Do you know the Nibelungen Legend?

[Zebra]

Maybe names like Gernot and Giselher?
Or Brunhilde?

Or Siegfried?

 

[Zebra]

Maybe names like Gernot and Giselher?
Or Brunhilde?

Or Siegfried?

I know the beginning in Middle High German ….

Uns ist in alten mären
Wunders vil geseit …..

 

[Zebra]

Siegfried killed a dragon,
and was later killed by Hagen.

Kriemhild then married Attila, the Hun.
And planned to kill all the Nibelungen.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

Maybe names like Gernot and Giselher?
Or Brunhilde?

Or Siegfried?

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I sat through part of one of the productions and just didn't get it. I just don't find Wagner at all fascinating. I sat through Tristan and Isolde and was bored.

It's not even a German thing. The music of Carl Orff, a Bavarian, thrills me endlessly.

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[OhPleaseJustQuit]

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For me, it might be language. I have no background in German language. All of my study has been in romance languages with a smattering of Japanese, Arabic, Farsi and Turkish.

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[OhPleaseJustQuit]

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I just reread your original post, and realized that you may just be talking about the legend, and not necessarily the opera, but I think most Americans who know of it, do so from exposure to the opera productions.

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[Zebra]

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For me, it might be language. I have no background in German language. All of my study has been in romance languages with a smattering of Japanese, Arabic, Farsi and Turkish.

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I read the story as a child, in modern German.
As an adult also in Middle High German = Mittelhochdeutsch

 

[Zebra]

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I just reread your original post, and realized that you may just be talking about the legend, and not necessarily the opera, but I think most Americans who know of it, do so from exposure to the opera productions.

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So it is!
Not the opera, but the Nibelungenlied, written around the year 1200, a great work of epic art.

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

So it is!
Not the opera, but the Nibelungenlied, written around the year 1200, a great work of epic art.

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That would be interesting, I think. Does it involve a serious commitment of time? The word "epic" to me tends to mean "lengthy".

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[Zebra]

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That would be interesting, I think. Does it involve a serious commitment of time? The word "epic" to me tends to mean "lengthy".

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It is long, if you read the original.
But I am sure there are also many short versions!
And in modern English.

 

[Zebra]

I think the original tale by an anonymous writer is a greater work of art than the opera by Wagner!

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

I think the original tale by an anonymous writer is a greater work of art than the opera by Wagner!

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I can accept that. I think the original poetry from which Orff's "Carmina Burana" was set to music would be quite the work of art.

Also, I'm far more interested in the works of Shakespeare than I am in the operas derived from them.

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[zaangalewa]

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I can accept that. I think the original poetry from which Orff's "Carmina Burana" was set to music would be quite the work of art.

Also, I'm far more interested in the works of Shakespeare than I am in the operas derived from them.

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But the original concept of the "Song of the Nibelungs" was indeed a form of music. Melody unknown. This is not so in case of Shakespeare. So an opera is perhaps a better way "to feel" the orginal in case of the "Song of the Nibelungs" - even if it is modern music.