Tolstoy and Levin

Earlham's community chorus gave a concert of Opera Choruses on Saturday night. During the dress rehearsal that afternoon, while rehearsing the pieces from Lohengrin and Tannhauser, the orchestra conductor made a reference to Wagner: "We're going to ignore Wagner's dynamic here. But he was a jerk so that's OK." People in the chorus laughed. Generally, amateur classical musicians love laughing at classical music jokes. Whether they really know them (how many people in the choir were aware that Wagner was an unfriendly chap?) is not evident. 

I didn't know that Wagner was a pain, but apparently he was quite unpleasant. This is too bad, as it (for me) taints, slightly, the otherwise glorious power of music like this prelude to Act III of Lohengrin before the wedding march (on stage, the brass vibrated through our bodies). 

At any rate, sometimes we have to overcome the unpleasantness of an artist in order to enjoy the art. Or at least we have to let their unpleasantness exist side by side with the creativity. 

How grand, then, to find out that Levin, my favorite character in Anna Karenina, was one into which Tolstoy put much of himself and his own experience. I like Levin's debates with himself about faith, about class, and about the joys and sufferings of life and death. He does not pretend, as many of his comrades in the Russian nobility do, to know everything about everything. He readily acknowledges (to himself) when a conversation about philosophy has gone beyond his understanding. But he also acknowledges his own thoughts as legitimate and true for him. 

In this essay, Levin is discussed as someone who is uncomfortable with his degree of luck and happiness. He's aware that his life is really, really good (he's privileged the way affluent white people are) and that he's done little to deserve it. Part of his lifelong struggle is to figure out how he should be paying back this gift of grace. He wants to run his farm in the most amiable fashion possible. 

This page discusses some of the parallels between Tolstoy and Levin. Here's one snatch: 

Tolstoy

The writing of the final scenes of the novel, specifically Levin's fevered search for an answer to his questions about the meaning of existence, reflect Tolstoy's own process of religious conversion, enacted dramatically in his memoir, A Confession, which was written on the heels of Anna Karenina and is considered by many to be one of the most soul-searching statements of spirituality.

I'm looking forward to receiving, through inter-library loan, this documentary about Tolstoy's life, which will surely reveal some more of the underside of his character, because, like all the characters in Anna Karenina, he wasn't all good or all bad. Indeed, one of the things I reflect on with the most profound awe after reading this book is how successfully and compellingly complex the characters are. I am sympathetic to everyone, and angry with everyone. It's true! Everyone! Kitty, Levin (even Levin), Vronsky, Anna, Oblonsky, Nicolai, Dolly (Yes, I suppose I'm annoyed with Dolly for staying with Oblonsky, but then I'm also glad she did, for her sake).