Athena Sings: Wagner and the Greeks

121 Pages·2003·4.13 MB·English

by  M. Owen Lee

ATHENA SINGS:
WAGNER AND THE GREEKS
Richard Wagner's knowledge of and passion for Greek drama was so
profound that for Friedrich Nietzsche, Wagner was Aeschylus come
alive again. Surprisingly little has been written about the pervasive
influence of classical Greece on the quintessentially German master.
In this elegant and masterfully argued book, renowned opera critic
Father Owen Lee describes for the contemporary reader what it might
have been like to witness a dramatic performance of Aeschylus in the
theatre of Dionysus in Athens in the fifth century B.C. - something
that Wagner himself undertook to do on several occasions, imagining
a performance of The Oresteia in his mind, reading it aloud to his
friends, providing his own commentary, and relating the Greek clas-
sic drama to his own romantic view.
Father Lee also uses Wagner's writings on Greece and entries from
his wife's diaries to cast new light on Tristan und Isolde, Die Meister-
singer, Parsifal, and especially the mighty Ring cycle, where Wagner
made extensive use of Greek elements to give structural unity and
dramatic credibility to his Nordic and Germanic myths. No opera fan,
argues Father Lee, can really understand Wagner saving Brimhilde
without knowing the Athena who, in Greek drama, first brought jus-
tice to Athens.
Written with a clarity and depth of knowledge that have character-
ized all Father Lee's books on the classics of Greece and Rome and
made his six other volumes on opera bestsellers, Athena Sings traces
the profound influence - an influence few music lovers are aware of -
that Greek theatre and culture had on the most German of composers
and his revolutionary musical dramas.
FATHER M. OWEN LEE, csB, is a Catholic priest and professor emeritus
of Classics at St Michael's College, University of Toronto. He has been
a commentator for the Texaco Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
for many years, and is the author of a number of books on opera,
including A Season of Opera: From Orpheus to Ariadne (UTP 1998) and
Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art (UTP 1999).
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ATHENA SINGS
Wagner and the Greeks
M. OWEN LEE
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2003
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-8795-7 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8020-8580-6 (paper)
(S)
Printed on acid-free paper
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Lee, M. Owen, 1930-
Athena sings : Wagner and the Greeks / M. Owen Lee.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-8795-7 (bound). ISBN 0-8020-8580-6 (pbk.)
1. Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883 - Criticism and interpretation.
2. Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883 - Knowledge - Greek drama.
I. Title
ML410.W13L48 2003 782.1'092 C2003-902153-X
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to
its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
for
Emmet Robbins
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CONTENTS
Preface
ix
ONE
Athena Sings
3
TWO
Intermission
45
THREE
Briinnhilde Sings
53
Notes
89
Bibliography
103
Index
107
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PREFACE
This volume expands a lecture I first gave to the Toronto
Wagner Society in 1984 and subsequently to the Alumni
of St Michael's College in Toronto and to the Wagner
Society of Southern California. Its subject, the influence
of ancient Greece on the work of Richard Wagner, is one
which, despite its importance, was long neglected in
Wagner studies outside of Germany. In 1976 the classicist
Hugh Lloyd-Jones could find only a single treatment of
the theme in English, a pioneering but 'not wholly ade-
quate' 1919 Columbia University dissertation by Pearl
C. Wilson. And he searched in vain through the many
volumes on Wagner by Ernest Newman for any indica-
tion that the most influential English authority on Wag-
ner regarded the subject as of any importance at all.
Several treatments in English on Wagner and the
Greeks have since then made their way into print. This
is, I believe, the first that attempts to reach an audience
that knows more about Wagner than it does about the
Greeks. In my first chapter, I try to convey to the Greek-
less reader what it might have been like to witness a per-
formance of Aeschylus in Athens in the fifth century BC.
It was something Wagner himself undertook to do on
several occasions, imagining a performance of the Orest-
eia in his mind, or reading its three parts to friends and
providing his own commentary. I have chosen, like Wag-