit an activity sponsored by an out of town society.
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Kindle
The Kindle version of Richard Wagner, Rudolf Steiner & Allegories of the Ring is now available for $7.99. See order page.
The Ring on Video
If you want to see The Ring on video, I recommend The New York Metropolitan Opera production starring Siegfried Jerusalem as Siegfried and Hildegard Behrens as Brunnhilde. They are terrific, and the production is true to Wagner’s wishes. It is available through the New York Metropolitan Opera store as well as other traditional video outlets.
Das Rhinegold Live Simulcast
My wife and I attended the New York Met Opera simulcast of Das Rhinegold in the fall of 2010. We enjoyed it, with reservations. It might be the perfect opera for those who delight in modern set designs and special effects but for my taste the special effects distracted from the true essence of the opera as Wagner intended.
We saw it at Teatro Diana in Guadalajara, Mexico. There was a good turnout, with some of those in the audience dressed to the hilt and a few in blue jeans. The applause and enthusiasm rivaled what would be found at a live performance. As expected, the cast and music were superb. Overall the entire Saturday afternoon production was very enjoyable and worthwhile.
Allegories of the Ring 
Comments on: "What’s Happening" (1)
Hey, I’m glad you liked my piece on the San Francisco production of The Ring!
A few nights ago I caught Donald Runnicles’s production of “Das Rheingold” in Berlin – Deutsche Oper is kicking off a reprieve of their “Time Tunnel” production they’ve been running since the 90s. I’d been in Berlin for two months and caught it my last night in town, which was a perfect way to end my visit, considering I’d seen him conducting “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung” just before I left San Francisco.
It was interesting how similar the “Time Tunnel” production was in many respects to the new Zambello production. In particular the Nibelheims appeared separated at birth. The Berlin productions Nibelungen were truly creepy.