{"id":761,"date":"2013-09-07T12:45:42","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T12:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/2013\/09\/whats_inside_wagners_head.html"},"modified":"2013-09-07T12:45:42","modified_gmt":"2013-09-07T12:45:42","slug":"whats_inside_wagners_head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2013\/09\/whats_inside_wagners_head.html","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s Inside Wagner&#8217;s Head?"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n<!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-font-charset:78;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-font-charset:78;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:Cambria;\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n{mso-style-unhide:no;\nmso-style-qformat:yes;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nmargin:0cm;\nmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n{mso-style-type:export-only;\nmso-default-props:yes;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;\nmso-ansi-language:EN-US;}\n@page WordSection1\n{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;\nmargin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;\nmso-header-margin:36.0pt;\nmso-footer-margin:36.0pt;\nmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n{page:WordSection1;}\n-->\n<\/style>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">There have been some ups and some downs among the events of<br \/>\nthis Wagner bicentenary year. There was the reportedly naff new Ring at<br \/>\nBayreuth &#8211; so bad, some of the press said, that the German state must now think<br \/>\nagain about its support for the Wagner family management of the Festival. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>But there<br \/>\nhave been some high points, too. Daniel Barenboim was lauded to the skies for<br \/>\nhis conducting of the concert performance of all four operas at this summer&#8217;s<br \/>\nProms; and what I heard of it on the radio was magnificent.<span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>I&#8217;ve already written here about the triumph<br \/>\nof the staged Ring at Longborough. Now Simon Callow&#8217;s one-man show, &#8220;Inside<br \/>\nWagner&#8217;s Head&#8221; at the Linbury Theatre in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is a masterpiece of a<br \/>\ndifferent order. <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<style>\n<!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-font-charset:78;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:Cambria;\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n{mso-style-unhide:no;\nmso-style-qformat:yes;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nmargin:0cm;\nmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n{mso-style-type:export-only;\nmso-default-props:yes;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;\nmso-ansi-language:EN-US;}\n@page WordSection1\n{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;\nmargin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;\nmso-header-margin:36.0pt;\nmso-footer-margin:36.0pt;\nmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n{page:WordSection1;}\n--><\/style>\n<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<style>\n<!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-font-charset:78;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:Cambria;\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n{mso-style-unhide:no;\nmso-style-qformat:yes;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nmargin:0cm;\nmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n{mso-style-type:export-only;\nmso-default-props:yes;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;\nmso-ansi-language:EN-US;}\n@page WordSection1\n{size:595.0pt 842.0pt;\nmargin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;\nmso-header-margin:35.4pt;\nmso-footer-margin:35.4pt;\nmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n{page:WordSection1;}\n-->\n<\/style>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">With a stage-full of props, an anvil, birdcages, a piano,<br \/>\nstacks of books, a pair of Valkyrie horns, swathes of velvet, and the help of<br \/>\nimaginative projections and snatches of music, Callow delivers a monologue <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style:normal\">in propria persona<\/i>, sometimes reading<br \/>\nWagner&#8217;s words, but always referring to him in the third person. He never<br \/>\ntransforms himself into Wagner, except to assume what might be an appropriate<br \/>\nfacial expression or posture for a few seconds while quoting the composer&#8217;s<br \/>\nessays or letters &#8211; and so he maintains a critical aesthetic and psychological<br \/>\ndistance from his subject, while narrating, chronologically over the 100<br \/>\nminutes of the performance, the biography of the greatest composer of the 19<sup>th<\/sup><br \/>\ncentury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Not only<br \/>\ndoes Callow make gripping sense of Wagner&#8217;s career, he also shows, movingly,<br \/>\nthe highs and lows of it, and makes the audience realise, for example, the<br \/>\nreversal of Wagner&#8217;s fate when the boy Ludwig took the throne of Bavaria &#8211; how<br \/>\nlittle Wagner expected such patronage, how startled he was by it, and how much<br \/>\nhe felt the inherent contradiction of his position as a <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style:\nnormal\">soi-disant <\/i>revolutionary financially supported by a monarch. I was<br \/>\na little surprised, but very impressed, that Callow resisted the temptation to<br \/>\ntell us about Wagner&#8217;s weaknesses of the flesh, particularly his fetish for the<br \/>\nfeminine underwear he ordered to be made for his own use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>It&#8217;s the<br \/>\nsheer intelligence of this piece that impressed me most. Callow is immersed in<br \/>\nWagner scholarship; he knows all there is to know at present about his clay-footed<br \/>\nhero, and a great deal about Nietzsche and especially Schopenhauer, when he was<br \/>\nhead of Wagner&#8217;s reading list. He is also musical, and able to indicate the<br \/>\nimportance of <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style:normal\">Tristan<\/i> and <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style:normal\">Parsifal<\/i> for the history of music<br \/>\nwithout labouring or stretching the point. The only shortcoming, I&#8217;d say, in<br \/>\nhis entire script is that he doesn&#8217;t quite make clear how this self-taught<br \/>\ncomposer learned to write music in the first place, let alone change its<br \/>\nhistory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Callow&#8217;s<br \/>\ngreatest virtue in this magnificent piece is that there is no elephant in the<br \/>\nroom: he starts by saying that Wagner is both a genius and a flawed human<br \/>\nbeing. Anti-Semitism is mentioned in the first couple of minutes, and Callow<br \/>\nhas a very interesting view about why Wagner latched onto the Jews as the target<br \/>\nof his vile temper and nastiest feelings. It was because Jews were &#8220;the other&#8221;<br \/>\n(a familiar notion), not-German, despite their easy assimilation into German<br \/>\nand European culture; and because they were so successful &#8211; just look at<br \/>\nMendelsohn and Meyerbeer. Envy? Yes, but worse: look at how kind Meyerbeer had<br \/>\nbeen to Wagner. A particularly egregious case of biting the hand that fed him,<br \/>\nbehaviour he was to repeat again and again. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Simon<br \/>\nCallow&#8217;s performance is astonishing. He has done something very similar for<br \/>\nDickens, and his control of his eyes, mouth and body language is as complete as<br \/>\nhis memory is capacious. Still more striking, though, is this great actor&#8217;s<br \/>\nintellect. This is a thought-through critique of this greatest of composers; it<br \/>\nnot only tells you about his life, loves and work, but also explains, as far is<br \/>\nthis is possible, what Wagner&#8217;s appeal is to his audience. This is great<br \/>\ntheatre, too. Wagner-heads (I admit to being one) will relish every reference<br \/>\nto the music, but for novices, even Wagner-virgins, &#8220;Inside Wagner&#8217;s Head&#8221; is a<br \/>\nsublime introduction to this intellectually messy subject.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There have been some ups and some downs among the events of this Wagner bicentenary year. There was the reportedly naff new Ring at Bayreuth &#8211; so bad, some of the press said, that the German state must now think again about its support for the Wagner family management of the Festival. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-ch","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}