Wagnerian opera

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani reads the Ring from its middle: the second act of Siegfried, where Wagner broke off composition for twelve years. From there he recapitulates and anticipates the whole work, which he organises around the rule that only one who renounces love can seize the gold. He makes Wotan the true hero of the tetralogy and links his desire for "the end" to the death drive in Freud1. He also addresses Wagner's antisemitism and his relationship with Nietzsche. He gives detailed listening advice, stresses sound recording and voices, and criticises stagings that run counter to the music2. Later he returns to Siegfried and Parsifal to study hesitation, spellbound by hearing or by sight, and the move to decision3. On Parsifal, he follows Julien Gracq against Nietzsche: he sees in it an "infernal" quest rather than pious sentimentality, and connects it to the Hegelian reading of the Fall, in which the hand that wounds is the one that heals4.

1. 19 #15 Comment des sciences de l'histoire peuvent-elles être réelles?18 Feb 2021
2. 2Wagner et ses interprètes, L'accès à Clouscard, Marx = Thésée? • Q&A Philosophique • Pagani31 Mar 2021
3. 3L’hésitation fascinée par l’ouÏe et par la vue : Siegfried et Perceval12 Dec 2022
4. 4La quête du Graal, bondieuserie ou sacrilège ?1 Apr 2024

Introduction produced automatically from the 4 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.