Post by debPost by g***@gmail.comhttp://thegreenmanreview.com/graphic-literature-3/roy-thomas-and-gil-kanes-richard-wagners-the-ring-of-the-nibelung/
It does suffer in translation, doesn't it? But music is the most directly
emotional of all the arts, and pictures can only do so much, engaging with
eyes alone. At one point, back in the '80s, when a fantasy writer produced a
novelization of Mozart's 'The Magic Flute,' Mike's agent suggested he give
the Ring of the Nibelungen the same treatment; he wisely, though regretfully,
turned it down.
No, Deb, Mike was right, I think. You can indeed tell the Wagner
version of The Ring of the Nibelung/Twilight of the Gods in prose
again, but without the music it is at its very best only half the
story. The story on its own, as Wagner rewrote it (composed it) is a
strange one, with a lot of plot twists that are not logical, or even
unbelievable, whatever you look at, but they make sense in combination
with the music he wrote for it.
The music Wagner wrote for his Ring, how beautiful it is on its own
right (think of some arrangements and recordings which were made in the
past of The Ring Without Words), only make sense in combination with
those strange librettos he wrote.
In short: without the music, the four operas of the Ring are a set of
strange and illogical stories; without the words to it, the music is
beautiful, but rather meaningless – but combined you have an
experience, that you will likely never forget, how awful the staging
is. And that is quite another tale!
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Met vriendelijke groet,
Cheers,
Herman van der Woude