Siegfried Wagner
Sonnenflammen

Siegfried Wagner. No, not Richard Wagner's Siegfried, the third part of the famous Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy; I'm talking about the only son of the old Klingsor, as Debussy called him, and Cosima Liszt, reluctant continuator of the "dynasty" and composer himself. Incidentally, Wagner Jr. can boast a sizable corpus, including eighteen operas, all dating back to the first three decades of the 20th century, plus a good amount of lieder, symphonic poems, symphonies, and other orchestral works. Now, it is not my intention to delve into "what made him do it", with that rather inconvenient surname. It is a very interesting and significant story, but I will just emphasize that, among the various Richard Strauss, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alexander Zemlinski, and then Franz Schmidt, Hans Pfitzner, Paul Hindemith; in short, among the composers who marked that very fruitful late-romantic phase of Austro-German opera, between Wagner Sr and the Second Viennese School, Siegfried Wagner adds a voice absolutely worthy of respect and consideration, a voice worth listening to and a unique perspective.

Now, can Siegfried "Fidi" Wagner be considered on the same artistic level as the gentlemen I first mentioned, especially the first three? No, partly because, with his long orchestral preludes and his fairy-tale and/or medieval settings, his style is undoubtedly more conservative, indeed anachronistic in comparison, but it would be completely unfair to relegate this fascinating, misunderstood composer, a figure almost tragic in certain aspects, to the role of a simple footnote. More than the Wagner surname, it was the Wagner family, in the persons of his mother Cosima and above all his infamously known wife Winifred, that concretely relegated Siegfried's musical production to almost total obscurity. Obviously, none of his works has ever been staged in the "temple" of Bayreuth, a fate shared with the "youthful" works of Richard himself; many were staged for the first time several years after composition, always in "provincial" German theaters, some even decades later, posthumously. And, after his death (1930), the performance of his music was literally banned by those who held the "copyright," namely the "wife" Winifred Wagner, known mainly for her intimate friendship with Adolf Hitler, which largely contributed to dragging the family's name and the Bayreuth Festspielhaus through the mud. Consequently, even the music of Richard Wagner's son somehow became Entartete Musik in the years of the Third Reich, following the same fate as that of many of his contemporaries deemed unworthy by the regime. What bitter irony.

Having said that, Sonnenflammen is his eighth opera, composed in 1912, staged in 1918, recorded in full for the first time in 2003 and published by the label CPO, Classic Produktion Osnabrück. Dear readers, allow me a small plug for this record label which, in recent months, has pocketed (and will continue to pocket) a good amount of my money. This label boasts an impressively vast catalog, including all kinds of German opera rarities (and also some Italian, French, and Czech titles), invariably accompanied by booklets filled with analysis and historical insights, as well as the libretto with an English translation on the facing page, particularly indispensable for works like those of the Wagners (Siegfried, just like Richard, was his own librettist). Furthermore, there is also the carefully curated graphic design, stunning in some cases, like this Sonnenflammen.

But what does Siegfried Wagner concretely offer? An excellent melodic vein, first and foremost. Sonnenflammen is a pleasant and immediately impactful opera, easily accessible even to "casual" listeners. And here we come to the big question: how much of Wagner Sr is there in the style expressed here by the son? A lot, without a shadow of a doubt. There's a long, lingering orchestral prelude, there are leitmotifs and Wagnerian torrential monologues, there's also the fact that, like Tristan und Isolde, the Ring, or Parsifal, even in this opera the historical and environmental context is quite vague, an undefined backdrop easily modifiable at the discretion of the stage director. The Byzantium of Sonnenflammen could be any declining nation, in any historical epoch, with characters adaptable accordingly without particular risks of forcing or anachronism. The delicate lied of the vintner that opens the second act, then, immediately brings to mind similar episodes from The Flying Dutchman and Tristan.
But...
I believe one of the reasons Winifred Wagner was so hostile to the "husband's" music lies in the fact that, for those who can read between the lines, it becomes evident that Siegfried, at least in the case of Sonnenflammen, reshaped many Wagnerian style elements to his own image, "corrupting" their ideological purity. Fridolin, the protagonist, is a role for a lyric tenor, not a heldentenor, and this perfectly reflects the complex nature of the character who is anything but a "hero," rather an inadequate man in his assumed role, a disappointment; The parallel with the author himself is more evident than ever. Iris, the heroine, who by contrast is a typical Wagnerian dramatic soprano role, does not return his love precisely because of his nature, so far from the heroic, "virile" ethos, which for her represents the archetype of knightly nobility. Alexios, the basileus, is a sordid, despicable figure, diametrically opposed to the noble, idealized royal figures that so often recur in Wagner Sr’s output. And, speaking of Wagner Sr, many elements of his figure are traceable in the character of Gamella, the court jester and cunning plotter, the main driver of the whole plot, and a character "dangerously" close, in its seemingly caricatured dimension, to Mime and Beckmesser.

Another memorable character is that of the Empress, ideal for a wide and melodious Tebaldian vocality; a tragically misplaced figure in the grotesque, cynical, and amoral universe of Sonnenflammen, with her sincere nobility and humanity. The fact that she is a virtually superfluous character to the plot's unfolding further accentuates these characteristics, but without her, the opera would lose, in addition to some of its most lyrical and poignant moments, a precious "counterbalance" that adds contrast and dramatic depth. An opera that, while fluid and cohesive as is family tradition, boasts an extensive, remarkable range of emotional nuances and atmospheres. From farcical to idyllic to sentimental to grotesque, all the way to the concluding tragedy, total, without hopes of redemption; Sonnenflammen, not so much in music but in content, is a deeply decadent work, perfectly in line with its milieu. And many thematic affinities can be noticed with some of Franz Schreker's later works, especially Die Schatzgraber, Die Gezeichneten, and Irrelohe, also set in vague and remote space-time dimensions, also deeply infused with neurosis, existential crises, and spleen. Now, Schreker had an emotional tension, a more innovative and sharper style more than ever suited to expressing such sensations, but the comparison seems far from far-fetched to me. After all, I reiterate, Siegfried Wagner's music is also "degenerate music," entirely worthy of this honorary title.

I decided to purchase Sonnenflammen driven not only by intellectual curiosity but also by a collector’s spirit, for the sheer pleasure of adding a bizarre rarity to my collection. And I found much more than that; I found a beautiful work that left me profoundly moved and struck, conveying a deep respect and empathy for its composer, a man who, due to a series of circumstances, could not live the life he would have desired freely. Lacking a combative spirit, art was his outlet, in a manner I believe similar to that of E.M. Forster in literature. In Sonnenflammen all this is expressed with a clarity that, once all theatrical trappings are "removed," emerges without any possibility of misunderstanding.