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<p align="center">Der Ring der Nibelungen</p>
            <em>Der Ring des Nibelungen</em> (<em>The Ring of the Nibelung</em>) is a cycle of four brobdingnagian operas (one being a prelude) written by the German composer Richard Wagner. Wagner wrote the opera over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. Wagner’s <em>Ring</em> tells a concupiscent story about the conflict in a human’s soul.  The Ring primarily portrays humanity’s lust and greed for money and power: the root of all humanity’s evil (Fisher29). Wagner was outraged by society’s political, social, and economic values and <em>The Ring</em> represented his sapient solution for the world’s ills, a vision in which the world of evil would become redeemed through love (Fisher “Ring of the Nibelung” 9). This opera should be preserved in the time capsule because the opera art form is the sum of many artistic expressions; this opera is a sublime fusion of words and music that is integrated with all the theatrical arts that can reach into the depths of the human soul.<!--more-->

<em>The Ring</em> is a well thought out, intricately detailed, emotional rollercoaster ride through the human psyche. It takes us through all of man’s major emotions.  Love…lust…betrayal…greed….desire… etc. etc. Wagner based this opera off of German and Norse myths that ultimately represented universal human themes. <em>The Ring</em> starts off with a wasteland that is dominated by water. This portrays the beginning of creation with the water being the primal element from which life evolved (Fisher “Ring of the Nibelung” 35).This tetralogy revolves around a ring that wields ultimate power and wealth. Fisher states that “In the sagas, three villainous forces, Gods, Giants, and Dwarfs, are locked in eternal combat, rivals striving for mastery over the others and ultimately world domination. The Gods, Giants, and Dwarfs are decadent and corrupt, and in <em>The Ring</em>, they are symbolic representation of classes within Wagner’s 19th century contemporary society.”

            Around the time Wagner wrote this opera, Europe’s industrial revolution and the political unrest following the French revolution helped nurture a viciously competitive struggle for the political and economic power of the region. The old way of obtaining power through inherited title and property came up against new forces that allowed people to benefit from the industrial-capitalist system. In the industrial-capitalist system, an individual could become quite wealthy from their investments or owning’s and through that obtains a political position. Through these means, persons of power and influence came to be that otherwise would not have received the chance.  It was the beginning and end of era, the beginning of an era where anyone could obtain power and prestige, and the end of an era where one obtained power and prestige through their birthright (Fisher6).

During this time Wagner became consumed with the concept of nationalism as well the utopian dreams for social and political progress. Unfortunately, the new political powers of these times were just as corrupt as the old ones. Making promises of freedom, only to take those same freedoms away. Wagner became skeptical of the democratic process, of the unfulfilled promises and disappointed with the new political powers, that he reacted with much skepticism and despair, ultimately leading him to become and active and impetuous revolutionary. The final nail in the coffin that pushed Wagner over the edge into outright revolt against the political powers happened in 1851 while he in exile in Zurich.  Louis Napoleon (nephew to Napoleon Bonaparte) became the elected President of France.  Who came to power on the promises of liberty and democracy, only to turn around and create a dictatorship; He became Napoleon III, the totalitarian dictator of the Second Empire (Fisher4).

Wagner’s pessimism and skepticism coincided with the same ideas of the Romantic Movement in art, literature, and music. Romanticism represented a pessimistic backlash against the optimistic 18th century Enlightenment and the Age of Reason (Fisher8). Romanticists had a wistful yearning for the past and sought ways to represent the vanished glories; writers such as Sir Walter Scott, and Victor Hugo provided tributes to values of heroism and virtue that seemed to have vanished in their own industrial age. Wagner expressed his synonymous ideas through each act of <em>The Ring</em>. Wagner’s opera appealed to the masses by ultimately making people realize that the spiritual path to God and salvation was achieved through human love and freedom.

Wagner used leitmotifs in his opera. Leitmotifs are fairly simple musical phrases that describe certain ideologies, characters, objects or thoughts in that piece of work. Using the tempo of the music helped listeners to create a combined emotional response to relay a particular psychological insight (Fisher21). Operas at the time were commonplace for the masses, because of the added leisure time gained from the Industrial Revolution. Some of the other popular composers of this time were: Carl Maria von Webe, Giuseppe Verdi, and Gaetano Donizetti (Opera).  Wagner kept with the same style and composition of German composers of the 19th century which used classical music and the less sophisticated romanticisms.  All the while, he included an underlining tone to his works expressing his passions, views, and hatred which mirrored the majority of the peoples.

While Wagner was creating operatic works that dramatize the legends and mythology of Nordic and Germanic culture (Opera), others such as: Franz Shubert and Hugo Wolf’s works were firmly rooted in the Classical opera form. Franz Shubert and Hugo Wolf’s pieces were somewhat the same as Wagner’s because their motivic accompaniments contrapuntally interacted with the vocal parts (Fisher22). The Ring is different from Shubert and Wolf’s work because Wagner was striving for a new music drama style with the ideal of “sung drama”. He wanted his opera to be a perfect expression of “speech-song” or Sprechgesang that would become balanced with the orchestral accompaniment. Wagner’s fusion and skillful harmonic interweaving and variation of leitmotifs convey powerful emotions; he ingeniously achieved the full embodiment of the leitmotif technique in <em>The Ring</em> (Fisher 22).

There were very many important political figures of the time at the very first public performance of <em>The Ring of the Nibelung. </em> Those present included: The Emperor of Germany; Emperor of Brazil; the people of France, England, and America had sent musicians and litterateurs to view this opera; these were some major figures to impress. The auditorium was filled with an audience that was more representative and critical than had ever been brought together before. With sixteen or seventeen hundred attendees to the first performance, the ONLY complaint they had was about the heat and lack of ventilation in the auditorium. The persons that portrayed the characters were thought to have somewhat lackluster voices but had outstanding acting skills. The orchestra was thought to be beautifully written and magnificent (New York Times, 1876).

Although Richard Wagner's Ring is undoubtedly the peak of musical romanticism, and by many praised as the greatest work of art ever produced, many critics today do not have the same thoughts of people in the 19<sup>th</sup> century concerning <em>The Ring</em>. The modern takes on <em>The </em><em>Ring </em>are not adding up to the original version. For Will Robert Lepage’s version, which is the most recent version of the opera,<em> </em>Alex Ross went on to declare that “pound for pound, ton for ton, it is the most witless and wasteful production in modern operatic history.” Anthony Tommasini, in the Times, called it “the most frustrating opera production I have ever had to grapple with” (Ross). There are many other bad reviews such as these. I account for any differences on how <em>The Ring</em> was viewed today and then by believing it to be the production of the work. Nobody can seem to live up to Richard Wagner’s genius.

Not having seen <em>The Ring of the Nibelung</em>, I can’t really say what I think about the production. However, I can tell how I feel about the story behind the production. I would love to see Robert Lepage’s version of <em>The Ring</em>.  Not knowing anything about music or operas, I’m sure I would enjoy it because of the story. The story sounds intriguing because of the moral lesson it is conveying and because of the use of mythology. I like how Wagner’s mythological creatures portray the people’s values of the 19<sup>th</sup> century. I believe Wagner hit the nail on the head when speaking of people’s values and beliefs. The majority of people of the 19<sup>th</sup> century, and throughout time, seemed to be very narcissistic. Wagner’s production, I believe was trying to get people to understand that their frame of thought was biased and unfair. People need to think of everyone, not only themselves.

<em>Star Wars</em> is a very well-known production that can be compared to<em> The Ring</em>. The similarities between the two are not only the characters but of the music as well. Richard Wagner perfected leitmotivs used in <em>The Ring</em>; they can be heard all throughout the opera, <em>Star Wars</em> creators, George Lucas and John Williams, use leitmotivs as well.  The leitmotivs are used to identify the person, place, things, and ideas of the productions. Both pieces of work also had similar timelines; both were times of past with characters that represented new and old conflicts, societies and environment, and new and old hopes (Evenson). There is conflict between power and love and familial conflict between father and son which is the conflict of life and death, and there is also the conflict between father and daughter which is a conflict of will.  The works have a central symbol of power. <em>Star Wars</em> symbol is the “death star” and <em>The Ring’s </em>being “the ring forged out of the Rhinegold” both wielding the ultimate power (Evenson).

 Being as there are many similarities between <em>Star Wars </em>and <em>The Ring</em>, there are actually not that many differences other than the obvious. Those being the difference of both being set in completely different locations and epochs and completely different characters, but, the characters seem to have the same attributes. In <em>Star Wars</em>, the power seems to come from within oneself, and in <em>The Ring</em>, the power source comes from an outside force. <em>Star Wars</em> was close to being the same length of time as <em>The Ring</em>, while <em>The Ring </em>rang in at fifteen hours and had to been seen in four nights, <em>Star Wars</em> was only 13 hours long. The time in creating the productions was different as well. It took Wagner twenty-six years to complete his work and it took Lucas twenty-eight years for his work to be complete. Even though the music was similar in both works, it was also different. Wagner had a symphonic opera background whereas Lucas had more of a symphonic film. As said before, there are more similarities between the two pieces of work than differences (Evenson).

Future generations should be aware that egotistical beliefs are still prevalent today. The main point of <em>The Ring</em> was to reprimand the people of the 19<sup>th</sup> century for their vain ways. People need to be made aware of their thoughtlessness and vainglorious actions. Future generations should be aware that regardless of the era this piece of work was written so well that even one hundred and so many years later, the story still rings true of our current people’s self-absorption and will ring true for many generations to come. This opera is one that every child should be aware of to prevent future egotistical ways. To forget the past is to repeat the past.

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<p align="center">Works cited:</p>
Fisher, Burton D. Exploring Wagner's The Ring Of The Nibelung : Der Ring Des Nibelungen. n.p.: Opera Journeys, 2002. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 2 Nov. 2012.

http://ehis.ebscohost.com.lsproxy.austincc.edu/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/nlebk_72589_AN?sid=299cd252-708e-4562-87f1-ecc012f94bb1@sessionmgr12&amp;vid=1.

“This eBook was the main book I went to for information about <em>The Ring</em>. It has information about the music in the opera, the story development of the opera, the historical references, and information about Wagner.”

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Wagner, Richard, and Burton D. Fisher. Wagner's The Ring Of The Nibelung. n.p.: Opera Journeys, 2002. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 2 Nov. 2012.

“This eBook was an additional book I used for information about <em>The Ring.</em> It is a simplified format of the opera.”

http://ehis.ebscohost.com.lsproxy.austincc.edu/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/nlebk_65926_AN?sid=7e6ba862-a2d3-4f7b-8255-50d7bad29bf7@sessionmgr13&amp;vid=1&amp;lpid=lp_7.

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Special, Correspondent. “PROLOGUE TO THE TRILOGY.” Editorial. PROLOGUE TO THE TRILOGY [Bayreuth] 1876: 1-2. PROLOGUE TO THE TRILOGY. The Wagnerian, 06 Oct. 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2012.

&lt;http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archivefree/pdf?res=9502E3DB123AE63BBC4F51DFBE66838D669FDE&gt;.

“This is a copy of an old letter written to NY Times about the first night <em>The Ring</em> opened in Bayreuth, Bavaria. I used this letter to see what the reaction to <em>The Ring</em> was in the 19<sup>th</sup> century.”

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"Introduction to Opera." Introduction to Opera. OPERA America, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2012.

&lt;http://www.operaamerica.org/content/education/learningCenter/intro.aspx&gt;.

“This website has a brief history of composers. I used it to learn about some of the composers.”

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Evenson, Kristian. "The Star Wars Series and Wagner's RingStructural, Thematic and Musical Connections." Star Wars and Wagner's Ring. Richard Wagner Website, 11 Sept. 2004. Web. 04 Nov. 2012.

&lt;http://www.trell.org/wagner/starwars.html&gt;.

“I used this website to compare <em>The Ring</em> and <em>Star Wars</em>. This website has a large amount of info. about both.”

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Ross, Alex. "Encircling the "Ring"" The New Yorker. Conde Nast, 7 May 2012. Web. 03 Nov. 2012.

&lt;http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/05/the-met-ring-cycle-critics.html&gt;.

“This is a website I found that has critics opinions of Wagner’s work. I used it to tell how the opera is being perceived in our time.”