Richard Wagner: Difference between revisions

** ''Siegfried''

** ''Götterdämmerung'' (''Twilight of the Gods'')

* ''Parsifal''

 

 

Wagner was the subject of a 1954 [[Biopic]], ''Magic Fire'', and of ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiDe_HruhlY Wagner]'', a 1983 TV mini-series starring [[The Danza|Richard]] Burton.

 

* ''[[The Ring of the Nibelung|Der Ring Des Nibelungen]]''

* ''[[Tannhaeuser|Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg]]''

 

** This is likely based on the fact that alliteration was the standard verse-form in Germanic poetry.

* [[At the Opera Tonight]]: Wagner's operas are among the favorites for characters to attend, as in the 1931 ''[[Dracula]]'' film (''Meistersinger'') or in Nicholas Meyers' [[Sherlock Holmes]] novel, ''The Seven Per Cent Solution'' (''Siegfried'').

** This is starting to change; his music has been performed in Israel, to a mixed reception. Half the crowd loved it, the other half hated it.

** [[Irony|Ironically]], Theodor Herzl, founder of Zionism and a major figure in the creation of Israel, was a Wagner fan. To the point of using Wagnerian imagery at the First Zionist Congress. Which is really just one of those things...

** In the 2001, Conductor Daniel Barenboim led the Israel Philharmonic in a Wagner concert. A number of the musicians refused to perform, some even showing Barenboim ''Holocaust number tattoos'' on their arms before leaving.

** In 2010, an Israeli orchestra was [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/arts/music/07wagner.html invited to play at the next year's Wagner music festival] -- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/08/wagner-greatgranddaughter-israeli-orchestra-invite never mind].

* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: Wagner's own descendants (including those who married into the family) were (and still are) constantly denouncing each other as egomaniacs, charlatans, traitors, perverts, Jewish sympathizers, Nazi sympathizers, Communist sympathizers, and [[Murder Arson and Jaywalking|bad business managers]].

* [[BSOD Song]]: Usually, for some reason, sung by a bass-baritone.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: The combat between Lohengrin and Telramund lasts perhaps two minutes, and is set to rather perfunctory music.

* [[Dreadful Musician]]: Wagner was a horrible pianist, but he said that he played it "a great deal better than Berlioz"—who couldn't play the piano '''''at all'''''.

* [[The Epic]]: ''Parsifal''. All six hours of it.

** ''[[The Ring of the Nibelung|Der Ring Des Nibelungen]]''.

* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: As with Telramund and Klingsor (even in his...er...''condition'', which should have him singing soprano).

** On the other hand, Landgrave Hermann, Henry the Fowler, Hans Sachs, Gurnemanz, and Titurel are all deep-voiced goodies; and on the ''other'' other hand, Ortrud is a mezzosoprano/soprano.

* [[Fanfare]]: Several of Wagner's [[Leitmotif]]s (''e.g.'', Lohengrin's motif) have the character of fanfares; more conventional examples introduce the Overture to ''Rienzi'' and the Festival March from ''Tannhäuser''. At Bayreuth, certain motifs are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQW8oYVMt1U played as fanfares] from the balcony of the ''Festspielhaus'' to announce the beginning of an act.

* [[Faust]]: The subject of an overture by the composer.

* [[Idiot Hero]]: Parsifal, „''der reine Thor''‟ ("the pure fool").

* [[Kill'Em All]]: Wagner started on the path of Everyone Dies early. His boyhood tragedy ''Leubald'' featured twenty-four deaths; by the last act, he had killed off so many that he had to bring some characters back as ghosts.

* [[King Arthur]]: ''Parsifal'' is somewhat loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Arthurian romance ''Parzival''. Wagner's earlier ''Lohengrin'' also tangentially touches the Grail myth. Note that Wagner moves the action from the 5th to the 10th century A.D.

* [[Lady Macbeth]]: Ortrud

** In ''Lohengrin,'' our hero asks Elsa to marry him immediately after arriving in Brabant on a swan-led boat.

** Isolde plans to kill Tristan with a sword, but instead she falls in love with him after viewing his piteous glance.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Wagner makes a big deal out of Parsifal's name being Persian for "pure fool." It isn't, really.

* [[The Middle Ages]]: The setting for most of his music-dramas.

** [[Dark Age Europe]] / [[The Low Middle Ages]]: ''Parsifal, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde''

** [[The High Middle Ages]]: ''Rienzi'' and ''Tannhäuser''

* [[Music of Note]]: Even more famous than the "[[Ride of the Valkyries]]" is the [[Standard Snippet]] „''Treulich geführt''‟ (AKA "Here Comes the Bride") from ''Lohengrin''—but Wagner works are stuffed so full of [[Music of Note]] that it would be easier to list his "American Centennial March" right away.

* [[Nice Hat]]: Besides popularizing winged (and [[Horny Vikings|horned]]) helmets, the composer's own characteristic large, slouched beret (see pic, above) is actually called a ''Wagnerkappe'' in German.

* [[Popcultural Osmosis]]: An astonishing number of Wagnerians have been attracted to his music ''via [[Apocalypse Now]]'' and [[Looney Tunes]] cartoons.

* [[The Power of Love]]: In ''Holländer'' Vanderdecken is saved from eternal maritime damnation by Senta's faithful love; in ''Tannhäuser'', Heinrich is saved from eternal intramontane damnation by Elisabeth's faithful love. On the other hand, in ''Lohengrin'' Elsa's love for the eponymous swan-knight brings causes her to ask the fateful question which drives him away. Though Walther and Eva love each other, of course, it is rather The Power of Art than [[The Power of Love]] that brings about the happy ending in ''Meistersinger''. Tristan and Isolde's love brings destruction upon them. Parsifal actually ''rejects'' the love (if one can call it that) of the Flower Maidens and Kundry to become the hero. Invoked in Wagner's earlier works, this trope is more often [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in his later ones.

** Wagner's greatest spate of Prequelitis came during the crafting of ''Der Ring des Nibelungen.'' Originally, he'd envisioned only a single opera, ''Siegfrieds Tod'' (the Death of Siegfried), but realized while writing it that there was too much back-story he needed to get out of the way, so he began work on a prequel named ''Siegfried''. Then he realized that ''this'' opera also had a large amount of back-story, so he began writing a prequel to it named ''Die Walküre''. Finally, he realized that this, too, had too much back-story the audience needed to know, so he started in on a prequel to it named ''Das Rheingold.'' Decades later, ''Siegfrieds Tod'' had become ''Goetterdämmerung'', and he had a four-opera mega-epic on his hands.

* [[Public Domain Artifact]]: The Grail in ''Lohengrin'' and ''Parsifal''; the Holy Spear in ''Parsifal''. (The Ring (or rather, any of its prototypes) was not a well-known artifact before Wagner.)

* [[Serial Escalation]]: Where Wagner took opera—I mean, ''Bühnenfestspiel''.

* [[Space Jews]]: Klingsor from ''Parsifal'' is generally considered to be one of these. Some would also include the Nibelungs, specifically from Mime, from the Ring, though there's less evidence of that.

* [[Standard Snippet]]: Besides the obvious ''Lohengrin'' wedding and ''Walküre'' bombing examples, storms at sea have very commonly invoked the Overture to ''Der fliegende Holländer''.

* [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]: Senta and The Dutchman die (but go to Heaven); Elisabeth and Heinrich die (and probably go to Heaven); Elsa and Lohengrin are parted forever (until they meet in heaven?); Tristan is mortally wounded, Isolde falls dead onto his body (Liebestod). Falling in love is generally not a good idea in a Wagner opera.

* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]: Hitler loved the music of Wagner (he wasn't his favorite composer, though, contrary to popular misconception - that was Anton Bruckner). He was also, as transmitted through Wagner's English son-in-law, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, one of his favorite racial theorists. Ironically, Hitler's attempts to inculcate Wagnerian obsession into his thuggish followers were ''not'' particularly successful.

* Transvestite: He liked to wear ladies' underwear so much that an entire room in his house was dedicated to storing lingerie.

* [[Ubermensch|Übermensch]]: Nietzsche saw Siegfried (and, indeed, Wagner himself) as the type of the new man who would transcend outworn moralities. Then he and Wagner quarreled, and (on the basis of ''Parsifal'') he accused the composer of being a ''Christian''.

* [[Valkyries]]: It is Wagner's version that most people think of when imagining these mythological "Gatherers of the Slain"—however, it is worth noting that unlike the popular conception, Wagner's original Valkyries did '''not''' wear horned helmets, but winged ones; did '''not''' ride winged horses, though they were aerial ones; and, though intended to be rather manly, ungentle women, were intended to be statuesque in the 19th century manner, rather than grossly obese.

* [[Woman Scorned]]: Kundry's reaction, when Parsifal rejects her allurements, is not understanding.

* [[World of Ham]]: "Wagnerian" has become practically a synonym for this.

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== Animated Film ==

* One of the planned sequences for [[Walt Disney]]'s ''[[Fantasia]]'' was the "[[Ride of the Valkyries]]."

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[The Legend of Koizumi]]'' features a [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|reincarnated cyborg Wagner]] as one of [[Those Wacky Nazis]] whom our heroes battle, complete with [[Calling Your Attacks|attacks]] based on his operas.

* The evil character "Dietrich von Lohengrin" in the anime and manga of ''[[Trinity Blood]]'' presumably derives his surname from Wagner's operatic hero.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'': In which, of course, the ''Walkürenritt'' provides a [[Awesome Music (Sugar Wiki)|Crowning Music of Awesome]] for the "[[Ride of the Valkyries]]".

* The film ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]'' makes use of the Preludes to ''Tristan'' and ''Parsifal'', as well as the Siegfried's Funeral March from ''Götterdämmerung''.

* In [[Woody Allen]]'s film ''[[Manhattan Murder Mystery]]'', his character says: "I can't listen to that much Wagner, ya know? I start to get the urge to conquer Poland."

** Wagner is also mentioned briefly in ''[[Annie Hall]]'', when Alvy is worried that the record store owner was making an anti-Semitic joke by mentioning that he was having a sale on Wagner.

* In ''[[One, Two, Three]]'', the German doctor is a big fan of him and sadly missed the 3rd act of ''Die Walküre / The Valkyrie''.

 

== Literature ==

* In George C. Chesbro's ''The Beasts of Valhalla'', [[Evilutionary Biologist]] Siegmund Loge (ha ha) is a fanatical Wagner fan.

* The main character of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[The Cat Who Walks Through Walls]]'' also admits to cribbing the plot for one of his books from ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''.

* ''Flying Dutch'' by [[Tom Holt]] has the original [[Flying Dutchman]] as the protagonist. It turns out he told his story to Wagner, who never fully recovered and was prone to peals of demented laughter when a specific historical king was mentioned.

* Stephen R. Donaldson's ''The Gap'' series is literally a [[Space Opera]], being an adaptation of the ''Ring'' [[In Space]].

* In Nicholas Meyer's [[Sherlock Holmes]] [[Pastiche]] ''The Seven Per Cent Solution'', Holmes (who adores Wagner), Dr. Watson, and Sigmund Freud all attend a performance of ''Siegfried''; Watson and Freud fall asleep.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* On ''[[Kir Royal]]'', the protagonists use the aliases "Siegfried" and "Wieland", the names of Richard's son and grandson (while posing as the nephews of a Jewish composer, of all things).

* ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]'' makes Claude Erskine-Brown's love of Wagner something of a [[Running Gag]] (and [[Flanderization]], as he started out being just a general opera buff). He even names his kids Tristan and Isolde.

 

== Music ==

* Jim Steinman coined the term "Wagnerian rock" to describe the music he wrote (for an example, listen to any track from the first two ''[[Meat Loaf|Bat Out of Hell]]'' albums).

* [[Grave Digger]]'s ''Rheingold'' a [[Concept Album]] which is based on ''The Ring of the Nibelung''.

 

== Theater ==

* The great Anna Russell hilariously parodied Wagnerian operas in routines like "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7wH-k8LgQ The Ring of the Nibelungs: An Analysis]" [''sic''] and the [[Poirot Speak]]-based "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPhFBE4UGvA Schreechenrauf]."

 

== Video Games ==

* In the ''[[Sam and Max]]'' episode ''The Tomb of Sammun-Mak'', we know that [[Little Miss Badass|little]] [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|Amelia Earhart]] listens to "The Ride of the Valkyries" as a lullaby.

* The [[Action RPG]] ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' is riddled through with Wagnerian references.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Opera]]

[[Category:Composers]]

[[Category:Richard Wagner]]

[[Category:Creator]]