One-hour Wagner Ring in San Diego

I have been preparing all week for the upcoming San Diego Symphony concerts on Friday and Saturday, November 10 and 11. The concerts are at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park and begin at 7:30 pm.

I have been preparing because these are once-in-a-lifetime concerts. Before you accuse me of hyperbole, consider the featured piece which is The Ring Without Words arranged by Lorin Maazel. This is Richard Wagner’s titanic 15-hour Ring Cycle boiled down to just over an hour.

Even though I’m something of a Wagnerian, I’ve only seen one of The Ring operas live. That would be Götterdämmerung at LA Opera. There just isn’t a lot of Ring activity in SoCal.

A chance to kind of hear the entire thing is once in a San Diego lifetime. As a true Wagnerian I will, at some point, travel to a Ring. I’m looking at the concert version being produced by The Dallas Symphony in October 2024.

So, in preparation for this monumental concert, I have been re-listening to The Ring except for Das Rheingold. No disrespect but I don’t need to hear that one again unless it’s live.

As I listened to Act III of Die Walküre the final scene between Brünnhilde and her father Wotan struck me. In Act II, Brünnhilde tries to shield the hero Siegmund from his fate as decreed by Wotan. As punishment for this betrayal, Wotan will strip Brünnhilde of her godhead and she will become a mortal woman. He will place her in a defenseless sleep and any man who finds her will be her master.

Brünnhilde pleads with her father to shelter her sleep with horrors so only a hero can awaken her. Brünnhilde is a Valkyrie. She thunders down from Valhalla on her steed Grane to gather the souls of slain heroes. She doesn’t want some basic-bitch of a man to be her mortal companion. She wants and deserves a hero.

Wotan grants Brünnhilde‘s request and summons Loge to surround the sleeping Valkyrie in unquenchable fire. Now a hero must climb the mountain and walk through the flames to win Brünnhilde.

There’s a couple things going on here. This scene, taken from ancient Nordic legends, is a testament to our longing for a heroic partner. Brünnhilde would rather sleep for all eternity than be subservient to Brian from HR. However, and this is very important, Brünnhilde is worth it. She is worth climbing the mountain and braving the flames. 

This is why we are often counseled, by relationship gurus, to become the kind of person we want to attract. The hero isn’t going to climb that mountain and walk through fire for Karen of Starbucks fame.

Another aspect at play here is “the heroic.” I’m not aware of any opportunities to climb a mountain and pass through unquenchable fire to find a soul mate. Heroism is not dependent on an epic scale. Heroism is a matter of context. If we look for it, we can find the heroic choice in almost any situation.

I think anyone who goes to The Ring Without Words concert might just be worthy of the title.