I Waited for the Fat Lady to Sing: Der Ring des Nibelungen
No one asked, but I reviewed it for you anyway. And, did Yogi Berra really say this famous quote?
The Challenge
That’s right, I found myself another “Train Challenge” and that was to watch the opera on which Yogi Berra’s (more on this later) famous line is based on. The name of the opera is Der Ring des Nibelungen. I have done no research on this opera other than to find the name of the opera. I will summarize the various acts (it runs 2.5 hours on a German television special), and then I will compare it to what really happens, and then rate the opera in terms of various factors that I will decide because this is my blog.
The Opera Itself
Act I
There is an old man who is obsessed with gold, and there are three “gods” who seem to be protecting it.
Act II
A woman, who I think is married to one of the characters the opera calls a “giant” is held for ransom in order for the giants to gain access to the gold in act I.
In this act, there is a great monologue on the importance of women and how they should be respected (if I understood my translation correctly).
Act III
Perhaps the most coveted part of the treasure is a ring (hence the name of the play) and one of the anti-gods succeeds in wresting it away from Alberich and now must deal with the consequences of that. The women/faries return. I missed a lot of this because the production skipped ahead in the script. There are only a few minutes left so the fat lady must sing soon (though none of the actresses are particularly obese).
Accuracy Check
Ok, so I have read the Wikipedia article on the opera, and I would say I groked about 35-50% of the plot. Not bad for mostly listening in German and trying to follow along in terrible English (honestly, it might have been better to just focus on the German, that’s how bad the English translation I had was).
Other Thoughts, Realizations, and Takeaways
I’m surprisingly able to stay in sync with the play despite my manual subtitles (though at the end of the second act they edited out a bunch of the opera, I guess in order to make it fit for TV). I kind of wish the subtitles were in normal English as parsing the very dense English means that sometimes I don’t have a clue what is being said. If someone can tell me what “Much palters the meed” means in plain English, I would be forever grateful.
It is quite impressive that the actors are able to remember their lines and sing them in line with the music from the opera. These are not musicals, where there are refrains and some normal banter. Everything is sung.
One thing I don’t understand is the opera’s set. The set looks like a train station, but I don’t understand how that relates to a fairy-based world. There is a fountain in the middle of the set as well, but for most of the opera it just seems to get in the way. I think it might also get in the way of acting, as it isn’t clear from how the characters act what is going on, which should be possible outside of the dialogue (like I can follow a Shakespeare play even if I don’t understand all of the old English).
Listening to the opera also got me thinking (though I haven’t researched it) how the American musical is a response to the opera. The musical embodies many more American “ideals” such as speed, efficiency (a musical refrain with various riffs simplifies the composition of the songs), and marketability (you can resell songs on records, CDs, etc). Still in my mind, both are a little strange in that we don’t normally communicate through song, but if I had to take my pick, I would choose a musical.
Reading more about this series of operas, it would seem that I watched the first part of the trilogy four-part opera, and the fat lady at the end is at the end of all of them! But I am here for my readers! I hope to seek out an opera with subtitles (this is too hard to follow with the translated script in impossible English) and then watch the rest of them (Wikipedia says the whole series runs 15 hours so it might be a while before I report back again, just watching this on the train ride home took more about a month when you subtract the time I wasn’t on the train because of the Israel-Iran war).
Do I think Yogi Berra watched all 15 hours of this opera? It would be funny if he did, but if he didn’t, I would like to know how he knew about the phenomenon of the fat lady. Quick research shows he was of Italian descent, which makes it unlikely he knew enough German to follow the opera. Now, even more research on the saying (really only mentioned on the Yogi Berra Wiki page and not the Wiki page for this saying) says that Yogi Berra never said it at all! Oh well, I still learned a lot.
Even if you can’t understand, there are still ways to appreciate art. Did I learn anything during this multi-day marathon of opera-watching (I was interrupted for a few weeks because of the Iran war)? Yes, a little German (Frucht = fruit), and an appreciation for people who commit their lives to the arts (and then share it with us on YouTube).
So far I would give the performance 3.5 stars. Still like 10 hours for it to redeem itself, lol.
For those interested: Der Ring des Nibelungen on YouTube