Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger has always called forth superlatives from those who have fallen under its spell. Toscanini wanted to lay his baton down for the last time only after he had conducted a performance of it. Paderewski called it 'the greatest work of genius ever achieved by any artist in any field of human endeavour.' H.L. Mencken declared, 'It took more skill to plan and write it than it took to plan and write the whole canon of Shakespeare.' And yet Wagner's many-splendoured comedy has come under severe criticism in recent years for what has been called its 'dark underside,' its 'fascist brutality,' and its 'ugly anti-Semitism.' In Wagner and the Wonder of Art, renowned opera expert M. Owen Lee addresses that criticism. He also provides an introduction to the opera and an analysis that will surprise even those veteran operagoers who may not have explored the work's intricate structure and the emotional drama at its centre. The book includes the on-air commentary that Father Lee gave during the first radio broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera after the events of 9/11. He thought it necessary, after attempting to refute the charges leveled against Wagner's opera, to say something about its truthfulness, its life-affirming music, its insight into the madness that can destroy human lives, and its witness to the importance of art for the survival of our civilizations.

Chapitre 6, p. 175-207, consacré à Adolphe Appia.

In addition to being a great composer, Richard Wagner was also an important philosopher. Julian Young begins by examining the philosophy of art and society Wagner constructs during his time as a revolutionary anarchist-communist. Modernity, Wagner argued, is to be rescued from its current anomie through the rebirth of Greek tragedy (the original Gesamtkunstwerk) in the form of the “artwork of the future," an artwork of which his own operas are the prototype. Young then examines the entirely different philosophy Wagner constructs after his 1854 conversion from Hegelian optimism to Schopenhauerian pessimism. “Redemption” now becomes, not a future utopia in this world, but rather “transfigured” existence in another world, attainable only through death. Viewing Wagner’s operas through the lens of his philosophy, the book offers often novel interpretations of Lohengrin, The Ring cycle, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal. Finally, Young dresses the cause of Friedrich Nietzsche’s transformation from Wagner’s intimate friend and disciple into his most savage critic. Nietzsche’s fundamental accusation, it is argued, is one of betrayal: that Wagner betrayed his early, “life affirming” philosophy of art and life in favor of “life-denial." Nietzsche’s assertion and the final conclusion of the book is that our task, now, is to “become better Wagnerians than Wagner.”

Richard Wagner continues to be the most controversial artist in history, a perpetually troubling figure in our cultural consciousness. The unceasing debate over his works and their impact--for and against--is one reason why there has been no genuinely comprehensive modern account of his musical dramas until now. Dieter Borchmeyer's book is the first to present an overall picture of these musical dramas from the standpoint of literary and theatrical history. It extends from the composer's early works--still largely ignored--to the Ring Cycle and Parsifal, and includes Wagner's unfinished works and operas he never set to music. Through lively prose, we come to see Wagner as a librettist--and as a man of letters--rather than primarily as musical composer. Borchmeyer uncovers a vast field of cultural and historical cross-references in Wagner's works. In the first part of the book, he sets out in search of the various archetypal scenes, opening up the composer's dramatic workshop to the reader. He covers all of Wagner's operas, from early juvenilia to the canonical later works. The second part examines Wagner in relation to political figures including King Ludwig II and Bismarck, and, importantly, in light of critical reactions by literary giants--Thomas Mann, whom Borchmeyer calls "a guiding light in this exploration of the fields that Wagner tilled," and Nietzsche, whose appeal to "philology" is a key source of inspiration in attempts to grapple with Wagner's works. For more than twenty years, Borchmeyer has placed his scholarship at the service of the famed Bayreuth Festival. With this volume, he gives us a summation of decades of engagement with the phenomenon of Wagner and, at the same time, the result of an abiding critical passion for his works.

This multidisciplinary collection of readings offers suggestive new interpretations of Richard Wagner's ideological position in German history. The issues discussed range from the biographical--the reasons for Wagner's travels, his spotted political life--to the aesthetic and ideological, regarding his re-creation of medieval Nuremberg, his representations of gender and nationality, his vocal iconography, his anti-Semitism, and his vegetarianarguments, and, finally, his musical heirs. The essays are written by Tamara S. Evans, Edward R. Haymes, Peter Uwe Hohendahl, Peter Morris-Keitel, Alexa Larson-Thorisch, Audrius Dundzila, Marc A. Weiner, Jost Hermand, Frank Trommler, and Hans Rudolf Vaget. Avoiding journalistic or iconoclastic approaches to Wagner, these writers depart from the usual uncritical admiration of earlier scholars to develop a stimulating and ultimately cohesive collection of new perspectives.

Wilhelm Furtw ler left not only some of the greatest interpretations of operatic and symphonic music on record, but also expressed his views on musical issues of the moment in a number of outspoken essays and talks. His writings range from practical matters of performance and interpretation to aesthetic reflections on what he saw as the alarming direction in which music was developing in the wake of Schoenberg and the twelve-tone system of composition. Professor Ronald Taylor has here, for the first time, translated and annotated a selection of Furtw ler's writings covering the four decades from the First World War to the conductor's death in 1954, and prefaced them with an essay on Furtw ler's controversial career and complicated personality. The result is a collection of stimulating pieces with a claim on our attention, made all the greater for reflecting the musical and philosophical ideals of one of the great conductors of the twentieth century.

The operas of the German composer Richard Wagner had a revolutionary influence on the course of Western music. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his works. He went on to revolutionise the music form through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He achieved these ideas most fully in his epic cycle of operas 'Der Ring des Nibelungen', notable for complex textures, rich harmonies and the elaborate use of leitmotifs. Delphi’s Great Composers Series offers concise illustrated guides to the life and works of our greatest composers. Analysing the masterworks of each composer, these interactive eBooks include links to popular streaming services, allowing you to listen to the pieces of music you are reading about. Evaluating the masterworks of each composer, you will explore the development of their works, tracing how they changed the course of music history. Whether a classical novice or a cultivated connoisseur, this series offers an intriguing overview of the world’s most famous and iconic compositions. This volume presents Wagner’s masterworks in succinct detail, with informative introductions, accompanying illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus features. (Version 1) * Concise and informative overview of Wagner’s masterworks* Learn about the operas that made Wagner a celebrated composer* Links to popular streaming services (free and paid), allowing you to listen to the masterpieces you’re reading about* Features a special ‘Complete Compositions’ section, with an index of Wagner’s complete works and links to streaming services* English translations of the librettos for the major operas, including works appearing for the first time in digital print* A wide selection of the composer’s prose works, including fiction, pioneering essays and Wagner’s celebrated autobiography* Includes Wagner’s letters to Franz Liszt — explore the composer’s personal correspondence* Features six biographies on the great composer — explore Wagner's intriguing musical and personal life Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting eBooks CONTENTS: The MasterworksSymphony in C MajorDas LiebesverbotFaust OvertureRienziDer fliegende HolländerTannhäuserLohengrinDas RhinegoldDie WalküreTristan und IsoldeWesendonck LiederDie Meistersinger von NürnbergSiegfriedSiegfried IdyllGötterdämmerungParsifal Complete CompositionsIndex of Wagner’s Compositions Selected LibrettosDer fliegende HolländerLohengrinDas RhinegoldDie WalküreTristan und IsoldeSiegfriedGötterdämmerungParsifal Selected ProseAutobiographic SketchOn German OperaArt and RevolutionThe Art-Work of the FutureJudaism in MusicA Communication to My FriendsOpera and DramaBeethovenWhat is German?An End in ParisOn ConductingReligion and Art The LettersCorrespondence of Wagner and Liszt The AutobiographyMy Life The BiographiesRichard Wagner: His Life and His Dramas by W. J. HendersonLife of Wagner by Ludwig NohlRichard Wagner, Composer of Operas by John F. RuncimanWagner by Paul RosenfeldWagner as I Knew Him by Ferdinand PraegerRichard Wagner by Rupert Hughes Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of exciting titles

This book analyzes the lifelong impact of Beethoven's music on Wagner and its importance for his conception of music drama. Kropfinger charts and scrutinizes Wagner's early responses to the composer and considers his experience as a conductor of Beethoven's music. A discussion of the Romantic "Beethoven image" leads to a careful study of Wagner's aesthetic writings, including his "programmatic explanations," the text "Concerning Franz Liszt's symphonic poems," and his Beethoven centenary essay. The penultimate chapter addresses Wagner's theory and practice of music drama, which he came to regard as the preordained successor to the Beethoven symphony. By analyzing special terms--such as "Leitmotiv"--Wagner's structural view of musical drama comes to the fore; it is a view that deepens not only our understanding of musical drama as a "hybrid" genre of art but also of purely musical structure and forms that Wagner sought to outdo.

This book addresses one of the most hotly contested debates in contemporary cultural life: the question of how anti-Semitism figures in the operas of Richard Wagner. Until now, scholars have generally acknowledged Wagner's anti-Semitism but have argued that it is irrelevant to the operas themselves. Marc A. Weiner challenges that traditional view by asserting that anti-Semitism is a crucial, pervasive feature in Wagner's operas. Weiner argues that the operas exemplify and contribute to a vast collection of images that are patently anti-Semitic - and that were readily recognized as such by nineteenth-century German audiences. These images were associated particularly with the body. Through a careful examination of Wagner's music, libretti, and stage directions, Weiner reconstructs iconographies of corporeal images - iconographies of the eye, voice, smell, gait, and sexuality - that were essential to the operas and were "associated with anti-Semitism and the longing for an imagined German community".

In this innovative book, Gundula Kreuzer argues for the foundational role of technologies in the conception, production, and study of nineteenth-century opera. She shows how composers increasingly incorporated novel audiovisual effects in their works and how the uses and meanings of the required apparatuses changed through the twentieth century, sometimes still resonating in stagings, performance art, and popular culture today. Focusing on devices (which she dubs “Wagnerian technologies”) intended to amalgamate opera’s various media while veiling their mechanics, Kreuzer offers a practical counternarrative to Wagner’s idealist theories of total illusionism. At the same time, Curtain, Gong, Steam’s multifaceted exploration of the three titular technologies repositions Wagner as catalyst more than inventor in the history of operatic production. With its broad chronological and geographical scope, this book deepens our understanding of the material and mechanical conditions of historical operatic practice as well as of individual works, both well known and obscure.