Essay about The Opera Siegfried

Submitted By fercha90
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Romanticism was a movement in music, literature and art that began in the Western Europe during the 17th century until the 18th century. Romanticism focused on the emotions of the people over thought. This movement arose against the Enlightenment (also know as Age of Reason) which promoted the idea that every person should have freedom of speech, the right to decide what to think and how to act and that people should be free of government abuse, especially from the upper class and the church. The ideas of the Enlightenmet led to the French revolution, which was the main responsible along with the Industrial Revolution for the developed of the Romantic Movement. As Romanticism reached its height, poets, musicians and writers alike explored some major ideas about Romanticism such as freedom, supernatural, and their relationship with God and themselves. I went to the Opera Siegfried at the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday. This opera is the third of the four Operas from Der Ring des Nibelunguen from a great Romantic composer named Richard Wagner. During the developed of the story I noticed that Wagner in his Opera features some characteristics of Romanticism such as nature awe, Individualim: the Byronic Hero, the supernatural, imagination, and the emotions, feelings and strong senses.

In the story, Siegfried is a character that is developed as the son of a dwarf. He has a destiny of owning a powerful ring and he can only accomplish it by slaying a dragon down. He finds out that the dwarf Mine is not his biological father. He gets a sword, heads to the cave in the forest and kills the dragon. He then acquires the power treasure. A bird warns him of Mime, the dwarf, whom he kills after the dwarf offers him a portion. The bird then tells him of a girl who Siegfried goes to find and they fall in love. • •
An important feature of Romanticism present in the Opera Siegfried is Nature. As we studied Romanticism, we said that nature awe refers to an overwhelming feeling of admiration, fear, amazement or astonishment brought by the view of spectacular nature. This elements are present in the Opera Siegfried. In the story, we get a picture of Siegfried’s home,where he live with his adoptive father dwarf Mine. They live in a cave which is situated in the forest. This puts a picture in the mind of the viewer that spurs a feeling of fear. Also as Siegfried and the dwarf Mine head to the dragon’s cave, very early in the morning, Siegfried gets lost in the silent and serene beauty of the woods. At this point he thinks of his parents. Siegfried finds nature to be a refuge to meditate about his life. The serene environment brings a feeling of happiness to the opera.The natural images created by features like fire, waterfalls, a rocky mountain top, thicket vegetation, worms and insects provides the viewer a sense of relax and . Finally as Siegfried goes to find the love of his life, he heads high on a mountain. The place where the gods dwell. This environment also triggers a feeling of anxiety in Siegfried. The daylight also breaks as he kisses Brunnhilde. Here nature sparks some feeling of joy, happiness and victory. Finally, when Siegfried falls in love with Brunnhilde, he feels fear, something that he had never felt before. Nature helped Siegfried find his true identity. As we can see, one of the features of Romanticism that Wagner used in his Opera was the association between human being and nature, and the perception that nature has a great impact on human emotions as well as spirituality.

Romanticism promoted the importance of the individual in the person of a hero. Romantic heroes rejected the idea of control over his person and traditional morals. In the story, Siegfried is a clear example of this, he is willing to know what fear means and he would do anything to feel this emotion. Siegfried is depicted as an impetuous character. He asserts that his imaginations and actions are his right and he is not
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