Product Description
The third opera in Wagner’s monumental tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen, is reproduced here, complete and unabridged, from the first edition (1876). Wagner enthusiasts, opera lovers and musicians will appreciate this affordable edition of an influential Romantic-era masterpiece.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent, high-quality yet cheap reproduction of 1st-Edition score of great opera!
Keith Dillon has already said much of what needs be said about this score.Ideally I'd have given it a 4.5 or even only 4 stars due to 2 faults with those initial Schott editions - except Mr. Dillon has already beaten me to it (yet his review is warmer...)!Consequently, I'll raise my mark to counter-balance given the low price.[Getting the current Schott Complete-Wagner Works Edition, which does follow proper conventions, surely would cost a king's ransom...]

The faults are:1) Inconsistency about ordering of instruments and/or voices per system; 2) Slightly less than ideal clarity in printing due to the styles/fonts of engraving then used.

Regarding the first point:it was a period of transition from an initial time where other instruments and voices would be inserted between the upper strings (violins, violas) and the low ones (which still were notated à la "Continuo" function long after that style of composition had died) versus today's systematisation where everything is grouped by order of class of instruments and/or voices (woodwinds, brass, percussion, harps, keyboards, solo-voices, choral-voices, strings - going from top to bottom in a system).That full-transition hadn't quite finished yet (it so did around 1910 with Peters' editions of the Wagner operas - "Tristan und Isolde" used the old order Wagner used, whereas "Die Walküre" and "Parsifal" were in the new order - other composers like Richard Strauss were already established however with the new order...).

Also, as an extra challenge, tenor voices (in this case: Siegfried, Mime) are notated using the tenor clef - not that I mind;however, others might.

Anyway, those are minor quibbles - in compensation one knows that he's dealing with very reliable scores proofed (if I recall correctly) by Wagner himself, with few mistakes if any - all of which can be corrected by listening to appropriate recordings.Definitely recommended!

The Return of the Walkure
Siegfried is the third opera in Wagner's tetrology, the Ring of the Nibeling. It tells the story of Siegfried, the young hero who bursts through a ring of fire to saves Brunnhilde, his aunt and eventual lover,from a fate of eternal sleep. This opera contains remarkable music, such asBrunnhilde and Siegfrieds' love duets, and the prophetic twittering of theforest bird. As with Das Rheingold, Dover republished the B. Schott's Sohneedition, which means that what we see on the page was approved by Wagnerhimself. Again, Dover editions are reasonably priced, easy to read, andcapable of enduring all reasonable, and some unreasonable wear and tear.Dover's Siegfried is large enough to conduct from, which isn't always truewith Dover's Wagner scores. In any case, a copy of this score belongs inthe home of all self respecting Opera lovers. ... Read more

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

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The full German text with a new translation and commentaries. There has long been a need for a modern English translation of Wagner's Ring--a version that is reliable and readable yet at the same time is a true reflection of the literary quality of the German libretto. Stewart Spencer's well-reviewed translation, which follows the verse form of the original exactly, has filled that niche. It reads smoothly and idiomatically yet is the result of prolonged thought and deep background knowledge. The translation is accompanied by Spencer's introductory essay on the libretto and a series of specially commissioned texts by Barry Millington, Roger Hollinrake, Elizabeth Magee, and Warren Darcy that discuss the cycle's musical structure, philosophical implications, medieval sources, and Wagner's own changing attitude to its meaning. With a glossary of names, a review of audio and video recordings, and a select bibliography, the book serves as an essential complement to Wagner's great epic. 16 b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Profound Work of Art in its Best English Translation
**Update: I recently contacted the publishers, who wrote they are scheduling a late summer 2010 reprint.**

I teach the Ring Cycle, and I recommend the Spencer/Millington English translation over all others, including the Porter.As an English teacher, I am primarily concerned in a translation's literary value, and I confidently aver this translation as the best in English (I also have a background in German language and literature study).In his poetry, Wagner proves himself a literary genius.Like other masters of language, he deftly balances storytelling, emotion, and philosophy.There are also musicological benefits to this publication, such as notations for motifs where they occur in the text.

Wagner draws from the major medieval versions of the legend, including the Saga of the Volsungs, the Prose Edda, and the Nibelungenlied.Studying these works is crucial to a literary appreciation of the libretti, much as appreciation of Plutarch biographies informs the reading of Shakespeare's plays of antiquity.

Wagner's ambitious work was composed under the nationalistic fervor of 19th Century Germany.He believed "The Nibelungenlied" to be for Germany what "The Iliad" is for Greece or "The Aeneid" is for Rome.Wagner populates his German forests and rivers with mythological gods and faeries, and his human heroes are imbued with heroic courage and strength reminiscent of Achilles and Beowulf.

I highly recommend this translation.There are seldom times a book will inspire aesthetic chills, and it happened several times when reading these libretti.And if you are interested in contextualizing the Siegfried literary tradition, your first stops should be the Nibelungenlied, the Saga of the Volsungs, and the Prose Edda.See also Wagner's libretto for "Tristan and Isolde," another brilliantly written libretto based on a medieval German text, Gottfried von Straussberg's Tristan.

The most compelling translation in the English language
My first English Ring was Andrew Porter's "singable" translation. It was my introduction to a world of sound-rhymes that is difficult to render even in German (a running joke in Bayreuth was that singers were asked to first translate the text to German, before starting work!!!). Whenmy focus turned to meaning of words and sentences, I've discovered the Spencer translation, the most up-to-date version available in English. Besides an annotated text (with alternate endings included - previous versions of course...), comparingword roots with Wagner's own sources, we are also presented with introductory essays by Wagner scholars, filled with insight and devoid of one-sidedness so common in music scholarship. For everyone looking for THE version of Der Ring in English.

Excellent summaries and translations of the operas
This is a very useful set of libretti and translations.The introductory material and the synopses are also of great use.

Great addition to any Wagner library
This book would be an excellent addition to anyone interesting in Wagner's Ring cycle for a number of reasons.

First, the translation, which takes up three quarters of the book, is well done, with German and English directly compared on a line by line basis, complete with alternate or discarded or rejected versions of the libretto included in an appendix.The translation itself seems outstanding; some of Wagner's phrasing is difficult or impossible to directly translate into English, but even in the most convoluted or confusing cases the result is clear and compelling.

Second, there is a thematic guide to many of the most important leitmotifs Wagner developed (67 in this case), and in the translation of the libretto the authors have noted where these occur on a line by line, or sequential basis.This is of tremendous help as a reference for further study when listening and relistening to the music.

Third, while there is only little commentary on the operas and on Wagner's compositional journey through the Ring, there are a few photos from past performances, comparing vastly different sets for the same scenes, which are interesting.There could have been quite a bit more of this.

Finally, the glossary of character names could be useful to the student.

Overall, this is an excellent resource and reference to use while listening to the Ring, and for analyzing Wagner's libretto itself.

Thank you, Mr. Spencer
Thank you, Mr. Spencer. You have given us something very special. You have given us a complete English translation of Der Ring Des Nibelungen, and it's possibly the most Wagnerian translation ever put on paper. You have given us more knowledge about the Ring Cycle by giving us commentaries about Wagner and his mission to change the way we look at operas. You have also given us B & W pictures of recent renderings of the Ring Cycle, from the Bayreuth Festival to the New York Metropolitan Opera. And for that, we are very grateful. A+ ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent, Compelling Biography
I found this book an excellent introduction to Wagner's life and works. It presents the Jekyll / Hyde personality of the composer while emphasizing his genius and his inability to accept mediocre performances of his, or anyone else's works. I found this book very readable and interesting throughout.

best single biography on Richard Wagner
I've read a lot of books on Richard Wagner, and this is the one I'd recommend as the single best book.

Why?

Because, hard as it is to be fair in the treatment of a controversial figure like Wagner, Derek Watson succeeds. He doesn't gloss over Wagner's bad habits, chief of which are his abuse of friends and supporters, his virulent anti-Semitism, his self-indulgence, and his continuing problems regarding his own money and the money of others.Yet Watson also balances these vices with a bigger picture of the man's incredible creative abilities.He knew he was a genius, and others saw this too--to the extent that they willingly allowed themselves to be taken advantage of.

In addition to a fair and balanced summary of Wagner's life, there is a glossary of major figures in Wagner's life, and dozens of photographs of Wagner and his contemporaries.If I could have only a single book on Wagner, this would be my choice! ... Read more

Product Description

Though his image is tarnished today by unrepentant anti-Semitism, Richard Wagner (1813–1883) was better known in the nineteenth century for his provocative musical eroticism. In this illuminating study of the composer and his works, Laurence Dreyfus shows how Wagner’s obsession with sexuality prefigured the composition of operas such as Tannhäuser, Die Walküre, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal. Daring to represent erotic stimulation, passionate ecstasy, and the torment of sexual desire, Wagner sparked intense reactions from figures like Baudelaire, Clara Schumann, Nietzsche, and Nordau, whose verbal tributes and censures disclose what was transmitted when music represented sex.

Wagner himself saw the cultivation of an erotic high style as central to his art, especially after devising an anti-philosophical response to Schopenhauer’s “metaphysics of sexual love.” A reluctant eroticist, Wagner masked his personal compulsion to cross-dress in pink satin and drench himself in rose perfumes while simultaneously incorporating his silk fetish and love of floral scents into his librettos. His affection for dominant females and surprising regard for homosexual love likewise enable some striking portraits in his operas. In the end, Wagner’s achievement was to have fashioned an oeuvre which explored his sexual yearnings as much as it conveyed—as never before—how music could act on erotic impulse.

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Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent reprint of a good first edition of a great work!!
The reviewer who praised this reprint before my post here has said all that needs to be said in favour of this work!!My only quibbles - and the reason I can't give this edition a full 5 stars - have to do with Schott's fonts and the ordering of their staves in the systems.

[For details, please see my equivalent review for "Siegfried in Full Score", which Dover reprint is from the same first-edition source as this one.]

Nevertheless, warmly recommended!

Twilight of the Gods
This is an immense work of Herculean intensity. At its worst this operacan be a little thick but even theworst music here is beautiful! Thescoring is superb, the harmonies rich. This is the only part of The Ring touse a chorus. The first moments of the piece set the tone of apocalypticdrama.

It's a big work but once you get involved in the action (thistakes a few seconds at most), the time flies by and before you know it, itis over.It is a great idea to equip oneself with the score for mostproductions as, unfortunately, there are very few good productions of thisever. It is a complicated score, exhausting and difficult to sing andinterpret. A pity, for when Gotterdammerung is done right there are fewthings as powerful and beautiful in the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Scholarly work on Wagner's music and thought
A standard biography followed by a discussion of his work, showing how it is grounded in his intellectual and spiritual development.An interesting and valuable work, perhaps a bit difficult for those not well-grounded in philosophy.Especially valuable for his relationship with Nietzche and his influence on Wagner's own prolific literary works.A scholarly work for musicians well worth reading. ... Read more

Product Description
The stories from Wagner's classic Operas including; Lohengrin -
Lohengrin, in medieval German story, a knight of the Holy Grail, son of Parzival. He is sent to rescue Princess Elsa of Brabant from an unwanted suitor.

The story revolves around the real-life guild of Meistersinger (Master Singers), an association of amateur poets and musicians, mostly from the middle class and often master craftsmen in their main professions. The Mastersingers developed a craftsmanlike approach to music-making, with an intricate system of rules for composing and performing songs.

The Flying Dutchman- Flying Dutchman, according to folklore, is a ghost ship that can never go home, and is doomed to sail the oceans forever.


[Kindle] ... Read more

Product Description
The cultural controversies he helped to create have long since died down, but Richard Wagner still remains a polarizing icon. Just as he dreamed of combining the arts, his influence extends well beyond the field of classical music to theater, literature, painting, and more. Wagner represents a phenomenon which is hard to ignore. His compulsive need to document his thoughts—apart from his art—finds an echo in the enormous body of explanation Wagner has inspired. Yet even with so much written about him, Wagner continues to be a deeply misunderstood figure.

This guide aims to unlock the world of Richard Wagner and his works, his monumental achievements, and, ultimately, the great emotional power inherent in his art. This emotional power is double-edged, often serving as a kind of mirror for what each listener brings to it. The book challenges the assumptions and stereotypes of the "Wagnerian" idea of art.

Decoding Wagner presents a straightforward, fresh overview of what Wagner attempted to achieve with his "artwork of the future." Lively discussions of his major works place them in the context of his life and consider the interplay of dramatic and musical elements with philosophical ideas which are so unique to Wagner.

Two accompanying full-length CDs illustrate and trace his growth as a composer. Decoding Wagner appraises the enormously expressive richness that continues to make his art compelling and relevant for contemporary audiences.Amazon.com Review
In the voluminous Wagner bibliography, Thomas May's book occupies a special place. Concise but remarkably information-packed and accompanied by two CDs of excerpts, it is addressed to those who seek a deeper understanding of Wagner's operas. The controversies--artistic, human and moral--generated by Wagner's innovative ideas and reprehensible behavior frequently obscure the greatness of his achievements. May performs an extraordinary feat: although unflinchingly aware of Wagner's arrogance, self-aggrandizement, duplicity, faithlessness, hedonism, greed, political opportunism, chauvinism, and anti-Semitism, he communicates boundless admiration for the composer andpassionate love for his works. Suggesting that the very schism between Wagner's flawed character and idealistic aspirations inspired "monumentally stirring meditations on the contradictory range of human experience," he correlates and reconciles his "monstrous ego" with his sublime genius.The evolution of Wagner's operas, from his early and incomplete attempts to the late, often extensively revised masterpieces, culminated in a lofty artistic vision: the "total artwork" which, combining all the arts, would result in heightened experience and spiritual elevation. Wagner wrote his own texts, considering poetry and music inseparable and himself equally master of both, an assessment not universally shared. May takes the librettos very seriously, following them from their historical or mythological origin to their final form with formidable but unobtrusive erudition. Among his references are the Buddha, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Thomas Mann, and T.S. Eliot, and he must have read everything about Wagner as well as Wagner's own often repellent autobiographical, theoretical, and political writings (which make one wish he had written nothing but music). May's musical analyses are equally riveting and absorbing. He traces the operas' ever-increasing depth, breadth, and grandeur, the growing importance and masterful use of the unifying leitmotif and the "Wagnerian" orchestra, and the often hidden strands that connect them despite their individual uniqueness. Opera lovers spurred by May's book to hear these works performed could not wish for a more knowledgeable, illuminating, and inspiring guide. --Edith Eisler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good Selection of Music, Superficial Insubstantial Text
What an audacious title!Decoding Wagner, all done in 204 pages, without all those pesky footnotes.You will not get a sense of what the librettos actually mean though.He does not decode Wagner, not by a long shot.Wagner's works defy simplification, so writing a generalized book that claims to decode all of Wagner at a grade 9 reading level in 200 pages is bound to fail.And this one does.I think I would have given this 5 stars if the title had been "An Invitation to Wagner's World" or "Elementary Wagner", but then again that wouldn't have sold as well.

I don't think the author has a good enough grasp of 19th century thought, Wagner's writings, or the primary sources Wagner used in writing his Librettos; nor do I think he understands German.The text and analysis appear to have been cobbled together from secondary sources, but because there are no footnotes I don't know for sure.There is a fair amount of description of the types of music and how they relate generally to the drama (and no you won't have to know how to read music to understand his descriptions), a decent amount of plot recapitulation, and a fair amount of biographical information.There is very little in the way of decoding Wagner.

I suppose that is not too surprising.Wagner was a very prolix headache inducing writer, and often times he was also self contradictory.Further, he loved to obscure things and make people have to work to understand what he was trying to get across, especially when it came to his librettos.Getting a handle on what his operas mean is a demanding task.Demanding books don't sell very well though, and plowing through Wagner's philosophy is difficult.Yet that is what is required to decode the man and his works.And the resultant decoding is bound to be difficult and confusing.It is much simpler to gloss over things and write in general terms things that make sense to a modern mind.If you want an example of an actual decoding of Wagner, read Barry Millington (Cambridge Opera Journal Vol. 3 No 3 1991).You will see how difficult it is.

Why is it hard? Because Wagner intentionally obfuscated his intentions.Wagner wrote "Such a career as mine must ever cheat the onlooker: he sees in me acts and undertakings he deems to be my own, whereas at bottom they are quite alien to me: who marks the repugnance that often is filling my soul?"Cosmia (wagner's wife) wrote in her diary "He [Wagner] enjoys writing, but feels it will be some time before he writes another text: " I have posed enough riddles," he adds." So Wagner hides his true intent.Who could understand his operas?Here is a couple of more quotes: "After a year's preparation, I shall present my complete work in a series of 4 days: with this I shall make the men of the revolution recognize the meaning of the revolution according to its most noble contents. That Audience will understand me the present cannot.""..the multitude leaves me indifferent...it can't grasp what I am driving at...my only holdfast is the individual in whom I can see that through my art I have preached to his conscience...and made him a fellow-combatant against the good-for-nothing reign of worldly wisdom."So Wagner himself says that his works are not meant to be understood by the masses, but only by a select few, i.e. 'fellow combatants'.He did think he would be able to communicate with the masses though.He thought that there would be an unconscious, uncritical communication with them.Basically, they would not understand but their subconscious would get the message.

Most modern Wagner writers tend to downplay or eliminate nationalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-French in his works.And that's what May does here.He does touch on the most obvious examples, such as Beckmeister in Die Meistersinger, but in a wholly inadequate way.Taking the Beckmeister example, May minimizes the malevolence of Wagner's intent by stating that Beckmiester should be seen in the same light as some of Dickens more racist characters.The problem is Dickens was not a violent anti-Semite, nor did he try to start a movement.I don't know why people have such a resistance to see the intentionally obscure encoded nationalism and racism in the librettos, but they do.

So making sense of Wagner is a complicated riddle solving and painful experience.This book is none of those things and therefore its conclusions and generalizations do not illuminate the works of Wagner.But it makes for easy reading and will fool the reader into thinking he has Wagner figured out.

On the positive side, the two cds provide a nice overview of Wagner's music, and are worth the price of the book, especially if you have no Wagner in your collection.

interesting book with cds
This well writen book has an analysis of all Wagner operas. I found it helpful, used together with the Metropolitan Opera site.

An opera celebration
I used to be an opera singer and I have to say this is a fabulous book for any fan of Wagner. Tom May has done a terrific job of making this difficult material accessible, and the accompanying CDs help considerably. Even if you feel you have read everything there is to read about the maestro, you will find this book absorbing and very illuminating. Plus you'll probably want to buy a new recording of Tristan und Isolde as well [maybe the most beautiful music ever written, in my humble opinion].I think Amazon may sell that too.LOL

Very solid overview of Wagner's operas - 2 Good Music CDs
I found this tobe an excellent overview of Wagner and his operas ina book of only 200 pages or so. This book is for someone who is fairly familiar with the plots of Wagner's operas -- no plot summaries are presented -- and givesa good sense of how Wagner developed as both a composer and dramatist.The book is written mostly around the ten major operas wrote -- a chapter for each with an extra chapter to introduce the Ring. Although the book is relativelyshort, the reader learns a lot about Wagner's sources,his use of these sources, and key features of the individual operas. A portion of the discussion of the operas is tied to the CDs - one for the Ring and the other for the non-Ring operas.The CDs are primarily "greatest hits" - from the operas, with text making reference to different points on the CD in terms of timing.

This book is probably not the first book you read on Wagner-- I would recommend "Wagner Without Fear" by William Berger as an introduction to Wagner and his work. For other readers, this book really provides quite a bit of diverse information in a small space. The book is well-written and meets the needs of many readers in that it written around individual operas. A reader can go right to the opera of interest, but I think may will also want to read through the entire book to better understand the context of individual operas and their placein Wagner's development.

The book has a good bibliography (though it would have been nice to have some annotation).

The book isa goodvalue as is, but with the 2 CDs (primarily BMG recordings), it becomes an excellent value. Any reader interested in Wagner should consider owning this book.5 stars.

Accessible, lively and well-written
This is a terrific read: entertaining and briskly paced. May considers historical and social factors in Wagner's work without bogging down the reader with theory or dull historicism. In fact, this work brings me a greater appreciation for Wagner than I thought possible (I'm not, my apologies, an opera fan). I would recommend it to the casual theater goer, the fine arts critic, opera fans, and anyone interested in music or 19th century theater. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (11)

The Wagner Clan, Jonathan Carr
I found this book excellent, to those interested in the politics in Wagnerera,
his music and the unsavory family dramas (a kind of hell really) as well.
It isno wonderthat "The Economist" nominated it as one of the ten
best books of 2007.
It deserves it really.

in praise of an anti-semitic idiot savant
Wagner was, according to music mavens, an outstanding composer. You wouldn't know it from reading this book though.
As a human being he and his clan were among the lesser examples of the species.
Anti-semitic, envious, immoral and deceitful, to mention just a few of Wagner's and his clans' characteristics.
The author takes great pleasure of constantlyreminding the reader of Wagner's and Cosima's anti-semitism, without any irony even at this late date. Which makes the book tedious and un- informative.
I fail to see the other enthusiastic reviews here, I had no patience to finish the book, donated it to the local library.

Fine study of the Wagner family
In this his last book, Jonathan Carr (1942-2008), the biographer of Helmut Schmidt and Gustav Mahler, has written a brilliant collective biography of the Wagner family. He tells the story of Richard Wagner's extraordinary music and of his family's fights over the ownership and control of the Bayreuth music festival.

Wagner backed the 1848 revolutions, but had failed to learn from the 1789 French Revolution which, as Carr points out, "gave a mighty boost to the cause of Jewish emancipation." Wagner's repellent anti-Semitism stains his fame.

Also, the Wagner family was closer to Hitler than any other German family was. They knew Hitler as `Uncle Wolf', so often did he visit their Bayreuth home. The family welcomed his patronage and never distanced themselves from his politics. Later, they showed no remorse and accepted no responsibility for Nazi crimes.

Carr concludes that Wagner was not `particularly to blame for the Holocaust', largely because there were so many other guilty parties. Nor was his music especially palatable to the Nazis, although they used his `Ride of the Valkyries' as sound track to newsreels of their air raids, as did Francis Ford Coppola to scenes of US helicopter attacks on Vietnam in `Apocalypse Now'.

Wagner's great opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen "shows how disaster strikes those spurred by greed and lust for power." Wagner's rebellious grand-daughter Friedelind later called Hitler `Alberich-Hitler', identifying him with the Ring's lethal Nibelung, whose hunger for power sparks the saga that ends in the apocalypse of Götterdämmerung.

A Visit with a Very Dysfunctional Family
Forget about Dallas and Falcon Crest.If you enjoy reading about the inner struggles of vying family members, then you will enjoy this book.Author Jonathan Carr has shown us that the Wagners are all eccentric to the point of being caricatures of themselves.For instance, they were way too happy to call Hitler their Uncle Wolf and welcome him to their festivals honoring the pater familias, who as all have noted, composed beautifully and lived scandalously.

Even the most avid Wagnerian will admit that in spite of his often stirring and occasionally sublime music, Wagner was not exactly an easy fellow to know, let alone get along with.His Cosima perpetuated the glowing torch of his memory to the point of obsession--for which she could be praised or faulted.Yet it is hard to find anything redeeming in her, due to her virulent anti-Semitism.

The most tragic aspect of the Wagner's saga is how all of them seem both blessed and cursed by the composer's undisciplined life and long-shadowed legacy.In their multi-generational squabbles, foibles and follies, the adage holds true of the Wagners: The nuts don't fall far from the tree.

The Wagner Clan examines the family of musical genius and horrible human being-Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) ranks alongside Italian G. Verdi as the greatest opera composer of all time. Among his gigantic works are "The Ring Cycle (Das Rheingold, The Valkyrie, Siegrfried and Twilight of the Gods), "Der Meistersinger" (his only "comedy"); Tannhaueser, Lohengrin and Parsifal.
Wagner was many things to many people. He was a notorious womanizer being unfaithful to his singer-wife Minna. Among other lovers were Mathilde Wessendock (spouse of an industrialist who gave Wagner money needed to keep composing) and Cosima Wagner (the illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt and Maria d'Agoult. Wagner married Cosima after she divorced her conductor husband Hans Van Bulow. They had already conceived a daughter named Isolde. Cosima worshipped Richard who was a narcissitic worshipper of himself and his art. Her long diary presents an unsavory picture of Wagner who wrote horrible screeds against Judaism (even though he did have some Jewish friends-Wagner was friendly with anyone he could use for financial or critical support). His daughter Eva wed Houston Chamberlain who was famous for his anti-semetic writings.
Wagner died in 1883 being known for his musical genius, bitter hatred of Jews and love of luxury, women, dogs, fine foods and mooching off of King Ludwig II of Bavaria who supported his work. Cosima took over the Wagner's Bayreuth Festival. She was antisemitic and was a tough cookie in running the show on the Green Hill. She died in 1939.
Her son Siegfried a composer who was a fairly pleasant sort. He married an English woman Winifred who was several years younger than he. When Siegfried died in 1930 it was Winifred who ran Bayreuth. She was a fanatical Nazi who adored Adolf Hitler. Hitler was close to the Wagner family demanding his lackeys attend the festival keeping it financially afloat during the Depression and World War II. Winifred spoke highly of Hitler until her death in 1980.
She and Siegfried were the parents of four children. Daughter Friedelind hated the Nazis and became an American citizen. Daughter Verena married an SS officer and stayed close to Bayreuth. The two sons were very different. Wieland was a dreamy, moody, secretive man who did not serve in World War II. He married a dancer but was unfaithful and difficult to like. He died in 1966. His more practical brother Wolfgang served as a German soldier and became a powerful producer of the Bayreuth festival. He wed twice. Today the children of these two strong men are quarreling over who will head the Bayreuth Festival.
The Wagner family has a tragic history of antisemitism although some members such as Gottfried Wagner (a son of Wolfgang) seek to work with groups seeking peace and justice.He seeks to atone for Germany's responsibility of mass murder in the Holocaust.
Jonathan Carr has done a fine job of presenting a history of the illustrious and notorious Wagners. This is an excellent book for those who love opera, music, and the impact of politics on art. Recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
This edition of Wagner’s magnificent lyric opera reproduces the original 1845 full orchestral and vocal score as slightly amended in 1847. Included is the ballet music for Act One written for the 1861 Paris production.
... Read more

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Long considered a masterpiece, Wagner's Ring has baffled and confused critics because of the highly complex meaning of its text and music. The diverse range of commentaries written on the subject since the first performance over one hundred years ago reveals just how little critics have understood The Ring. Deryck Cooke displays his masterly common sense in this study of how and why The Ring took the shape it did. This volume represents only a portion of the enormous book he had planned--his untimely death prevented him from writing a full analysis of the music. Even as it stands, I Saw The World End will give fresh understanding and appreciation to every lover of Wagner's music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

SUPERB STUDY, CUT SHORT BY AUTHOR'S DEATH
This book amply shows what a tragedy it was that Deryck Cooke died whilst still at the height of his powers.He was one of the most approachable and reliable of music critics and musicologists.No-one was better at tracing a path through the minefield of different editions of the Bruckner symphonies.No-one was more perceptive in elucidating Mahler's music and its interpreters.His performing edition of the 10th Symphony still stands as a paradigm for how these things should be done and how they should be presented to the world.40 odd years later, his book, The Language of Music, remains a fascinating and significant exposition of the building-blocks of music, an exploration of how certain intervals and phrases which are the basic vocabulary of musical expression seem to retain a common 'meaning' across the work of very different composers from the Baroque era to the 60's.

But this monumental study of Wagner's Ring, which he left less than half finished at his death, would probably have been his greatest contribution to musical exegesis.What is left for us is an introduction which cogently dispenses with the narrow-minded interpretations proposed by the socialist, anti-capitalist Shaw in The Perfect Wagnerite and the Jungian psychology of Donington in Wagner's Ring and its Symbols.There then follows a tantalising look at the music itself in which he shows that one particular leitmotif misnamed by Wolzogen in his pioneering study as Flight, a mistake blindly followed by most subsequent commentators, is in fact the fundamental Love motif of the entire cycle.From this he draws the not unreasonable conclusion that this is, musically and philosophically, a crucial half of the essential dramatic conflict of the tetralogy between Power and Love.This particular chapter is especially frustrating in the glimpse it gives us of just how penetrating and perceptive his promised but unfulfilled analysis of the music would have been.

What we do get is a fascinating study of how Wagner bent the myriad of literary sources he used into a taut and coherent dramatic structure.And what parts of the final Ring libretto were entirely the product of his own imagination.It makes for a detective trail along the lines of John Livingstone Lowe's pursuit of all the sources for Coleridge's Kubla Khan in The Road to Xanadu.But even this part of the argument only takes us through the evolution of Das Rheingold and Die Walkure before it is cut off in its prime.However, it is still more than enough to leave us with and important study, written with all Cooke's familiar approachability and common sense.

This may be just the torso of the book Cooke intended to write.But anyone interested in how Wagner's enormous work came to take the form it did should derive enormous pleasure as well as elucidation from it.The title, by the way, is taken from some wonderfully evocative lines that Wagner wrote for Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene, but cut before he set them to music.

The blessed end
Of all things eternal,
Do you know how I reached it?
Deepest suffering
Of Grieving love
Opened my eyes:
I saw the world end.

Wagner expert explains the Ring
Deryck Cooke gets under the surface but without any any confusing and pretentious psychobabble.

Masterly Exegesis
This book is a model of thoughtful interpretation.Cooke begins by setting out why interpretation of the Ring cycle has been so difficult.This is seen as due partly to the enormous complexity of the work, partly due to the fact that prior major interpretations have been based on somewhat unrealistic preconceptions, for example, Bernard Shaw's social-political interpretation, and partly due to prior major interpretations bypassing close analysis of the music itself.Cooke develops a set of explicit criteria for an accurate interpretation of the Ring and applies them to prior major interpretative efforts.His critique of Robert Dornington's Jungian analysis, for example is moderate in tone but devastating in effect.Cooke defends Wagner against the charge that the plot and characters of the Ring are a shoddily assembled hodge-podge of myth.Cooke performs a careful analysis of Wagner's sources, using the same editions that Wagner drew from.Cooke demonstrates Wagner's careful and artful selection and modification of elements from German and Nordic mythology into a sophisticated and well integrated drama.Cooke's recurring term for Wagner's craft is masterly and he is correct.With this background, Cooke moves to a careful analysis of the plot and characters of the first 2 operas, Rheingold and Valkyrie.An essentially step by step analysis shows how Wagner used plot and character to advance his theme of the conflict of power versus love.
The only defect of this book is that it ends with the conclusion of Valkyrie.Though this book is over 350 pages long (in a small but not miniscule font), this would have been only the beginning of Cooke's projected opus on the Ring.Presumably, there would have been an equivalent amount of enlightening text on Siegfried and Gotterdamerung.Cooke then apparently planned a major work analyzing the development of musical aspects of the drama.Listeners who have heard Cooke's excellent introduction to the leitmotivs of the Ring will have had a taste of what Cooke planned.Its truly unfortunate that Cooke didn't live to complete this project.

Sadly, unfinished
i saw the world end is one of the most brilliant studies of wagner's ring. unfortunately, deryck cooke died before he finished his survey. still, i saw the world end remains an important work detailing the ring and die walkure in particular.

extraordinary book
This really is an extraordinary book - it is the most comprehensive, insightful, and consistent study of Wagner's Ring des Niblungen.It offers some musical analysis of the leitmotivs, and is one of the first books to begin a revision of von Wolzogen's grossly erroneous analysis of the leitmotivs; it provides a plethora of highly organized information about the stages of Wagner's sketches and librettos and the original myths/legends/sagas from which he drew; and a scene by scene analysis of Rheingold and Walkure.

This book actually makes sense of Der Ring des Niblungen - no easy task, as anyone familiar with the opera tetralogy is well aware.If you are interested in the tetralogy and want to know more about it, this is THE book.There are, however, two tragedies associated with this book: the first is that the author's untimely death prevented him from finishing the book (though the material printed is itself finished).The whole book should have been about three times the length of the printed material.The second tragedy is that it is OUT OF PRINT - this is absolutely disgraceful...hopefully this title will come in to print again.

Get a hold of a copy of this book if you can. ... Read more

Product Description
The most brilliant exponent of Frankfurt School Marxism subtly interweaves aesthetics and ideology in this probing analysis of the controversial composer's oeuvre.Written in exile from Germany, this potent study of Europe’s most controversial composer explodes the frontiers of musical and cultural analysis. Measuring key elements of Wagner’s oeuvre with patent musical dexterity, Adorno sheds light on a nineteenth-century bourgeois figure whose operas betray the social gestures and high-culture fantasies that helped plant the seeds of the modern Culture Industry. A foreword by Slavoj Zizek situates Adorno’s reflections within present debates over Wagner’s anti-Semitism and the moral status of his work, proving why this book remains one of the most important character studies of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

philosophical, sociological, and musical analyses
Brilliant criticism and insight by one of the most influential philosophers of the mid-twentieth century.The introduction by "The Giant of Ljubjana," Slavoy Zizek, is alone worth the cost of the volume.

Adorno is uniquely qualified by his encyclopedic knowledge, his profession of philosopher, and his extensive familiarity of music: many commentators have written exclusively about Wagner's sociological paradigms (e.g. George Bernard Shaw), or Wagner's philosophy of renunciation (Nietzsche), or Wagner's mythological influences (Joseph Campbell), or the music itself (Deryck Cooke).Adorno's analysis of Wagner, on the other hand, not limited to one type of analysis but provides a rare synthesis of many different insights.

One caveat: an extensive familiarity with Wagner is assumed by this volume.To get the most out of this book, the reader should be familiar with the plots of Wagner's operas (they are ALL discussed).Additionally, the reader should have at least some background in music theory: enough to know that a dominant followed by a submediant is a deceptive cadence, that an F# over an E major triad forms a V9 chord, and basic definitions of terms like "leitmotiv," "development," etc.

new translation of work by influential 20th-century thinker
The European emigre writer Adorno is a major mid 20th century author identified with the Frankfurt School of social criticism. Although this School is usually described as having a Marxist perspective, the social criticism of Adorno is not doctrinaire or propagandistic. Adorno's writings--as this current publication testifies again--have stood the test of time for their acuteness, rigor, and application of first-rate intellectual powers to subjects of the contemporary society. These qualities of Adorno's critical thinking are evident as well in his work "In Search of Wagner." In a 20-page introductory foreword, the philosopher/social critic Slavoj Zizek takes up the question "Why Is Wagner Worth Saving?" Wagner's music, ideas, and biography continue to draw the attention of thinkers in various fields because exploration of these and positions reached regarding them yield insights and assessments on power, anti-Semitism, art, psychology, and politics in the modern world. Written in the late 1930s, "In Search of Wagner" demonstrates Adorno's innovative, timely, and valuable methodology as it grapples with central questions of modern culture.

great probing analysis into the last Romantic
Adorno wrote this as a response to the growing inflated enthusiasm of Wagner's Operas during the War Years,with the darkest pages of Europa.It was inevitable the Third Reich was to seize upon these works primarily the more facile operas as 'Die Meistersinger','Lohengrin', and leave the more controversial RING to languish for history to ponder.
Adorno always had a nerve-ending unbalanced by Wagner's penchant for the arbitrary largesse, the amplitude, the inflated-ness of his creative procedures,the "Gesamtkunstwerk", that while addressing the problems of all artistic genres resolved none of them in the end. Wagner's pathological ways of endowing characters and dramatic situations as sometimes reflections of things he himself had experienced was not the way to proceed in art,but skewed imagery that worked nonetheless in certain respects like his trip to the hellish London Docks as a metaphor for the oppressive beneath the earth Nibelungen-land.His inconsistentcy of character building as the power of the gods being determined by Wotan's Security Agreements with himself.Well this conceit is what had preserved the aristocracy in Europa,again as a metaphor in the "Ring". Poor Brunnhilde,once a god for example becomes a mortal,but it was necessary for her to have to bring the destruction of the gods. (None of her Sister Walkure helped)
Adorno utilized the "fetish" concept from Marx his entire life it was a triggering point for determining what had remained "Art" for him and what had transgressed into the vagaries of whatever the market had necessitated as popular culture, detective film noirs jazz and the post-war avant-garde. Some beleive Adorno went a bit into the metaphysical for no known reason and the jazz he had listened to was the surface kind Hollywood would have promoted, he never heard John Coltrane for example or Cecil Taylor.(It is odd that Adorno only found "innovative-ness" in certain forms and not others, Schoenberg and not Stravinsky)
But with Wagner he is on his own turf with the hypocrisies residing within modern German culture(something the Ring had profoundly represented actually) of the Junker ruling Classes as he had looked at what culture was promoted and what then was considered"subversive"(His diatribe against Richard Strauss is another example where he claimed his melodies reached for the sky without much content or constructive ontology as the Krupp & Thyssen smokestakes from the Ruhr Valley.

The book on Wagner has chapters on various aesthetic categories, "Tone", "Dramaturgy","The Social" "Text","Orchestration", and "Phantasmagoria" that"other" dimension. Wagner was in fact far-looking, he thought of his operas as time related "cinemas" inhabiting durational frames of the magical,Valhalla, the Real and the Below-the-Earth,different levels of the Symbolic, The Imaginary,and the Real;( Lacan in retrospect would have been a good reservoir for analysis as well.(See Slavoj Zizek's writings on opera) Adorno's primary argument with Herr Wagner is one of construction,of development,of agenda that his working means are quite arbitrary since the music is dependant on the narrative,where characters go,why they go and their demise.(Although the structure of the RING can be considered a symphony with grandiose development internally)The constructive focus we have is the leit-motiv found simply tossed wandering around as Deleuze's "rhizome".Where is the the vigours of motivic construction,of developmental variations.Adorno was too conservative to look at this paradigm in this perspective as a buddening element of modernity itself of "fragments"coexisting together of the "incomplete"propelled forward for its tension state of irresolution. (Curious again that/how Adrono had the highest regard for the rationed irrationality of Samuel Beckett)(Recall the context of Wagner at this time, the Thirties when there were not high level productions nor interpretive insights into the political and cultural content of Wagner's operas.Brunnhilde still wore cumbersome breastplates and Wotan with his Viking attire as everyone in the Ring inhabiting a neverland of mountains, Rocks and boulders with Giants pounding the pavements)But there are also acknowledged points of sophistication,as the intersting differences in orchestration in the four parts of the "Ring".(The pastoral "Die Walkure" contrasted to the "flying" and the darkened keys of "Gotterdamurung",the divisi strings,and other worldliness as Alberich's dream-like "dialogue" with Hagen where many motives are introduced assemblage,collage-like)
One chapter "Tone" for example is a term from the lifeworld of the visual arts and here in music it resides in orchestration as the excessive and interesting use of strident timbre; brass and primarily tenor and bass voices in "Siegfreid",but then again all thisamplified puffed-up "Strength" is for a hero who is quite naive,ignorant and unperceptive,easily dupped into doing anything.And yet again the mists let us say of anti-semiticism in the character of Mime are well present( Certainly Wagner's audiences knew of this reference.)Whereas today it is ignored as a "relic" of the past?? This iswhere the "Social" element comes into view for his interjecting the "exchange" relationship as oppsed to the "true" one as Siegmund and Sieglinde one based on love (although incestual) whereas Sieglinde's relation with Hunding is strictly based on "exchange" something to be eradicated or resolved in some way. Likewise Alberich renounces love(he pays a price) from the seductive advances of the Rhinemaidens for the power of gold,power is created only in "exchange" in Contract and Lease Agreements; the Ring whereas Wotan never renounces his power he simply looses it and becomes a "Wandering" pilgrim in search of his Security Agreements.(Wotan had lost an eye however recall when he married, loss of vision)The remaining gods and the Rhibemaidens loss their longevity.

It seems Adorno has great fun with Wagner's pre-Ring operas,"Lohengrin" and "Tannhauser" the immature factor at work,the atrempt to write the Verdi-ian stopping point aria as in "Tannhauser"(Evening Song) and the dancing bachanal of Venusberg Act One(dance as an enduring genre in opera) for he had not really found himself,so he simply followed rather than embarked on innovation as Adorno would have required; in fact not until "Parsifal" can we say this,where the technique meets the concept in full fruition.
Still Adorno brings a wealth of thought to again why things are created the consistency of durational frames or lack thereof of narrative and plot.(He does similar workings with his book on Mahler, again seeing the negative and positive).Finally Adorno did not see the future of modern music as residing here in Wagner,he saw it as the ends of. . . ... Read more

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On Conducting (?eber Das Dirigiren) : a Treatise. please visit www.valdebooks.com for a full list of titles ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

A fascinating life finally revealed in full
Oliver Hilmes (seconded by a skillful translation from Stewart Spencer) begins this invaluable, extremely readable life of Richard Wagner's great helpmate by documenting the defects of all previous biographies.All were hobbled by lack of access to the Bayreuth Archives (including hundreds of letters and other documents that pack the pages here), or were politically managed by forces within the family and/or members of the cult Cosima had so relentlessly constructed around her late husband.The result is a detailed, exhaustive study that never feels cumbersome, being leavened by a sly wit and a keen eye for the illuminating tidbit.

There are stories told here that beggar the imagination, stories that confirm Nike Wagner (Richard's great-granddaughter) in her famous statement that to be born a Wagner was like being raised "in the German branch of the House of Atrius".Hilmes' description of Cosima's demeanor and actions during the 24 hours immediately following Wagner's death is in itself worth the price of the book.

Hilmes examines at length the connection between the Festival and the growing German Nationalist movement that led directly to the alliance of the Festival, Cosima's daughter-in-law Winifred, and Adolph Hitler.For those who claim "Wagner was a Nazi" or, when called on that, "Well, Wagner WOULD have been a Nazi", Hilmes traces the real origin and development of the unheilig Bayreuth-Wagner axis and its name was Cosima Liszt von Bulow Wagner.

Honest portrait of a historic figure
This book gives an objective portrayal of a woman who was very much a product of circumstances and of her generation, yet very much ahead of her time in some ways. Her life was both magic and tragic. A lot of tangential history is provided with regard to the important men in her life - Liszt, von Bulow, and Wagner. The historical events of the day are blended in to show their impact on her life and her personality. In the end, one is left with a sense of ambivalence regarding her "likeability". Like her father, Liszt, and her husband, Wagner, she could be both admired and despised at the same time. She was a rabid anti-Semite, even worse than both of her husbands. Yet without her strong will and influence and ability to work with some of the very people she despised, the Bayreuth festival would have never survived.
The author provides a good narrative, easily readable, and not overly-burdened with trivia. The author had at his disposal letters and documents that were unknown to previous biographers, and therefore is able to paint a more accurate picture of her. One is still left wondering what responsibility, if any, Cosima shares for the linkage of Wagner to Hitler. It is hinted that she may indeed have been introduced to Hitler in the 1920's when he was given a tour of the Wahnfried home by Winifred Wagner, but admits that there are no supporting documents to prove that they ever met. Overall a very interesting read.

Bayreuth: Spiritual Home of Nazism
Hilmes has written a finely detailed study of the woman who made Bayreuth into a self-serving institution that memorialized not only Richard Wagner (both as musician and writer), but also the anti-semitic and jingoistic hangers-on who helped to manufacture his image.Cosima transformed Wagner's actual politics, which leaned toward the left, into a cult of "Aryan Culture" that sought the approval of the far-right.It is thus no surprise that in her final years Cosima was one of Adolph Hitler's earlest and most earnest admirers.

Yet this is also a compassionate biography:Cosima had a terrible childhood.The illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt, she was brought up by a series of totalitarian governesses who shaped her autocratic personality.Liszt pushed her into an unhappy marriage with Hans Von Bulow, one of Wagner's earliest champions.Wagner returned the favor by seducing his wife, who eventually secured a divorce from von Bulow.

Cosima enjoyed a wide acquaintance among political powers of her time, including the royal family.Hilmes provides a substantial number of concisely written sketches of these political figures, as well as of the three conductors who were crucial to Bayreuth's early success.

In less able hands this biography could have been merely a farrago of (sometimes) absurd characters.But Hilmes creates not only an intriguing biography of Cosima herself, but also a picture of Wilhelmine Germany, and its fatal descent into war and societal self-destruction.

Engrossing Biography
What a woman! Daughter of Franz Lizst and Marie d'Agoult (Daniel Stern), Cosima, wife to critic/conductor/pianist Hans von Bülow, later mistress of and eventually wife to Richard Wagner, and, later still, creator of the Bayreuth cult which was to exert critical influence in German cultural and political development through the second World War.This biography, first published in Germany in 2007, serves her well.Mr. Hilmes was blessed by a seamless translation from Stewart Spencer which makes the book read as it had originally been written in flowing, witty and intelligent English.The book is thoroughly annotated and indexed, as well as generously illustrated with period photographs.It claims to make use of all new documentation made available presumably after German reunification and various accommodations within the Wagner family.

Traversing such a life which began at the apex of Romanticism and ended at an interval in 20th century barbarity is a journey that keeps the reader attentive to every stage in the formation of Cosima Wagner.An emotionally neglected child (except for interludes with grandmother Lizst), sternly raised by governesses and boarding schools, intelligent, a very talented musician and pianist in her own right but denied a career by her father, the one lesson Cosima seemed to have derived was that her destiny was to be humble and find fulfillment in serving superior talent.Considering her parentage, it is indeed a strange inheritance.

There is much we know about the von Bulow-Cosima-Wagner-LudwigII soap opera. Mr. Hilmes enriches whatever knowledge I already had with a wealth of detail and much insight.As fresh detail is brought forth, gradually one cannot help but marvel at the competence, the savoir-faire that one sees developing in Cosima through the years in which she was Wagner's secretary while still married to von Bülow, as well as later, after divorce from Bülow and marriage to Wagner ensued.True to form, she devoted herself totally to Richard Wagner and the development of his career, playing a significant part in the founding of the Bayreuth festival, though never seeking the spotlight. She was efficient, resolute and ruthless as well as self-effacing.She carried herself like the aristocrat she wasn't, and demanded that sort of respect from others, putting all others to the service of "Richard Wagner," not only The Master, but the family firm. Let us not forget that Richard Wagner was 24 years Cosima's senior.When they married in 1870, Richard was 57 and Cosima would turn 33.

Yet it does not take much persuasion to conclude that Cosima truly found fulfillment with the death of Richard Wagner.Now she had the ideal which to serve without the frailties of the human being (yes, there had been infedelities by Richard), and absolute control over the means with which to exercise it.That in the process she weilded an iron fist in running family, Festival and heritage she considered it a duty. It was all to serve the ideals of art according to the wishes of the Master. Later, the ideals became those of German national identity as revealed in the writings and operatic works of Richard Wagner. Indeed, with the introduction of Houston Stewart Chamberlain into Wahnfried, we enter a period in which music and aesthetics, arguably the Richard Wagner we admire today, is less of a focus but a portal into a cult, centered in Bayreuth, of what the German nation ought to be.The almost masochistic relationship between the first Parsifal conductor Herrman Levi, a Jew, and Cosima is amply discussed, and importantly so, as anti-semitism, present since the Master was alive, became an almost obsessive part of the cult after his demise. The reactionary, anti-democratic and nationalistic views of the Bayreuth clan became more pronounced after the German defeat in the first world war. The Weimar republic became anathema; at one time Cosima clamored in exasperation that Ludendorff should become dictator.But by this time Cosima's health was in decline. Hapless Fidi (composer/conductor son Siegfried) had started managing the Festival under much maternal guidance and supervision since 1906. Though a practicing homosexual, he later had married the 18-year-old and 28 years younger English orphan, Winifred Williams-Klindsworth.One is tempted to make parallels between Cosima and Winifred, but, personally, their backgrounds are very different, furthermore it is indeed another story.In the event, by 1922, Wahnfried, was already admiring Mussolini, Cosima remarking that he was the sort of man Germany needed.

In September 1923 Bayreuth's National Socialists organized a German Day and invited a not too well known but rising Austrian politician to lead the speeches: Adolf Hitler.Cosima, though frail due to her repeated Adams-Stokes attacks, watched the brown shirts parade.Hitler visited Wahnfried and spent time with Winifred and Fidi and may have met Cosima.It was the beginning of a family association that would last. Chamberlain, Eva and Daniela Wagner, and Winifred joined the National Socialists in 1926. Cosima and Siegfried did not.In many ways the Bayreuth cult had come to symbolize the ideological bent Germany would follow through the third Reich.At this time, with Wagner royalties having expired and the Wagner riches (they had become millionaires) dwindling, it had also become clear that the future of Bayreuth would lie with Adolf Hitler, a fact Winifred never forgot, but, again, that is another story (well told in: Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler's Bayreuth.

Cosima died on 01 April 1930 at age 92; Siegfried survived his mother by 126 days.Within 24 hours of his death, Winifred assumed control of the Bayreuth Festival.

I have always felt that Hitler would have had the career he had without Bayreuth.Yet, from all I have read, I find it easy to believe that this most self-assured, indeed delusional, man, sought some sort of personal validation through his long association with the Wahnfried group, initially not so much with the fading Cosima as with Chamberlain, later with Winifred, and eventually with the young brothers, Wieland and Wolfgang.This again, is beyond the scope of Mr. Hilmes.

I know of no other Cosima biography in English. This one is packed with information and is a pleasure to read.It is not a biography of Richard Wagner, so those looking for a musico-centric volume should search elsewhere.But what the Master came to represent would not have been possible without Cosima, fairly or not.That the glories of his musical works live on is tribute enough to his genius, independently of the ideological currents which for a while and through the strong efforts of Cosima flowed from the Green Hill.This book is strongly recommended not only to music lovers but to anyone interested on the currents which steered historical events in the twentieth century. Oliver Hilmes has written a magnificent biography. ... Read more

Product 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. Full references, a bibliography and a discography are provided. A special chapter of musical analysis is contributed by Arnold Whittall. ... 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

Product Description
Originally published in 1903.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Check your ISBN!
For ISBN 963-8303-06-9, the title is correct.This is a facsimile reprint edition of the full score for Wagner's music drama Parsifal. The back page states, "This is an unabridged reprint of the first Schott edition (s.d.), the first print of the full score. The copy reproduced here is preserved in the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Center, Budapest..."This book would be appropriate for anyone who wishes a copy of the full score for study or performance purposes; look elsewhere if you want plot summaries or interpretations or critical reviews because that is not the purpose of this work.

Opera Guide number 34 - PARSIFAL
The information presented above contains some errors.This is not a score: it is an Opera Guide, one of a series published in association with the two principal London opera companies (Royal Opera and ENO).Thesebooks are intended to prepare audiences to evaluate and enjoy operaperformances.Each book contains a complete libretto with a paralleltranslation into English (in this case, the singing translation by AndrewPorter).

There are five articles in Opera Guide no.34, as follows:

'AVery Human Epic' by Mike Ashman: a distinguished opera director, best knownfor his Wagner productions; these have included the WNO 'Ring' and'Parsifal', the Norwegian Opera's 'Ring' and productions at Covent Garden. This essay provides an excellent introduction to Wagner's 'Parsifal'.Itdoes however contain a few factual errors; in particular, Ashman is clearlyout of his depth when he discusses Wagner's sources such as the 'PoeticEdda' (for the 'Ring') and Chretien de Troyes (for 'Parsifal').

ThisGuide was completed in 1986, and therefore it is understandable that thecontroversy that blew up around 'Parsifal' in the mid-1980's does notreceive an adequate treatment here.The criticisms of Hartmut Zelinsky andRobert Gutman are mentioned, briefly, in a footnote at the end of Ashman'sarticle.

'Recapitulation of a Lifetime' by Dieter Borchmeyer.I foundthis rather an eccentric take on 'Parsifal'.The author erroneouslybelieves that the genesis of the work began in 1865; whereas Wagnerrecorded that the initial inspiration came in Marienbad in 1845 and thefirst sketch was written soon after Good Friday 1857.Borchmeyer alsoseems to be under the impression that Amfortas is meant to die at the endof 'Parsifal'; although this is a variant seen in many productions, it wasnot Wagner's idea.Etc.

'Experiencing Music and Imagery in Parsifal' byRobin Holloway: composer and professor of music in the University ofCambridge.In this fascinating article, Holloway identifies a"sonorous image cluster" at the core of the work.When so manyarticles about Wagner are leitmotif-fixated, it is refreshing to read ananalysis of a Wagner score in which it is seen as an organic whole in whichharmonic and melodic elements are inseparable.

'Parsifal: Words andMusic' by Carolyn Abbate.An eccentric article (or is it an undergraduateessay?).The reader should refer to his score when Abbate does so, sinceshe often misreads her score.

'Discursions into the Dramaturgy ofParsifal' by Gerd Rienäcker.I have no idea what this purple prose mightbe about!Rienäcker tells us that, at the end of act 2, Parsifal 'sets offinto the wilderness with no idea where he is going'.On the contrary,Parsifal knows *exactly* where he is going; he just does not know how toget there.

There is also a useful 'Thematic Guide' by Lionel Friend,which contains 69 musical examples, some of which might be called'leitmotiven'.He omits at least one of importance: Newman's 'Atonement'. Both the libretto and some of the articles refer to these musical examplesby their numbers.

On balance, I can recommend this book as anintroduction to 'Parsifal'.Even though I would have preferred it withouta couple of the essays.

Full Score
This book is a full score of the opera, printed in Hungary.The paper and paperback binding are good quality, and the book lies open easily.There is, however, no index of acts or scenes, and all the stage directions anddialogue are in German with no translation.The price of $7.98 is abargain. ... Read more

Product Description
German/English - Cloth Score. Translated by Jameson.Amazon.com Review
Goetterdaemmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) isthe fourth and last of Wagner's mighty cycle of operas based onancient Germanic sagas and myths of gods and heroes. The undauntableand mighty Siegfried awakens the sleeping Valkyrie Brunnhilde, andfinally learns the meaning of fear when he falls in love with her. Buthe soon feels the need to go adventuring, and makes the mistake oflanding at the Gibichung hall, where Gunther seeks to gain fame withthe aid of his half-brother Hagen (son of the vindictive dwarfAlberich) and their sister Gutrune. Hagen drugs Siegfried, causing himto forget his former life with Brunnhilde and to fall in love withGutrune. Siegfried, disguised, then brings Brunnhilde to wedGunther. But Brunnhilde, who is furious, schemes with Hagen to killthe hero. When his bier is brought to the hall after a fatal huntingparty, she sets it alight and then rides onto it herself; with thisfire, Valhalla itself is turned to flames, and the end of the gods isat hand. Hagen is drowned by the Rhinemaidens, who reclaim the magicgold whose power set this complex saga into motion. The world isreborn, to be inherited by mere men and women.

Rudolph Sabor is a master translator. He does a superb job ofrecasting Wagner's words into readable English while still retainingall the tricks of meter and alliteration that are so important toGoetterdaemmerung; this could well be used as a singingtranslation. The book has other help for students, including sidecomments on the action, drama, and background, and it tells readerswhere each of the leitmotifs occurs. The bibliography, discography,and other references make this an extremely useful package for anyonewho wants to know more about this ne plus ultra of the operatic world. ... Read more

Product Description
Wagner's Hitler is an important and controversial contribution to the literature on Hitler's Germany.Köhler powerfully argues that Wagner's influence played a vital role in shaping the cultural context in which Nazism developed.Köhler traces the legacy of the German romantic tradition and the irrational, egocentric, nationalistic and intolerantly utopian features which were shared by Wagner and Hitler. He explores how Hitler discovered characters he could identify with in Wagner's work, as well as concepts he could apply to his political career, up to the point when Wagner's anti-Semitic tracts were turned into violent reality by the politician he had inspired. In a compelling study, Köhler traces Wagner's influence on Hitler from the young Austrian scraping together the price of an opera ticket, to the dictator enacting his megalomaniac Wagnerian visions of a Germany that would rule the world. He also shows how Wagner's family in Bayreuth supported Hitler from the beginning of his political career, and aided his introduction into highly influential circles.Considerable controversy surrounded this book upon publication in Germany and the English-language edition ofWagner's Hitler is bound to provoke similar heated discussion among all who are interested in the debates about Hitler and his context, Wagner's political influence, and the social and cultural factors which shaped the rise of Nazism in Germany. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Rubbish
First off, one thing should be absolutely clear to anyone contemplating actually reading this book: the jury is in on Joachim Köhler's credentials as a scholar: he has none. Ian Kershaw, author of the standard biography on Hitler, dismisses this freewheeling journalist in a footnote with a shrug of his shoulders. Richard J. Evans, another of today's foremost authorities on the Third Reich, is similarly dismissive in a review, noting how 'phrases and quotations are time and again ripped from their context in the writings or sayings of Hitler and Wagner and made to look as if they are saying the same thing. None of this is remotely persuasive.' Scholars of Wagner are usually a bit more timorous, as they are always afraid of being accused of 'defending' the 'Meister,' yet they too well know that Köhler is not a scholar, but an amateur writer of fictitious history.

It has often been noted that the enduring obsession with Hitler and his Nazi Empire has something rather obscene about it. This book is a perfect example of that. And just as there will always be an audience for shoddy documentaries about Nazi magic, the UFOs of the SS, or Hitler's escape to Brazil in 1947, so there will apparently always be publishers for this type of masturbatory fantasies. It's an attempt to rewrite history--not because Herr Köhler himself has any type of ideological agenda that he wants to push, but because he wants to make money.

It should be clear as well that to point this out is not in any way to deny that Hitler's fascination with Wagner deserves closer scrutiny. Rather the opposite: since the subject is indeed an important one, if also very difficult as Hitler in fact didn't say all that much about his favorite composer, it requires a kind of sensitive analysis that Köhler is neither competent nor willing to provide.

It is rather amusing that some of the reviewers here seem to have been taken in with Köhler's extensive footnotes and bibliography, as if that were enough to ensure a high scholarly standard. But all too often, these footnotes do not refer to what Köhler suggests they are referring to. For instance, the author seeks to bolster his claim that Dietrich Eckart was a 'Wagnerian' by a reference to Margarete Plewnia's study 'Auf dem Weg zu Hitler: Der völkishce Publizist Dietrich Eckart.' Yet Plewnia does not mention Wagner *once* in her book, and the simple fact is that Eckart was not particularly fond of Wagner's music, and certainly not a student of his prose writings (few people ever have been--as Richard J. Evans has noted, there is not even any solid evidence that Hitler ever read these texts).

Sad to see that the translator Ronald Taylor--himself the author of a few decent biographies--has been so infected by Köhler's method of 'scholarship' that he even seeks to emulate him in the preface. He writes: "The great cry of 'wach auf!'--'Awake!'--that goes up in the final scene of Die Meistersinger found an echo in the Nazi challenge of 'Germany Awake!'" Note how Taylor provides the German for 'wach auf!,' but not for 'Germany awake!' The reason for this is simple: whereas in English, we have 'awake' in both cases, the Nazi slogan was 'Deutschland, Erwache!'--which is of course less of an 'echo' of 'wach auf.' In addition, both Taylor and Köhler are obviously trying to insinuate that the slogan derived from Wagner, which it didn't. It came from a poem by Dietrich Eckart ('Sturm, Sturm, Sturm'), which had nothing whatsoever to do with the composer. To assume that either Köhler or Taylor was not aware of this would strain credulity beyond breaking point. But they write it nonetheless.

Finally, it may be noted that though the quote from the New York Times appearing under the section 'Editorial Reviews' on the Amazon page for this book is accurate, it is not from a review for 'Wagner's Hitler,' but from an article about Daniel Barenboim.

A very important book on Hitler
There are few people in this world who were more obsessed with Richard Wagner than Adolf Hitler.A good view of Hitler as a young man is presented in the book written by his most important childhood friend, August Kubizek The Young Hitler I Knew.They met at the Opera House in Linz.

It is really ludicrous that some reviewers here seem to deny the connection between Hitler and Wagner.Some facts are in order.

Wagner was more than one man.He and his brilliant wife Cosima built a business and political machine.It was Wagner who was the most important sponsor and promoter of Arthur Gobineau, the founder of intellectual racism in Europe.He's one of the people from whom Hitler got his ideas about race.The Wagner family then promoted Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the leading philosopher of racism in the Kaiser's Germany.In 1923 Hitler would meet Chamberlain when he was welcomed to Haus Wahnfried, the Wagner home in Bayreuth.Chamberlain would then endorse Hitler as the future savior of Germany.The entire Wagner machine would then be set in motion to promote Hitler.Details of this are in the book.

I have a list of German history books on my Amazon profile page that give more information on the connection between Wagner and Hitler.

Did Hitler and Wagner agree on all points?No.Few people in history do.However, the romantic visions of Wagner were of overwhelming power in inspiring Hitler and driving him forward.

WAGNER PREDICTED THE NAZI DEFEAT
The Wagner/Nazi connection has been around for a long time now. and I just don't think there is much direct linkage there. Wagner himself was long dead before Hitler even showed up and cannot be judged by the acts of his family and followers.The most prominent later Wagner family member who was definitely a Nazi sympathizer was Winifred Wagner, and she was British.

Certainly Wagner and the Germans of Wagner's day were seriously antisemitic, but then so were British, Americans, Poles, Russians etc.While he objected to Jewishness in theory, Wagner worked with Jews throughout his life and in many other respects had advanced liberal views.He was a great German composer obviously loved by Germans, not to mention many other nationalities, including that bastion of liberal progressivism George Bernard Shaw.

I struck by the failure of many to realize that far from glorifying war and conquest, Wagner was quite the other way.His major work, the Ring of the Nibelung isa story of the downfall of the gods who seek to consolidate power in their Valhalla fortress.It and they are destroyed at the end of the Ring.So if the Nazis had realy been paying attention they should have been very nervous about what Wagner was saying.

The Nazi's even named their major defence line, the Siegfried line, however, Siegfried is destroyed in the last opera after being misled into betraying his "wife" Brunhilde,so why did the Nazis want to make hima talisman of security?

I think they were blinded by the stirring militaristic music which appears in sections of the opera, and ignored the overall stories.

There is a book crying out to be written about how the Nazi's blinded themselves to the obvious messages in Wagner's work esepcially about the arrogance of power.These were not just incidental matters in his work, but his main story themes and should have acted as a warning and given them pause.

Lack of information
This book is excellent. It lacks the information that Richard Wagner was a SS member and a fanatic nazy party member. After the war he escaped from Nuremberg trials to Paraguay, where he composed his last opera "Parifal". All the other information in this book is absolutely correct and real.

The marching music...
I read this together with Magee's recent The Tristan Chord and the two together create a funny dissonance, if not a blown gasket, but the twice over left a few question marks next to Kohler's book. This does not subtract from the book's remarkable interest and I would recommend Wagner defenders 'face the music' here to the extent of at least not ignoring it. Wagner wasn't your garden variety shmuck.
However, I felt as if I were left hanging by a text that was poorly documented, and found myself suddenly distanced from the text with some of the speculative takes cut into the footage. No footnotes, no deal, and the question is on hold since tracking down this data is not an afternoon's work. That's a pity since I doubt if this objection will deflect the author's basic point. The interleaving of Hitler bits with Wagner bits was confusing also, better to have simply laid out the sequence. Then it might be clearer that, while Wagner probably cannot be easily absolved here, it is also doubtful if we can establish a full or correct chain of consequence. Finally, blaming all this on the Romantic movement doesn't quite wash, and the fact is, as the Magee book shows, that we are dealing with a very complex figure in Wagner (as Nietzsche well knew)and a very tangled social question involving the sources of fascism in the rightist reaction of the nineteenth century. Indeed, it is sad to see the hothead of 1848 turning into the cultural derelict pursuing the 'aesthetic state', with such a bone crushing opposite result. Important, but sad book. Needs further commentary, however, with some historical backup. ... Read more