Triangle Wagner Society: Nicholas Vazsonyi, Ph.D

In a recent talk to the Triangle Society, Paula and Ed Bortnichak presented a defense of the controversial “post-structuralist” 2013 Bayreuth Ring production by Frank Castorf, which featured meandering crocodiles, oil rigs in central Asia, and Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. Their defense had two parts. One was that Wagner was also inherently a post-structuralist, a 20^th-century movement that celebrates the breakdown of truth and meaning, and the abandonment of coherence. They then proceeded to undermine their own argument by explaining what the staging meant and how it related coherently to Wagner. During his talk, Nicholas will show that Wagner was the very opposite of a post-structuralist. Wagner certainly understood the “death of God” which set us on the path to post-structuralism and the accompanying self-immolation of the West we witness today. His artistic project is an exploration of that world, our world, in all its seductive beauty and resulting devastation.