Research Catalog

Title

Drama and the world of Richard Wagner / Dieter Borchmeyer ; translated by Daphne Ellis.

Author

Borchmeyer, Dieter.

Publication

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2003.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 391 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"Richard Wagner continues to be the most controversial artist in history, a perpetually troubling figure in our cultural consciousness. The unceasing debate over his works and their impact - for and against - is one reason why there has been no genuinely comprehensive modern account of his musical dramas until now. Dieter Borchmeyer's book is the first to present an overall picture of these musical dramas from the standpoint of literary and theatrical history. It extends from the composer's early works - still largely ignored - to the Ring Cycle and Parsifal, and includes Wagner's unfinished works and operas he never set to music. Through lively prose, we come to see Wagner as a librettist - and as a man of letters - rather than primarily as a musical composer."--BOOK JACKET.

Uniform Title

Richard Wagner. English

Alternative Title

Richard Wagner.

Subjects

• Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883 > Criticism and interpretation
• Wandering Jew

Note

• Translation of: Richard Wagner : Ahasvers Wandlung.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [338]-381) and index.

Contents

Ch. 1. Love's Madness, Fairy-Tale Enchantment, and a Sicilian Carnival: Die Hochzeit, Die Feen, and Das Liebesverbot -- Ch. 2. On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for the Music Drama - Grand Opera: Die hohe Braut, Rienzi, and Their Consequences -- Ch. 3. The Transformations of Ahasuerus: The Flying Dutchman and His Metamorphoses -- Ch. 4. Venus in Exile: Tannhauser between Romanticism and Young Germany -- Ch. 5. Lohengrin: The Mythical Palimpsest of Wagner's Last Romantic Opera -- Ch. 6. Love and Objectification in the Music Drama: Tristan's Isolde and Her Sisters -- Ch. 7. Nuremberg as an Aesthetic State: Die Meistersinger, an Image and Counterimage of History -- Ch. 8. The Myth of the Beginning and End of History: Der Ring des Nibelungen -- Ch. 9. Redemption and Apocatastasis: Parsifal and the Religion of the Late Wagner -- Ch. 10. An Encounter between Two Anomalies: King Ludwig II and Wagner -- Ch. 11. Wagner and Bismarck: An Epoch-Making Nonrelationship -- Ch. 12. Two-Faced Passion: Nietzsche's Critique of Wagner -- Ch. 13. Parallel Action: Thomas Mann's Response to Wagner -- Ch. 14. The Disinherited Heir to the Throne: Franz Wilhelm Beidler, Wagner's "Lost Grandson" - a Postlude.

ISBN

0691114978 (alk. paper)

LCCN

2003043394

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries