Remember Wotan?

No? Remember Anna Russell? No? Remember Veronica Lake? Aha, perhaps a glimmer of recognition? Remember Bryn Terfel? Well, then. Anna Russell was a standup commedienne in the 1960's and onward. She had very good vocal training, but one day she accidentally discovered she could make people laugh and that became her act. She set up to explain the entire 4 opera series of Richard Wagner called Der Ring Des Niebelungen. At the very beginning, she says "The Opera opens in the Rhine River. IN it." It seems there is a hoard of gold there, which if one appropriated it, made a magic ring of it and renounced Love, he could rule the world. Since the dwarf Alberich was even then being mocked by the Rhinemaidens he thought his chances for love were non-existent and he may as well rule the world. Meanwhile, the head god, named Wotan after whom the Germans named Wednesday, had engaged some giant brothers to build a auitable mansion for his family and decided the way to pay them was to trick Alberich out of his gold. Alberich being a sore loser, put a curse on the ring that anyone who had it would surely die. The giants quarrel over the ring and one (Fafner)slays his brother (Fasolt) so we all know "The curse is working" But, as a defensive measure Wotan, to whom marriage vows are a big handicap, makes it with Erda, the goddess of Earth, who presents him with 9 daughters, called the Vakyries, and put them to work gathering up dead heroes to guard Valhalla.
Veronica Lake was a movie actress of the 1940's who wore a "peekaboo" hairdo with one curled wave covering one eye. Remember Wotan? Well, to woo Erda, he plucked out an eye (Funny what will impress the ladies) Current publicity pictures show the current Wotan, played by a fine Welsh baritone named Bryn Terfel, with one eye covered by a curl in his wig. It looked better with Veronica Lake; However, Terfel sings a lot better.
So how does it all end? A woman scorned brings it all down. Wotan's (Remember Wotan?)Favorite daughter is so offended by the betrayel of the great hero Siegfried that she deals with the bad baritones to kill him. Right away shs is sorry and makes a huge funeral pyre for him, Valhalla catches fire and burns up those rather dense gods, the Rhine floods and the Rhinemaidens retrieve the ring, and we are right back where we started 20 hours ago.
So we might say that in some unexpected way, the power of love wins over the power of gold. It might be deeply depressing, were it not for the joys of German cuisine not only on the days between operas, but even at intermissions between acts. One just has to plan ahead a little and order ahead for those entracts. Or the very original creations of "That German girl that Charles married" are almost alone worth the price of the trip. Guten Appetit!!

"Do you know Art?"

"Art Who?""Artesian" "Oh yes, I know Artesian Well"
I would like to offer, that at the new DeYoung Museum of San Francisco, it apparently can be a statue depicting the head of Jesus on a dressed ready-for-the-prom body of Aphrodite; diverting, but slightly startling. In another room, people in a painting looked unexceptional until one read the title "John Brown on his way from courtroom to gallows." Depending on ones poltics, the emotions roused by a work of art can vary from "He got what he deserved" to "He gave his life for a worthy principle." Saturday, from the Metropolitan Opera we got the pathetic end of the lovers in Sir Walter Scott's novel. Lucia. And soon we get to thrill to Emerson's "Here the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world." Those colonies were apparently so small that the noise carried all the way to New Hampshire, according to the fact-challenged republican congressperson from Minnesota.
Of course, art is not just paintings: Shakespeare did wonders with words"Antony, ket me have aro9und me men who are fat, sleek-headed men and such who sleep anight. Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look. Such men are dangerous."
But this writer really loves the art of music. Yesterday, we got a dozen or so people to hear J.S.Bach's B-minor Mass. The mind just keeps repeating that finale. There is just one word "Amen" for 5 minutes or so,a choir singing in four parts. totally stunning.