On Wagner

Wotan und der freie Wille

Sir Peter Jonas, Steffen Huck — DIE ZEIT, 2020

Wotan needs a free hero. The social sciences need free will.

Though This Be Madness

Ilias Chrissochoidis, Heike Harmgart, Steffen Huck, Wieland Müller — Music & Letters, 2014

Tannhäuser’s outburst is calculated. By derailing the contest he forces the only path to redemption. Apparent frenzy masks design.

Counting the cost

Steffen Huck — The Spectator, 2013

A boundary crossed. Love traded for power. Alberich's bargain resurfaces in Albuquerque.

Meltdown in Valhalla

Steffen Huck — The Spectator, 2012

The Ring opens in debt. Valhalla leveraged, Alberich capitalized, contagion imminent. A financial crisis precedes the apocalypse.

Walhall droht die Zahlungsunfähigkeit

Steffen Huck — Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2012

Another take on the financial crisis in the Ring. This time in German.

Elsa’s Reason

Ilias Chrissochoidis, Steffen Huck — Cambridge Opera Journal, 2011

Elsa does not ask out of emotional weakness. She must believe in Lohengrin’s belief in her innocence. The tragedy is epistemological.

The Miracle as a Randomization Device

Heike Harmgart, Steffen Huck, Wieland Müller — Economics Letters, 2007

Absolution cannot be certain and cannot be impossible. Optimal deterrence is stochastic. The miracle enforces it.