>Sure you can read Wagner's politics off the
>surface of the Ring cycle. Not so in hearing much the music,
In Pervert's Guide to Cinema there's a section on Chaplin's Great Dictator. Zizek contrasts two scenes. In the first Chaplin as his Hitler character is dancing with a big inflatable globe and dreaming of taking over the world. Music from Wagner's Lohengrin plays in the background. In the second, Chaplin's Jewish barber, who is mistaken for the Hitler character, is taken to a rally to give a speech. He gives a speech about not wanting to be emperor, not wanting to rule, and how we should all help each other. Zizek points out that not only are the scenes of crowd responses to the dictator's and the barber's speeches the same, but that the Wagner music in the inflatable globe scene is also the background music for the barber's speech. He says this tells us something about the danger of music in general in that it fills a void and that always entails risk.
Here's the barber's speech:
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an Emperor - that’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another; human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there’s room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.”