Prince Charles: My passion for Wagner
OperaThe heir to the throne has been discussing environmental destruction in an hour-long BBC conversation with the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. He’s worried about the trees:
‘I have a passion for Wagner’s music. The Ring Cycle, for me, is something very important. The ash tree in the Ring cycle which eventually dies and causes the terrible destruction.
‘I’ve always felt for a long time that Wagner’s Ring is actually an allegory on man’s arrogance towards the environment and the divine, in many ways. And an interesting object lesson, perhaps, in what happens if you think you can just control everything the way we want to without paying attention to the way the natural world works.’
Prince Charles goes on to talk about his struggles with the cello.
Listen here.
And then, of course, there is the “Karfreitagszauber”-message in Parsifal.
Wagner was ahead of his and our time.
Given the vast extent of Wagner scholarship, I’m sure there must have been some work done on how Wagner came up with “zum Raum wird hier die Zeit” 30 years before Einstein.
I’ve never seen him at Bayreuth.
That’s because many Wagnerites stay away from Green Hill’s lousy, offensive stage designs…thanks, Wieland. If you want Wagner productions that respect the composer’s directions, Bayreuth is not the place to be. Seattle Opera really needs to bring back their “green Ring”. Marvelous production that put Bayreuth to shame.
You have a point writing about some lousy productions, but one should not generalize like that. I have been to Bayreuth twice, for a ring in 2016 and for four operas in 2019. Even with a production that I did not care about, like Tristan in 2019, one still has this unique acoustical phenomenon of the Festspielhaus, making listening to a Wagner opera at that place worthwhile.
So does going to Opera North’s award winning Ring.
Sr.Barceló, Wieland was a genius. It was his little brother Wolfgang who brought the idea of the “Konzept-Theater” to Bayreuth.
Maybe not at Bayreuth, which is not the be end and all end place to hear and see Wagner. I have seen him at Wagner as plain Charles on a private visit at Covent Garden, the Proms, and Scottish Opera. Minimum of fuss made or wanted, and he doesn’t disrupt the audience as our future king with any protocol or royal boxes.
The conjunction of Charles and the Ring cycle somehow brings Mime to mind.
Does it, Paul? What a mind you must have!
Thank you. Flattery is always welcome.
Bird species in Wagner operas would be an interesting discussion.
Meistersinger has the highest diversity, beyond swans and doves.
Finken, Meisen, Elstern, Krähen, Dohlen…
I prefer the Waldvogel in Siegfried. A sort of divine protection…
I sometimes wonder how he managed to develop what we have long known are highly sophisticated musical tastes in that huntin’/fishin’/shootin’/military service family.
The Queen can and does appear to take a lively interest in whatever she attends, from a widget factory to the Royal Variety Performance (her sense of duty is really worthy of every award from the Oscar for Best Actress to the Nobel Peace Prize) but aside from the late Princess Margaret, there was and is precious little evidence of real artistic interest in the family.
Neither of Charles’ sons seems to demonstrate that his interest has been passed on, though I recall childhood photos of them at the piano and both parents played instruments.
A younger King Charles might have been a great influence on cultural life in Britain.
“A younger King Charles might have been a great influence on cultural life in Britain.”
A minefield in the UK. Attend performances and the press accuse you of elitism (and providing further evidence that the genre itself is elitist). Stay away and you’re a philistine.
I do, however, remember him in a documentary highlighting the (literally) Victorian conditions backstage at Covent Garden, before redevelopment started in 1996.
And another potential minefield is that Charles’s regard for Wagner could regenerate and revive the old canard that these Germans hiding in plain sight are not the rightful British royal family, which is not in charge and has not been in charge since 1603. Or was it 1471? The careful maintenance of the alternative lines of British royal succession is an on-going project for some.
“these Germans hiding in plain sight are not the rightful British royal family”
Which is a little strange considering that a significant proportion of the population originated in what is now Germany (and neighbouring areas).
[Which is a little strange considering that a significant proportion of the population originated in what is now Germany (and neighbouring areas).]
Some events have occurred since then that make such distinctions important.
Queen Victoria and Albert, and why we have the Albert Hall.
> “He’s worried about the trees”
Not the first Hanoverian thus concerned.
Triturated Yggdrasil at the appropriate homeopathic dilution is the therapy of choice.
“I talk to the trees, but they don’t listen to me”.
If only I had killed Epstein,
I’d get a banquet with the queen,
We’d speak of horses, dogs and doubles,
Anything but Andrew’s troubles.
Buckingham is built of bones,
The golden carriage that she rides,
Might be with blackened harness drawn,
Upholstered with their blackened hides.
Almost makes me like him!