
Wagner and Wiener
On May 22, we mark the bicentenary of the birth of Richard
Wagner, the noted German composer.
Note that we said "mark," and not "celebrate." He died 130 years
ago, but his anti-Semitism make him controversial still, and his music, although
performed frequently and to acclaim, is not without its detractors. The
nineteenth century American humor writer Edgar Wilson Nye famously said that
Wagner's music is "actually better than it sounds."
Wager is perhaps best known for the Ring Cycle, four operas
based on the Germanic legends of Siegfried and the ring of the Niebelungs. This
legend became a bit better known this past year when it was cited in Quentin
Tarantino's latest film, Django Unchained.
In 1904, a mock operetta called The Merry Niebelungs was staged
in Vienna, in a production that featured a dachshund as the dragon slain by
Siegfired.
And in the spirit of our theory that everything is connected with dachshunds
if you just work hard enough at establishing that connection, here's a YouTube
video we found that features a dachshund "singing" along to the theme Wagner
wrote for Siegfried's sword.
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