10 - Opera and tragedy

Summary

Something is wrong with Götterdämmerung. Its music jars stylistically with the rest of the Ring and its plot does not seem to follow from Siegfried's optimistic ending. Critics of the Ring's final opera have long noted these discrepancies. Some blame Wagner the artist, others Wagner the philosopher, and still others Wagner the ideologue. To take the three most cogent arguments on this subject: George Bernard Shaw blames Götterdämmerung's shortcomings on Wagner as failed composer, poet, and dramatist; Friedrich Nietzsche thinks Götterdämmerung fails because of Wagner's failed political philosophy; and, more recently, Michael P. Steinberg locates the problem in specific characters in Götterdämmerung and holds Wagner the ideologue responsible for this opera's successful but suspect ideological subtext. It is Steinberg's argument I find most convincing. And while I believe that he is right to critique Götterdämmerung rather than criticize it, as Shaw and Nietzsche do, he neglects to consider the importance of form, especially Greek drama, in this final opera. Moreover, he does not take seriously enough his own interpretation of Götterdämmerung as parody. Thus he misses the essential point that in this apocalyptic opera Wagner is perhaps less interested in creating music drama than music parody.

As suggested by its title – Twilight of the Gods – this final opera in Wagner's Ring cycle focuses more on endings than beginnings, destruction than construction.