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May 17th, 2016 
Awake Goy You’re into seduction, infidelity, betrayal and horror that make the Hitchcock thriller Psycho look tame? If X-rated entertainment is music to your ears then orchestral music may be just what you are looking for.
Enthusiasts of television soaps would eat their hearts out if they knew what we classical fans have been enjoying for the last few hundred years. If I hint at the plot you will understand why we’re still glued to our sets; the theatrical ones that is.
How does violent blood-letting with plenty of incest, deformities, necrophilia (look it up if you must) sound? Yes, a brutish dwarf having his wicked way with a dead maiden and that is not half of it. Dirty bits aplenty, this is none of your soft porn bodice-ripping nonsense; this is Richard Wagner’s The Ring Cycle: four operas in one.
Wotan is the lustful scoundrel of the plot. Although he’s married to Fricka his glad eye settles on his wife’s sister. Wotan’s depraved lust doesn’t stop there; Erda the Earth Goddess, and her illegitimate daughters the Valkyries, aren’t missed in Wotan’s pursuit of steamy lurve.
Siegfried, the hero of the Ring Cycle is the son of an incestuous union between Siegmund and Sieglinde. Let us calm down, this is family reading after all.
You might be forgiven for wondering what kind of man writes opera so hot you have to wear sunglasses to watch it. Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) was by all accounts a bit of a lad. Born in Leipzig, he was one of nine children and fatherless at five months. His music teacher despaired of him and predicted that the ne’er do well would ‘come to nothing’.
A born rebel, young Richard was expelled from the Thomasschule in Leipzig for drinking, gambling, duelling, and chasing skirt. He married the young actress Mina Planer who, although failing to comprehend his self-assured belief in himself, somehow kept the two of them from starving through terrible hardships.
Richard Wagner, a serial womaniser, was finally dismissed from his post in Riga. With his passport confiscated and hounded by creditors he and Mina were smuggled out of the country to end up in Paris. Whilst living in poverty in the French capital he was imprisoned for debt but then came his first success; the opera Rienzi. Interestingly, this opera inspired Adolf Hitler to follow much the same plot ~ of Rienzi not Wagner I hasten to add.
The classical composer’s life was as drama-filled as much of his opera. A political extremist, he was forced to flee to Switzerland when the revolution failed.
Still chasing the ladies, one young woman who was on the receiving end of his affection or lust was Mathilde Wesendonck. Believe it or not, the attractive young woman was the wife of his host. Otto Wesendonck had provided the exile with a cottage sanctuary. Evidently, Richard thought his host’s wife came with the cottage too.
It was Mathilde who inspired his opera, Tristan und Isolde; Something to think about when its Liebestod finale sends you into raptures as Mathilde evidently sent Richard into raptures.
The cuckold husband eventually showed Richard the door. Both Richard and his wife Mina made good their escape. Alas, the long-suffering Mina was betrayed. Her errant husband was to soon afterwards fall in love with Cosima. The unladylike lady was the daughter of the great composer Franz Liszt. The lady also happened to be the wife of the great composer and pianist Hans von Bulow who afterwards forgave them. You still think classical is boring?
Source Article from http://www.renegadetribune.com/musical-notes-richard-wagner/
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