Who is the true hero of the Ring? – A Case for Siegmund

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE ARCHIVAL RECORDING OF THIS EVENT: https://youtu.be/HOfb9AVwY2s

Emma Popek, PhD, presents this fascinating talk on the eternally unresolved topic – who is the true hero of the Ring of the Nibelung? The talk is based on her detailed studies of the The Ring of the Nibelung, the poem that serves as the libretto for the opera. Words matter in the Ring as much as the music. The words uttered by the key characters Siegmund, Wotan and Brünnhilde coupled with some psychological insights establish a logical basis for a case for Siegmund.

Emma Popek is a retired analytical chemist, environmental technical and quality assurance manager, and author of an internationally-acknowledged textbook on environmental data collection and analysis. She is also a member of the WSNC Board of Directors as well as its Treasurer. In addition to music, she has a lifelong passion is Classical literature and history. In retirement, she applied her analytical skills and the power of deduction to Classics and comparative literature. In 2021, she organized a Zoom conference, Symposium Peregrinum, for international Greco-Roman scholars where she gave a talk titled “A Journey of a Hero—Achilles, Siegmund, and the Choices They Make.” That same year she gave a presentation to the Classical Association of the Pacific Northwest titled “The Intersection of Classics and Late Romanticism—Homer, Ovid, and Richard Wagner”.