But we do not have any direct statement from Wagner himself to this effect. Again, the only motif (for which we have documentary evidence that) he ever described as a “redemption motif” was #134 [See 878W, where Porges describes how Wagner himself described #134 as the “Redemption Theme”], which most of the evidence suggests he identified with his own art, the music-drama, as heir to religious feeling.
It is hard to say how much stock we should place in Cosima’s record of a remark Wagner made on 9/6/71, to the effect that Siegfried’s and Bruennhilde’s love produced no universal deed of redemption, i.e., no child. He added, significantly, that Twilight of the Gods is therefore the most tragic work of all:
“We talk of the love between Siegfried and Bruennhilde, which achieves no universal deed of redemption, produces no Fidi [Wagner’s and Cosima’s son Siegfried]; Goetterdaemmerung is the most tragic work of all, but before that one sees the great happiness arising from the union of two complete beings.” [807W-{9/6/71} CD Vol. I, p. 410]
The difficulty here is that Wagner may have been speaking merely sentimentally about the birth of his child Fidi (nickname for Siegfried). That Bruennhilde’s and Siegfried’s love produces no actual child has no bearing on whether Wagner felt that their love had redeemed the world, but nonetheless it is interesting that he adds that for this reason Twilight of the Gods is the most tragic work. Of course, in The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Wagner employs the concept of Walther’s and Eva’s child as a metaphor for the redemptive work of art which Eva, Walther’s muse, inspires him to create during a dream, and Sachs even baptizes Walther’s inspired mastersong, as if this child is the product of their union, the union of the Poet-Dramatist with his muse of inspiration, music.
But we have to look beyond the Ring at two of Wagner’s other music-dramas, namely Tristan and Isolde, and his final music-drama Parsifal (which can rightly be regarded as Wagner’s attempt at a resolution of the loose ends left in the finale of the Ring), for further evidence that Siegfried’s and Bruennhilde’s love produces no redemption. First, Wagner regarded the plots of Twilight of the Gods and Tristan and Isolde as identical. In both instances, he said, the hero (Siegfried, Tristan), while under a spell, gives his own true love (Bruennhilde, Isolde) away to another man (Gunther, Marke), and thereby dooms himself to a tragic end [see 811W]
The important point here is that Wagner saw Bruennhilde as conceptually identical to Isolde. This fact lends considerable meaning to Wagner’s following fascinating comparison of Isolde with Kundry from Parsifal:
[P. 910] “When there is mention on the train of the Wagnerites’ preference for ‘T. und I.’ even over ‘Parsifal,’ R. says: “Oh, what do they know? One might say that Kundry already experienced Isolde’s Liebestod a hundred times in her various reincarnations.’ “ [1135W-{9/14/82} CD Vol. II, p. 910]
When we consider the question whether Siegfried’s and Bruennhilde’s love redeems the world, in the light of Wagner’s comment above that Kundry, as the reincarnation of Isolde, experienced
