While only a few people will be interested in our philosophical podcasts, I hope many will give the operatic ones a try. Here, we discuss Rheingold, the first of the quartet constituting Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle. The first two are MB’s synopsis, which is the most masterful summation I have ever heard. (Note: the background music is annoying, but it goes away after a few minutes.) The third is discussion.
After Thought
hi tim,
just had to add this little link..alas it is for most people the only link to opera they have ever had.
s. hoffmeister
Know of a place where one could listen to or watch Rheingold online? Googlevideo has some short clips. I’m very interested in the philosophy podcasts, please put up some more.
S.E. Hoffmeister, thanks for that link! I actually bought some of those Merry Melodies just so I could show that particular episode to my 5 year old nephew. Unfortunately, that one was not on the DVDs I bought…
Jonathan — get Rheingold either via Blockbuster, or Netflix.
If you are not already a member of either one, and money is an issue, I would recommend the lowest level of Netflix, which is only about five bucks a month.Other productions are also offered by both; the ones I link to are both highly recommended.
Jonathan,
See here for further recommendations on performances of the Ring.
I’m glad that you are interested in the philosophy podcasts. I hope that you will also get interested in the Wagner podcasts and, more importantly, Wagner’s operas themselves. And welcome back, it has been a while since you last commented.
Honoring three or four of the characters on days of the week:
Wednesday = Wotan’s day. Interesting that German has Mittwoch or just prosaic “mid-week”. English has preserved its ancient Germanic roots better than German on this day.
Thursday = Thor’s day. Thor = Donner (German Donnerstag). (Donner = “thunder”)
Friday — either Fricka’s or Freia’s day. Both English and German Freitag would seem to favor Freia based on current pronunciation, but old English was frigedæg which would seem to indicate Fricka as more original.