Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The real Wagner
Today, with all the hyper PC attitudes running rampant and making otherwise sensible folk rewrite history and demonize great men of the past, it might be difficult to see Wagner as what he really was: a multi-talented man, a Renaissance man, a great man and a good family man, a man admired equally by Yeats and Mahler, a vegetarian, a democrat, a man of rare integrity, a creative man, an entertaining host and a well-liked guest. Yeats wrote that Wagner represented the acme of German symbolism in poetry and drama; Mahler, that there was only Beethoven and Wagner. Indeed, while Wagner's musical genius has never been in doubt, his dramatic and poetic genius has sometimes been underestimated, mainly by those with, at best, the German of a ten-year-old native speaker and no understanding of 19th century poetry or drama. Let's be clear here: Wagner's influence on subsequent writers and poets was quite considerable. Everybody from Thomas Mann to T.S. Eliot gave their nods to him.

In this brilliantly narrated book, Wagner gives a complex and accurate picture of the 19th century, and one that the PC crowd doesn't want you to know about. (Ask yourself, why do only a couple of obscure small presses publish Wagner's autobiography, while every university press has its own politically correct Wagner book out, each of which sells quite nicely and is little more than a comfortable exercise in character assassination?)

Don't forget the second volume: My Life, Volume 2 (Large Print Edition)

This is a good edition by BiblioBazaar. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. The German text is not included in this eBook. ... Read more

Product Description
155 page Book contained in a slip case with 3 CD,s ... Read more

Book Description
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) has often been regarded as a symbol of "Germanness." Despite this view, few studies have been undertaken regarding his nationalistic thinking. Imagined Germany focuses on Wagner's idea of Deutschtum, especially during the unification of Germany, 1864-1871. Salmi discusses how Wagner defined Germanness, what stereotypes, ideas, and sentiments he attached to it, and what kind of state could realize Wagner's natural ideals. ... Read more

Book Description
In this book Lucy Beckett gives a comprehensive account of Wagner's last and strangest opera. The literary sources of this work, its many links with Wagner's life and thought, its libretto, music and stage history, are all thoroughly examined. There is a full commentary, with extensive quotation, on the work's critical history, and finally, a fresh assessment of its place in the Wagner canon and of its unique quality as a music drama that is both modern and Christian. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Down to the point
I have found the book highly fascinating. It not only gives you a fair deal on the story itself - additionally it provides a huge amount on background information to Wagner, the history of the play, the story behind the story...

Particularly the parts about the origination of the theme of Parsifal is well researched and worth reading.

Scholarly review of Parsifal
This is a good book so far as it goes. It's a bit dry, but if you are sufficiently interested in the material than you should be able to get through it OK.

The book is divided into sections about Wagner's sourcematerial, a history of Parsifal performances, a musical commentary, adiscussion of the critical reactions to Parsifal from Wagner's time to thepresent, and a proposed interpretation.In the "interpretation"section, the author argues that Parsifal must be interpreted as a religiouswork.

I was disappoined with the book, because I was expecting a moredetailed interpretation (for example, what actually happens in Act II ofParsifal?)

The book is interesting, but was not quite what I was lookingfor.However, the chapter on Wagner's source material is a necessaryprerequisite on forming your own opinion of this work, so those of youstill grappling with this opera should consider purchasing this book. ... Read more

Book Description
This handbook provides an in-depth account of the origins, style, and performance history of Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), universally acknowledged as Wagner's first truly significant, original work. Designed for scholars, performers and the opera-going public, the book examines the biographical impulses behind the opera's conception, its place in the composer's career, its literary sources and production history. There is also a detailed survey of how generations of performers have interpreted the musical score. Rare pictures from important and influential productions complete this invaluable guide. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Richard Wagner The Last of the Titans
The most thorough, most complete treatise concerning this master of German Opera I have ever encountered.

Not as bad as I thought it would be, but....
Joachim Kohler has made a career out of writing intellectually dishonest, crass books on both Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche, and while I expected more of the same here, this weighty tome actually possesses some merit.

As far as reliable biography goes, Kohler's book is more responsible than Gutman's Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music (but, again, that's not saying all that much), and Kohler does present some interesting analysis regarding Wagner's phobias, dreams and obsessions. The problem that arises here, though, is one that plagues all such psycho-biographies; that is Kohler's conclusions are purely subjective & cannot be conclusively proven.

Some of the reviewers here have made the remark that this is more of a philosophy book than a biography, and this is entirely correct. If one has little desire to wade through the theorizing of Feuerbach, Schopenhauer, Schelling, Hegel and Kant, then that person would be much better served in reading either Watson's or Millington's bios on Wagner. But if you are interested in seeing the philosophical backbone of Wagner's work, Kohler's book can be stimulating. I think Kohler is correct in discerning Schelling's influence in Wagner's thought, as well as his emphasis on Hegel's ideas on Wagner. Kohler is incorrect, in my opinion, in stating that Schopenhauer's thought had virtually no impact on Wagner. While it's true that Wagner's most "Schopenhauerian" work, Tristan und Isolde, is just as much in debt to Feuerbach, Schopenhauer's negation of the individual consciousness and the primacy of the Will are indeed pervasive presences in the opera. Wagner's Meistersinger & Parsifal are even more patently Schopenhauerian.

Kohler's views on Der Ring are also interesting, but again, those views are entirely subjective, and one can easily argue against them.

Having discussed the book's merits, there are also some major flaws. Nietzsche & King Ludwig are both portrayed as hapless victims of Wagner's megalomania, and Liszt is portrayed as an artist whom Wagner shamelessly [...] and blatantly copied. There is no doubt that Nietzsche & Ludwig were both psychologically wounded by Wagner (the man was quite a pill, after all), but neither men were utter victims, and both profited from their association with Wagner, and said as much. In regards to Liszt, Wagner was definitely influenced by him, but by the time of Die Walkure, Wagner had far surpassed his mentor.

Kohler addresses Wagner's notorious anti-Semitism, and it must be said, Kohler's murky analysis of Wagner's worst vice is almost as murky as Wagner's anti-Semitism. There are much more responsible (and clearer) examinations of Wagner's ugly hatred in the books The Darker Side of Genius, The Tristan Chord, and Ring of Myths. I recommend reading these first, and then coming back to this book.

Finally, we have Cosima. I never liked her, and it's easy to agree with Kohler's assessment of her as a self-righteous, manipulative woman. But I think it's also fair to say that she adored her husband (a quick glance through her diaries will prove that), and Kohler is off the beam in stating that their relationship was based primarily on fear.

Anyway, if you have the time and patience, this is a worthy read, but if you aren't inclined to wade through 700 pages of subjective psycho-biography and philosophical meanderings, then I would stick with a more manageable volume. In any event, I'm off to listen to Act II of Tristan.

A philosophy book, not a biography
Let's begin by saying that this is a very difficult book, dense in style and at times obscure in its arguments. Stewart Spencer deserves high praise for his lucid translation.

What this book most emphatically is NOT is a biography. Rather, it is a set of semi-philosophical musings on the themes of Wagner's music dramas. There is NO narrative, and readers ignorant of the track of Wagner's career will be lost. Koehler is hung-up on Wagner's relation with his step-father and his sisters. Moreover, in this account Cosima is an ogre fresh from the pages of the Brothers Grimm at their nastiest. Koehler's Wagner is glad to die at age 69 just to get away from her. This Wagner is also a Freudian's wet dream, with speculations that range from the interesting to the absurd.

It is NOT a good first--or even second--book on Wagner. For biography try Ronald Taylor; for philosophy read Bryan Magee's exceptionally fine "Wagner and Philosophy" (American title: "The Tristan Chord").

What this book IS is that it's much better than some of the crap Koehler has previously published. (For a book-length pathology of "post hoc ergo propter hoc" give his "Wagner's Hitler" a perusal. His logical fallacies will have you rolling with laughter out of your chair.) I am glad I read this book, difficult as it was. I learned a lot--or at least was exposed to some thought-provoking ideas.

In sum, I'd recommend this book only to die-hard Wagnerians fairly well steeped in the literature already.

The good, the bad and the ugly
I found the German idealistic readings of the Ring insufferably pompous. They left me with a feeling of utter disgust both with Wagner's mistake at having gotten involved with the whole thing in the first place and with Kohler, for taking it's philosophical pretensions so seriously, with nary a single intelligent comment re the MUSIC. HOWEVER, the devastating critique of the oft-mentioned (not least by W) Wagner/Schopenhauer connection, and the much-deserved and well-documented trashing of Cosima make the book very worthwhile in spite of the aforementioned.

Could've been so much better than it is
Joachim Koehler, at his best, writes well. So well, that it's a pity his book is marred by a NATIONAL ENQUIRER type of prurience, by wild unconvincing generalizations, and by an almost complete absence of interest in Wagner's actual music - which is, after all, the reason why Wagner matters today.

Having discussed the present volume's virtues and failings at 2,000-word length in the February 14, 2005 AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, I shall simply say here: this should've been the one-volume Wagner biography that all Wagnerians were longing for, but it isn't. Best to stick with the Wagnerological surveys of Bryan Magee, Rudolph Sabor, Deryck Cooke, and (more recently) Milton Bremer for greater insight than Koehler offers. The really hard-core Wagnerian will also want, within handy reach, Ernest Newman's four-volume account. ... Read more