For decades the C G Jung Society of Melbourne has enhanced Melbourne audience appreciation and understanding of the great operas by exposing the archetypes, dreams and myths that lurk beneath the music and librettos.  In celebration of Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday the Jung Society is pleased to announce a two-day symposium: ‘Understanding Wagner’s Ring Cycle from a Jungian Perspective’.... or The Ring Backwards! 

 The four operas will be examined individually in the order in which they were written: beginning with Götterdämmerung and Siegfried on Sunday 6th October and finishing with Die Walküre and Das Rheingold a week later on the 13th October. 

Drawing upon his experience of Jungian analysis in London and years of conducting The Ring Cycle in opera houses across Europe,  musicologist Dr David Kram will introduce each opera on a Yamaha grand piano.  Then art therapist, Mary Duffy and Prof Derry Doyle will together examine the development of the storyline.  Expanding on the work of Robert Donington, they will present dynamic and challenging points of view that resonate in 2013.  Wagner used Nordic myths to created a time and place where normally locked-in, suppressed deep emotions could be fully expressed.  Jungian analysis suggests that every archetype personified within the operas lives within each of us individually.  The Ring Cycle would seem to demonstrate that Wagner innately understood that until one has suffered and learned to contain, rather than suppress, one’s darkest self it is impossible to effectively transform the whole of society.  Between them the presenters shall argue conflicting constructs for consideration and discussion; thus freeing participants to reach personal interpretations and conclusions.