Book Description
Wagner's operas can be counted among the most important works of art of the nineteenth century. But Wagner was a composer around whom violent artistic, political, and literary controversies raged during his lifetime. Even today, Wagner's music seems to arouse either adulation or antipathy. In The Complete Operas of Richard Wagner, as in the first four volumes of his famous series on the great opera composers, Charles Osborne first describes the composer's life at the time he wrote each opera, thus providing a biographical thread which runs through the book; follows it with a thorough examination of the libretto and its sources; and lastly tells the story of the opera, which he links to the major musical features. This book is, in effect, a musical biography of Wagner, tracing his development from his first complete opera, Die Feen, to his last, Parsifal. It serves as an invaluable guide to the often perplexing Wagner oeuvre both for the regular opera-goer and the armchair listener. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Adequate; mediocre. Ernest Newman does same thing better.
Osborne gives some background on the writing of each of the mature Wagner operas. Then a quick plot summary, with some of the key musical themes.Since a synopsis comes with every complete opera recording, I'm not surehow useful these synopses are. We get too much explanation of plot and notenough critical commentary, by my standards. And little in the commentaryis new; Ernest Newman's book "Wagner Nights", though 50 or soyears older, is still a better introduction, making the same points asOsborne, and more.

Not all the commentary is reliable; the chapter on"Parsifal" buys into some of the nonsense first talked by RobertGutman about this opera (the Grail knights as homosexual SS order, and soon), which has been comprehensively and devastatingly demolished by LucyBecket in her book "Parsifal".

I find Osborne's"even-handedness" a little irritating at times. "Tristan undIsolde", he says, is a masterpiece, though it's too long, of course.That reminds me of Mozart's reply to the Emperor who thought his "IlSeraglio" score had "too many notes": "Which notes doyou think I should take out?" (I'm quoting the "Amadeus"movie there, and from memory, so that's not quite what was really said, butclose enough.) Like Mozart, I find that a dumb comment, unless Osbornecares to tell us which parts of "Tristan" etc we should do awaywith to make it shorter. And I think the job of someone writing anintroduction to any composer is to be critical, certainly, but also tocommunicate enthusiasm, not weariness.

So for new insights, Tanner,Magee, Millington are better, and for "sources, plot plot summary plusmusical commentary" Newman is better. It's not actually bad, justmediocre. Also, unlike Newman Osborne covers the first three Wagner operas,"Die Feen", "Das Liebesverbot" and "Reinzi",so that's quite useful.

Laon ... Read more

Book Description
Do you cringe when your opera-loving friends start raving about the latest production of Tristan? Do you feel faint just thinking about the six-hour performance of Parsifal you were given tickets to? Does your mate accuse you of having a Tannhäuser complex? If you're baffled by the behavior of Wagner worshipers, if you've longed to fathom the mysteries of Wagner's ever-increasing popularity, or if you just want to better understand and enjoy the performances you're attending, you'll find this delightful book indispensable.

William Berger is the most helpful guide one could hope to find for navigating the strange and beautiful world of the most controversial artist who ever lived. He tells you all you need to know to become a true Wagnerite--from story lines to historical background; from when to visit the rest room to how to sound smart during intermission; from the Jewish legend that possibly inspired Lohengrin to the tragic death of the first Tristan. Funny, informative, and always a pleasure to read, Wagner Without Fear proves that the art of Wagner can be accessible to everyone.

Includes:
- The strange life of Richard Wagner--German patriot (and exile), friend (and enemy) of Liszt and Nietzsche
- Essential opera lore and "lobby talk"
- A scene-by-scene analysis of each opera
- What to listen for to get the most from the music
- Recommended recordings, films, and sound tracks ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Great Overview
A very reader-friendly review of Wagner's life and then a serious concentration on all of his operas.

Excellent resource for all opera fans.
This is an excellent book for someone like me - a total novice to Wagner and his music.I have always enjoyed Wagner's music and was desperately looking for some introductory material to his works.What I wanted was something that was not too simplistic and not too academic.Well, this is it.

The book contains a brief section on biography followed by a great introduction to each of Wagner's operas. I read each of the opera introductions at least twice and then watch the opera on DVD (The Met's version by Levine).What a treat!

I do understand how some of the more scholarly amongst us find this work shallow and demeaning.But friends, for someone like myself, who does not read music; and has no formal training in music, books such as these are a good first start.And who knows - this book may introduce some yet unknown kid to the joys of opera.

Excellent work.Thank you.

Come on...loosen your collars scholars. This book is good.
I am a young music student and I checked this book out to introduce myself to Wagner's operas. I think this book is fantastic. I also think it is a bit unfair that people nag the book for not being academic enough, for trivializing the meaning of the opers, etc. etc. It seems to me the book only attempts to be an INTRODUCTION to Wagner's operas, and in that sense, he does a great job. The list of reccommending reading tells me that this is meant only as a welcome mat and a vast amount of more serious literature awaits anyone who wishes to dive further into the subject. It is the same sort of Scholarly Elitism you get from people who condemn this book that keeps the classics away from my generation and keeps it in the concert hall for a concert going audience that will soon be gone. Unless people quit condemning this sort of literature which makes these great dramas accessible to new listeners, you can kiss Wagner goodbye in 20 years. Maybe less.

Oh, and Wagner was not just an anarchist, blah blah...he was a horrible anti-semite...more so than the "common sentiment of his day". I saw Gottfried Wagner give a lecture and I think he threw a number out that said Wagner wrote over 1800 pages of anti-semetic sentiments. That seems a bit more than a common sentiment. "All Jews should be burned at a performance of Nathan the Wise." - Richard Wagner.

-- Kyle M. Terrizzi --

bad suggestion for wagner fans
this book is a poor reccomendation for those who appreciate wagner's music.

Bravo for Berger as he explores the Bayreuth Genius.
By all accounts Richard Wagner was an antisemtic bigot who practiced the art of adultery, seduction and other nefarious activities in nineteenth century Europe.He was also a musical genius who revolutionized the staid world of opera.
William Berger gives the reader a guide written in a popular, witty yet erudite style which enchants as it enterains.
Berger provides us with plot summaries of the major Wagner operas while adding chapters dealing with everything from a bibliograpy of valuable books on Wagner; a chapter on Wagner on CD's and even when to plan for bathroom breaks during interminable evenings of Wagner watching in the theatre!
I found his description of the ambience at Bayreuth to be a fascinating glimpse of the mecca for all true Wagnerites making the pilgrimage to the shirne of the Master.
This book will be a welcome addition to newcomers to the art of Wagner as well as seasoned operagoers.
I will keep this book on my shelf for easy access while whiling away Saturday afternoons tuned in to the Met or enjoying an evening of Tristan and Isolde on my Bose radio.
Berger is readable and opinionated. This book comes highly recommended by this reviewer. ... Read more

Book Description

Wagner is one of the most controversial of composers, and much that has been written about him--including his autobiography--is misleading. Barry Millington draws on the best previous scholarship and his own original research to set the record straight. The first part of this book is devoted to biography; the second, to a detailed study of the operas. Millington offers a historical review of the critical interpretation of each opera, including a discussion of recent methods of formal analysis. In this revised edition, two chapters, those on Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger, include significant new material. The bibliography has also been updated.

Book Description
One of the most controversial figures in the history of ideas as well as music, Richard Wagner continues to stimulate debate whenever his works are performed.Drawing upon the scholarship of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, the most comprehensive dictionary of opera in the world, Barry Millington offers a concise, portable survey and guide, which will make a welcome addition to the shelf of anyone who loves opera.Millington has completely updated the original pieces and contributed four new chapters on Wagner, including a summary of Wagner productions from 1876 to the present day, a suggested listening and viewing gyide, complete chronology of Wagner's operas, and a glossary of terms that will delight any opera-goer.In addition, there are detailed entries on each of Wagner's operas, a main biographical section, and a group of separate articles on such topics as Leitmotif and Gesamtkunstwerk, as well as a newly revised updated article on Bayreuth. Complete with a new preface, updated bibliography, glossary, and discography--including first release dates of each recording--The New Grove Guide to Wagner and his Operas furnishes both seasoned Wagner-lovers and neophytes with all they require for an in-depth appreciation of this unique historical figure. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Ernest Newman's study of the major Wagner operas (from Der fliegende Holländer onwards) was originally published in 1949 and rapidly achieved the status of a classic opera text, which it retains to this day. There are plenty of other, differing treatments of the stories of the operas, but none as detailed or as dramatically aware as Newman's magisterial volume. Of course, the reprint does not contain information about the composer and his works that would later come to light, nor does it traffic in current modes of thought about the operas (in some cases, thankfully). What Newman does is begin with a history of the myth or the tales on which each opera is based, widening that out to a discussion of Wagner's interest in the story, his involvement with its genesis, and an account of how the work in question was created and first produced. Since in some cases this gestation took years, Newman's clear explication does much to lift the mists surrounding even the simplest of Wagner's operas. He then discusses each opera in detail. The plethora of musical examples and Newman's understanding of Wagner's use of the leitmotif ensure that his readings are responsive both to the histrionic and musical aspects of the stories.

Reading the details of the often complex backgrounds of the operas, as well as what goes on in the opera itself (the discussion of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg alone runs to more than 110 pages of text), should immeasurably enrich the listener's opera-going experience, even in this age of the surtitle. And an appreciation of the range and cogency of Wagner's musical and dramatic genius, which this book offers, will serve to balance the unflattering portrait of Wagner the human being that dominates today's thinking about the Master. --Patrick J. Smith Book Description

In this classic guide, the foremost Wagner expert of our century discusses ten of Wagner's most beloved operas, illuminates their key themes and the myths and literary sources behind the librettos, and demonstrates how the composer's style changed from work to work. Acclaimed as the most complete and intellectually satisfying analysis of the Wagner operas, the book has met with unreserved enthusiasm from specialist and casual music lover alike. Here, available for the first time in a single paperback volume, is the perfect companion for listening to, or attending, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, Die Meistersinger, the four operas of the Ring Cycle, and Parsifal. Newman enriches his treatment of the stories, texts, and music of the operas with biographical and historical materials from the store of knowledge that he acquired while completing his numerous books on Wagner, including the magisterial Life of Richard Wagner. The text of The Wagner Operas is filled with hundreds of musical examples from the scores, and all the important leitmotifs and their interrelationships are made clear in Newman's lucid prose. "This is as fine an introduction as any ever written about a major composer's masterpieces. Newman outlines with unfailing clarity and astuteness each opera's dramatic sources, and he takes the student through the completed opera, step by step, with all manner of incidental insight along the way."--Robert Bailey, New York University

Customer Reviews (4)

A classic
I won't repeat the praise that other reviewers have expressed for this volume.This book is a classic by a Wagner scholar who really knows what he is talking about.It is an indispensable reference for any Wagner enthusiast.

The best reference I have on the subject.
Scholars and critics say that Herr Wagner's talent was in synthesis. The negative critics, e.g., specialists in a field from which they feel Wagner has stolen, tend to discredit Wagner for that. The grail was not, alas, the cup used at the last supper, prior to the opera "Parsifal" anyway. What's more the Grail theme was plagiarized from Mendelssohn. The plot of the Ring was not, alas, the same plot as the German novel "The Nibelungenlied." Wagnerians like myself, rather, see that synthesis as a symptom of Wagner's genius. He was able to take a series of sources, stories, novels, epics, songs, and cement them into a supreme art form, Gesamptkunstwerk, better than the sum of all the parts.

Newman comments intellegently on all aspects of the operas. He includes musical themes--surely a necessity in the work of that expert user of the leitmotif!--and even the psychological dimensions of the music. (Before I saw "Tristan und Isolde," I attended a presentation of a musicologist who nearly broke into tears as to the depth of the music in that opera. His comments reminded me of those of Newman regarding the same piece, which reminds me of Jung, one, whom you might say, was a product of some of the same Germanic trends of the late 19th century. But, enough on that...)

I read each review before I see the opera to which it applies. I read them again periodically. They are magnificent, allow for reasonable criticism. But they also give the devil his due.

I cannot recommend the book more strongly for anyone interested in Wagner, especially if you plan to hear or see the operas. Then leave the volume next to your bed. It's well worth re-reading, learning all dimensions of the music of perhaps the best composer who ever lived.

Is that extreme? Perhaps. Was Wagner's genius extreme? Off the scale.

Read and enjoy it.

A superb book:astonishing learning, sensible interpretations
Ernest Newman's book remains the best introduction to Wagner's operas.He is astonishingly good on Wagner's sources, and on the draft processes Wagner went through as he transformed source material into his final forms. Other books deal with different aspects of individual operas in moredepth, but this is still one of the books to start with. Everybodyinterested in Wagner should- well, the first thing to do might be tolisten to excerpts from "Die Walku:re", "Tristan" or"Parsifal", say, and be awed by the music - but once you've heardthe music, if you're still interested, you should get this book.

Laon

This is the place to start, the one you can count on
Nobody ever wrote more insighfully, brilliantly and accessibly about the titanic contribution of Richard Wagner to western culture than did E. Newman.This is a classic that should be read by all and anyone interestedin what all the fuss is about.It's an old book but it's not dated.Takehis translations seriously.Even though there are a lot of anachronisms(thou sayest...etc), they were anachronisms that RW intended when he wrotethe poem.May I also recommend the Solti Recording of the Ring; theFurtwangler studio recording of Tristan; the Jochum Meistersinger and(gasp) the Levine Parsifal (the Knappertsbusch is sublime in so manyspecial ways you may have to buy both.May I also recommend the RingInteractive CD Rom.It is a blast. ... Read more

Book Description
John F. Runciman (1866-1916) was the author of Old Scores and New Readings (1901), Wagner (1905), Haydn (1908), Purcell (1909) and Richard Wagner (1913). "It is now one hundred years since Richard Wagner was born, thirty since he died. In every land he has his monument in one shape or another; his musicdramas can be heard all the world over; all the ancient controversies as to their merits or demerits have died down. The Bayreuth theatre, the outward and visible sign of his inner greatness, has risen to the point of its most splendid glory and lapsed into the limbo of tenth-rate things. Every one who really cares for the art of music, and especially the art of opera (of which art music is by far the most important factor), has had ample time and opportunity for making up his mind." ... Read more

Amazon.com
Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) was Richard Wagner's first big success, following his promising but less-than-hit compositions, Die Feen (The Fairies) and Rienzi. Today, many still find Dutchman the most accessible of Wagner's works, and a good choice for the neophyte. You can follow the score and see how Wagner achieved his orchestral effects--like the tense, stormy music of the Dutchman's crew--with this full score from Dover. A full score is more fun for the armchair conductor, and more useful for the student, but they're not as good a deal for working singers who just need the vocal lines and piano accompaniment. Dover Scores are reprints of out-of-copyright editions from other publishers, and sometimes contain errors that have been corrected in more recent versions, but they're still the biggest bargain going in printed music.Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

The Power of the Sea... On paper!
From the very first D Major chord of the overture, to the final D of the third act, this score shows you excactly what happens!
The Horns' and Bassoons' "Dutchman" theme, sounding so wonderful, looks just as wonderful in this excellent score, with big type, and clear noteheads, easy to discern.

I especially love the clarity of the Introduction and Chorus, of the first and third acts. The low beginning notes of the Dutchman's Aria in act 1... E-sharp? Cool! Never expected to see that! Now, with the notes, being a bass-baritone, I can sing along with the entire Dutchman's part... (Not really well, being untrained, but... The passion is there...) "Wann alle todten aufersteh'n, dann werde ich in nichts vergeh'n..."

Ih'r welten, endet euren lauf! Ew'ge vernichtung, nimm mich auf!!!

Shivers down my spine, everytime I hear it! ... Read more

Book Description
This new edition includes a lengthy foreword by Slavoj Zizek, entitled "Why is Wagner worth saving?"

Richard Wagner's works are among the most controversial in the history of European music—because of their powerful aesthetic qualities and, in wider political terms, because of their eventual assimilation into the official culture of the Third Reich.

This concise synoptic account by the most brilliant exponent of Frankfurt School Marxism subtly interweaves these artistic and ideological qualities. It provides deft musicological analyses of Wagner's scores and of his compositional techniques, orchestration and staging methods, quoting copiously from the music dramas themselves. At the same time it offers incisive reflections on Wagner's social character and the ideological impulses of his artistic activity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

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

Customer Reviews (1)

The Brown Book
Those who are familiar with the writings and biographies of the Wagner clan will be overjoyed with this book.

During Wagner's life, he wrote in a personal diary, usually referred to as Das Braune Buche, or The Brown Book. This is an English translation of that rather legendary document. It's publication was held back by the Wagner clan for several decades after the death of Richard Wagner. It was finally published and then translated into English in 1980, and this is that book.

Many people thought that they would never be able to read The Brown Book, but here it is, and those people ought to be celebrating at being able to read Wagner's personal diary, rather than his official and carefully polished autobiography. On the other hand, little in this book is really that interesting. Think of it as a supplementary text for those people who have already read a significant amount of Wagner biographical books. ... Read more

Book Description

How is it possible for a seriously flawed human being to produce art that is good, true, and beautiful? Why is the art of Richard Wagner, a very imperfect man, important and even indispensable to us?

In this volume, Father Owen Lee ventures an answer to those questions by way of a figure in Sophocles - the hero Philoctetes.Gifted by his god with a bow that would always shoot true to the mark and indispensable to his fellow Greeks, he was marked by the same god with an odious wound that made him hateful and hated. Sophocles' powerful insight is that those blessed by the gods and indispensable to men are visited as well with great vulnerability and suffering.

Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art traces some of Wagner's extraordinary influence for good and ill on a century of art and politics - on Eliot and Proust as well as on Adolf Hitler - and discusses in detail Wagner's Tannhouser, the work in which the composer first dramatised the Faustian struggle of a creative artist in whom 'two souls dwell.' In the course of this penetrating study, Father Lee argues that Wagner's ambivalent art is indispensable to us, life-enhancing and ultimately healing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The incurable wound
Father M. Owen Lee, who is known for his erudite commentaries on Metropolitan Opera broadcasts has recently published another book about the Wagner's Ring Cycle, called "Athena Sings. Wagner and the Greeks."Father Lee is a Classics scholar, so it should be no surprise that the Greeks also inhabit "Wagner:The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art."One of the chief characters that Wagner is compared to in this slender book is Philoctetes, who was given a great gift by the god Apollo, but was also maimed with an incurable wound.

The three essays that make up this book were written to be given during the 1998 Larkin-Stuart lectures at the University of Toronto.These lectures are devoted to religious and ethical concerns, and Father Lee took the opportunity to examine the relationship of the artist, Wagner to his art.

The first lecture, "Wagner and the Wound That Would Not Heal" tells the story of Philoctetes, who was shunned by his fellow soldiers because of his unhealing wound.Finally, they exiled him on an island on their way to conquer Troy.In their tenth year of war, after the death of Achilles, the Greeks heard a prophecy "that the city would never be taken unless the wounded Philoctetes was brought to Troy with his bow (the gift from Apollo)."The Greeks sailed back to the island where they had abandoned Philoctetes and persuade the wounded, bitter man to use his gift to help them.

Father Owen is not a Wagner apologist, but he asks us to recognize our debt to the "hateful, wounded man [we] are in need of"---he whose music can penetrate deeply into our psyche and bring us, if not peace, then at least self-knowledge.

The second lecture, "Wagner's Influence: The First Hundred Years" discusses the effect that Wagner exercised, for good and ill, on music, art, literature, politics, and psychology.The author quotes philosopher Bryan Magee as being able to say:"Wagner has had a greater influence than any other single artist on the culture of our age."

Of course, the worm at the core of this lecture is Wagner's "unquestioned influence on Adolf Hitler."There are still people who won't listen to Wagner's music, and Father Lee acknowledges this artist's blatant anti-Semitism:"He probably wreaked more havoc on himself with his essay 'Judaism in Music' than with anything else he wrote."A hundred years later, Goebbels was able to use it as vicious propaganda.

Can we acknowledge this hateful, wounded man and still be pierced by the beauty of his music?The author goes on to quote Leonard Bernstein's article in the 'New York Times,' entitled "Wagner's Music isn't Racist:"

"...And if Wagner wrote great music, as I think he did, why should we not embrace it fully and be nourished by it?"

The third and last lecture that completes this book is entitled, "You Use Works of Art to See Your Soul."Father Owen Lee concentrates on Wagner's early opera, "Tannhäuser" to prove his point, with help from authors such as Baudelaire and Goethe.He is even tempted to wonder if Wagner had Martin Luther in mind when he created his tormented young hero, "who was gifted in song, clashed with the Pope, sought refuge in the Wartburg, defied the society he knew, and profoundly changed it."

Or perhaps, Wagner was thinking of Wagner.

These essays have convinced this reviewer at least, that a seriously flawed human being can produce indispensable, undying, truthful art.

arguably the most information in the least time
Although this book consists of merely three lectures, and can be finishedoff in about 2 or 3 hours without difficulty, it has as much fresh insightas many other titles that take much longer to study.The first lectureexploring the influence of classic Greek mythology and cultural recognitionthrough artistic expression - ie roughly how the Greek society establisheditself through artistic endeavour - gives the reader a pretty clear ideawhat Wagner was trying to accomplish for Germany through his music dramas,and also confirms a pretty outlandish level of self-confidence to even makesuch an attempt. The second lecture has some material which has alreadybeen covered in other books - notably Aspects of Wagner by Magee - but isstill interesting. The final lecture with a detailed study of Tannhauser isexcellent, the most interesting commentary on this opera I have read todate. The choice of Wassily Kandinsky's Die Nacht, inspired by Act II ofTristan und Isolde, for the front cover was very appropriate. Stronglyrecommended.

Yet another great book from M. Owen Lee!
In this book, M. Owen Lee grapples with the issue of whether we can (and should) enjoy Wagner's art, in the knowledge of Wagner's notorious flaws (such as his fiery anti-semitism, etc.)Drawing from classical Greekmythology, Mr. Lee discusses how it is common for great artists to haveflawed personal lives, and that the value of the artwork should thereforebe judged independently of its creator.Indeed, the artist creates his artas an act of self-healing.He therefore encourages the enjoyment of themusic of Richard Wagner.(Yep, the Wagnerholics of the world can nowlisten without guilt. :-)

A lot of the material is taken from the book,"Aspects of Wagner", which M. Owen Lee acknowledges as a source. Since I had read these books back-to-back, the repetition of material waseasy to see.

There is also a discussion of the opera"Tannhauser", which is discussed in about the same level ofdetail as his commentaries on the Ring.

THE TRUTHFUL ART OF M OWEN LEE
M. Owen Lee is perhaps best known to opera lovers through his appearances on the Texaco Opera broadcasts, some of which have formed the core of two of his previous books. In his latest book, Father Lee demonstrates the personally committed criticism which is characteristic of his radiolectures.This is no mere apologia for Wagner. The author is painfullyaware of Wagner's human failings, not merely the oft-discussedanti-Semitism, and he is troubled by the fact that the music of such amonster could move him so deeply. This book gives us a wonderful insightinto the author's soul as he grapples with this question. I especiallyenjoyed the discussion of "Tannheuser" in the final chapter. (Afew years ago I wrote to him about his love of Wagner, and he cared enoughto write me a detailed letter in response--another sign of his genuinecommitment to the subject). This book tells us not only about Wagner butalso about the author himself, who has a unique capability of engaging thereader in a genuine dialogue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Proper English Translation
Of all of Wagner's operas Tristan und Isolde uses the most symbolism and imagery. While it is true that the music is the primary means Wagner uses to convey the meaning of the opera, it is recommended in he case of Tristan und Isolde, to familiar with the libretto so when viewingthe opera you will be able to concentrate on the music with conveys the works' true essence. The translation here uses proper english and a literal translation of the orginal german. ... Read more

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

Book Description
Richard Wagner is a late bloomer in music. His first major composition was performed when he was nearly 30, and the Ring Cycle premiered when he was 53. Although he was among the world's greatest composers, he was not a good person. He didn't repay borrowed money, he bore grudges against people who had done favors for him, he was unfaithful to his first wife, and he took his second wife away from her husband. But, he remains fascinating and controversial today. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Historical Monographs collection. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
"100 Wagner Moments: Have you had one?" The music dramas of Richard Wagner have, for the last 150 years, thrilled and amazed listeners everywhere. In Wagner Moments, author J. K. Holman has assembled 100 such moments, from the living and dead, famous and not so famous, from Charles Baudelaire to Placido Domingo, musicians and non-musicians. Mr. Holman edits these stories, placing them in their biographical and historical context. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

It's a fine recommendation for any classical music library.
For well over a hundred years the music dramas of Richard Wagner have thrilled audiences: to recapture the experience and celebrate its diversity, WAGNER MOMENTS: A CELEBRATION OF FAVORITE WAGNER EXPERIENCES gathers over a hundred anecdote and reflections from Wagner fans from C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot to James Joyce and Friedrich Nietzsche. It's a fine recommendation for any classical music library.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A Missed Opportunity
I eagerly picked up this book hoping to find a select number of richly personal experiences of discovering Wagner's music. Life-changing anecdotes full of inspiration and insight. Instead we have a huge number of 'contributors' which, in the vast majority of cases, provide scant, superficial descriptions of their own Wagner moments which, in truth, don't amount to very much at all. There are even some based on second-hand accounts of some other famous names who, in a 500-page autobiography, mention Wagner once. As far as Holman is concerned, that's good enough for two pages in this book. I feel like going on a rant but this book is frankly dispiriting. There's a fella down my road who has a Wagner LP and I'm amazed he's not in this book - everyone else seems to be!

Cute!
Comprised of brief (usually no longer than a page) "essays" by various fans of Wagner, this little tome is an oddity with some charm but little substance. The contributors are arranged alphabetically, which would make for easy reference if the most of them weren't so obscure. At times one feels like they're reading Holman's party guestbook. Some of the more august names didn't contribute, technically speaking, but have had their comments excerpted from their other writings. While it makes a pleasant casual read, it's not really a contribution to Wagner scholarship. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (9)

a decent wagner study
this book is very fine account of wagners life and work.gutman knows wery well what he is writting about,and there iscertainly nothing dishonest in his approach,those are the plain facts.i can recommend his mozart biography as well.

Intellectually dishonest
Gutman has an axe to grind.He despises Wagner and sets out to discredit the composer whenever possible.While it is true that Wagner had many despicable traits (antisemitism, mendacity, oportunism, megalomania, womanizing, etc.), Gutman creates a wholly unsympathetic picture of this musical genius.Gutman sees the influence of Wagner's antisemetism everywhere, similar to the way UFO enthusiasts see the influence of space aliens everywhere in our culture.As a result this biography is not fair and balanced.Gutman's goal seems to be to get the reader to despise Wagner as much as he does.Laon, in his review, gives many detailed examples of Gutman's intellectual slipperiness as a biographer.Gutman maintains that Parsifal is Wagner's antisemitic magnum opus and the fact that Wagner's text does not support his argument, Gutman regards as proof of how clever Wagner was in hiding his antisemitism in his artistic works.He hid it so well that only Gutman can see it. Give me a break!How could the fact that there is no evidence be proof of the agrument he is making?

Regarding the "ihn" versus "ihm" controversy in Tristan, Laon does a good job in elucidating Gutman's silly inuendoes.There is another possibility, which is that Wagner was trying to emulate an archaic German, so he may have deliberately chosen the "wrong" grammar (by modern standards) to make the sentence sound like an older pre-modern Germanic tongue.Native German speakers sometimes have difficulty understanding Wagner's texts for that reason.I agree with Laon that Gutman's book is decent on the facts of Wagner's life but is biased and misleading on the interpretation of those facts.It's too bad that such a knowledgeable writer as Gutman could let his personal biases mar what could have been a balanced and thoughtful biography of this controversial musical genius.Gutman's logic appears to run as follows:Wagner was anti-Semitic, Hitler liked Wagner's music and ideas, therefore Wagner was responsible for the Holocaust.

I read this book hoping to understand how Wagner, with all his character flaws, could write such beautiful and psychologically insightful musical dramas.Gutman did not answer my question, except to say that what appear on the surface to be works of genius are really clever attempts by a scoundrel to indoctrinate others into his antisemitism.How is it then that I come away from listening to Wagner with a loathing of anti-Semitism and a overwhelming experience of comapssion for the human family?

A Masterpiece
Occasionally in life one encounters a biography so insightful, so rich in detail and so beautifully written that it nearly transcends its subject and stands as a work of art unto itself. It is in this category that Gutman's masterpiece belongs. There is so much to learn from this historiographical account of the great composer's life that one scarecely knows where to begin praising it. Best of all, in the Ernest Newman tradition, Gutman shows us the real Wagner, warts and all, and traces the all-too-tangible line leading from the composer's pen to the Nazi nightmare. At times shocking, Gutman's work "opens the kimono" on the breeding ground of hatred and racism that Bayreuth became, and the composer's steadily increasing obsession with the Jews. He offers incontrovertible proof, now widely accepted and expounded on in the indispensable works of Rose and Weiner and Zelinsky, of how Wagner incorporated these racist ideal into his operas. At the same time, Gutman recognizes the incredible genius of his subject, and praises the works mightily. His account is always balanced, fair and backed by evidence. It is no wonder the Wagner apologists have criticized this book heavily, while the leading musical journals and book reviewers have blessed it with near-unanimous acclaim: Many simply cannot bear the fact that their favorite composer directly influenced Hitler and had a streak of true evil in him. Gutman bravely shatters myths and shows us Wagner for what he truly was: a composer of incomparable gifts and a human being of precious few qualities. If you haven't read this book yet, I strongly recommend you explore it now.

Even less reliable than I remembered
I've just re-read this book, after first reviewing it over two years ago. I noted Gutman's unreliability then, but on re-reading I can only report that my opinion of Gutman has fallen further. I originally awarded it two stars; I now think that was generous.

This book is more careless of source material than any book has right to be, but it's not ordinary carelessness.All errors and misstatements happen to support Gutman's case for a proto-Nazi Wagner.When a book's errors all support one thesis, that pattern must raise questions not just of competence but also of integrity.

For example Gutman claims Wagner was "sympathetic" to proto-Nazi Bernhard Förster's attempted German community in Paraguay.But Cosima's Diaries show that Wagner held Förster in general and the South American project in particular in contempt.Why this "mistake"?Because it suits Gutman's thesis.

Or take Wagner's late essays.If you read the essays themselves rather than Gutman's profoundly dishonest exegesis, you find a man wrestling with his own racism.

In _Heroism and Christianity_, for example, Wagner does take it as a given that white people are superior to other "races".Wagner, like many other European and American artists, was the product of a racist culture and it is unhistorical to pretend otherwise.But then Wagner writes that although people find the idea of the commingling of all human "races" into "a uniform equality" distressing, this is because of their cultural blinkers. "It is only looking at it through the reek of our own civilisation and culture than makes this picture so repellant," he says.

Christianity, Wagner continues, is superior to other religions because it is aimed equally at all "races" while Judaism and Brahminism, for example, include noble ideas but are aimed at only one "race" or caste.Although (he writes) it is "natural" [meaning "likely to occur in nature"] for strong "races" to rule weaker "races", the rule of one "race" by another has led to "exploitation" and an "utterly immoral system". Wagner's answer is equality of all "races" under "a universal moral concord", something Wagner suggests that Christian doctrines could bring about.(Wagner was not a Christian, but in later life admired Christian rituals and doctrines.)

The essay is not enlightened by modern standards, but in its historical context it stands as Wagner's rejection of the proto-Nazi ideas of his own day.Gutman's systematic distortions are regrettable not just because they go beyond mere inaccuracy but also because they are much less interesting than the truth.

A passage recently cited as an example of Gutman's merits provides another example of Gutman's method:

"Monsalvat was Wagner's paranoiac concept of a small self-contained elite group, uniquely possessed of the truth, obsessed with its 'purity,' and struggling with an outside world it held worthless. Redemption was promised the hard-pressed knights, but, obviously, the Wagnerian redeemer was not to be found among Jewish craftsmen or lepers. Not by accident did Guernemanz almost immediately remark upon Parsifal's noble, highborn appearance. He knew what signs to read. Racial heredity and strict breeding, not natural selection, formed the new mechanism of salvation. Wagnerian eugenics had come into being; in his latest writing the composer had embraced the darker implications of Darwinism."

Problems?First, Gutman misses the way _Parsifal_ shows Montsalvat critically and ironically (our first glimpse is of its watchmen sleeping on the job), as a damaged community that fails to live up to its ideals.An example is the knights' and squires' rejection of Kundry as Outsider, a moral fault for which the saintly Gürnemantz, clearly Wagner's mouthpiece, reproves them.

Second, the reference to "Jewish craftsmen and lepers" is Gutman's invention. Neither are mentioned, let alone disparaged, in _Parsifal_.

Third, Gutman must know that the remark on the hero's "noble appearance" is standard in Wagner's source material, and referred not so much to race as to "gentle upbringing", meaning having "courtly" deportment as opposed to the gestures and manners of a peasant.Example?In Wagner main source, von Eschenbach's _Parzifal_, similar observations are made about Parzifal's half-brother Fierafiz, whose mother was black.

Fourth, the Montsalvat community is not "self-contained".Wagner's text mentions that Gawain is a member of the Montsalvat community, though that character is also a member of Arthur's court.And Gawain, like the other Montsalvat knights, spends as much or more time out in the world than at Montsalvat.

Fifth, Montsalvat's alleged "racial hereditary and strict breeding" is more Gutmanian invention.Not only does _Parsifal_ not contain any such idea, or anything remotely like it, but Wagner's text rules out the possibility.Gürnemantz tells us that Montsalvat was founded by Titurel, who has had one adult child and is still alive when the opera begins.Gürnemantz was also a founding Montsalvat member."Breeding program"?When?Instead the Montsalvat community must have grown through that bugbear even of modern racists: immigration.Some of Montsalvat's knights and squires may be children of original members, but that's hardly a breeding program.(By the way, Wagner's Montsalvat is in Spain.Not Germany.)

Can a passage so densely inaccurate be the product of mere carelessness?I think not.

Actually Gutman misses an intriguing possibility about Parsifal's ancestry. Parsifal comes from "Arabia".His father Gamuret was probably Welsh or Cornish, but we are told that Herzeleide was pregnant with Parsifal when Gamuret was in "Arabia".Since knights didn't take wives with them on crusade, the implication is that Gamuret met Herzeleide in "Arabia".(Wagner's text concerning Herzeleide differs significantly from his sources.)It's amusing in this context to consider that Wagner's Parsifal may have been what the media is currently calling "of Mid-Eastern appearance", and quite ineligible for the Hitler Youth.Still, the Nazi thing is Gutman's obsession, not Wagner's.Oh, and far from loving _Parsifal_, as Gutman would have you believe, the truth is that the Nazis banned it.

In short, Gutman's "first casualty" wasn't Wagner, but truth. An irresponsibly unreliable book.

Cheers!

Laon

Extraordinary
This is an extraordinary book -- on a par with Maynard Solomon's Mozart -- but don't just take my word for it. The New York Times Book Review called it the "richest and best-accomplished single volume on Wagner in English." The late Paul Hume, himself no slouch as a musician, musicologist, and critic, called it "superb."

In 455 dense pages, Gutman, retired as a university professor and lecturer at Bayreuth, chronicles the comings and goings of Richard Wagner's life, probes the recesses of his often messy mind and his frequently strained relationships with other artists, lovers, thinkers, political figures, and hangers on, examines the development of his ever-changing esthetic, and analyzes the novelty of his music and, more importantly, the sometimes bourgeois, sometimes frightening sentiments of his words. As a reader, it helps to have some prior familiarity with the plots of Wagner's operas and with nineteenth-century European intellectual history.

Gutman's central thesis is that, as a composer of music, Wagner was a genius; as a poet, he was barely literate; and as a human being, he was egomaniacal, boorish, uneducated, greedy, opinionated in the extreme, and racist. In 1968, when Gutman first advanced this thesis, Wagner was enjoying a resurgence of critical acclaim as a poet. Otherwise there is nothing to be surprised by here. The composer's problems with patrons and creditors, his voracious sexual appetites, his meretricious relationship with King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the appeal of the composer's operas to Hitler and hence to the Third Reich, his involvement in the events of 1848, and his anti-semitism have long been well known.

In developing his thesis, Gutman displays an encyclopedic understanding, not only of letters, libretti, Wagner's own vague scribblings (whether in support of revolution or a diet of vegetables), and other primary sources for a biography, but also of the political and intellectual context in which Wagner's life was played out. Nietzsche, Lizst, Kaiser Wilhelm, Metternich, the mistresses of the Jockey Club, Goethe, and Ulysses S. Grant march, leap, and slide effortlessly through these pages. Gutman's writing is lucid, rich, and spiced with urbane humor.

Thus, for example, Gutman writes that the failure of the first Bayreuth festival of 1876 apparently turned Wagner -- previously a romantic rebel and always a staunch atheist -- away from a belief in inevitable advance toward higher forms just as he was composing what he knew would be his final opera, Parsifal. The result was profoundly unchristian. "Monsalvat was Wagner's paranoiac concept of a small self-contained elite group, uniquely possessed of the truth, obsessed with its 'purity,' and struggling with an outside world it held worthless. Redemption was promised the hard-pressed knights, but, obviously, the Wagnerian redeemer was not to be found among Jewish craftsmen or lepers. Not by accident did Guernemanz almost immediately remark upon Parsifal's noble, highborn appearance. He knew what signs to read. Racial heredity and strict breeding, not natural selection, formed the new mechanism of salvation. Wagnerian eugenics had come into being; in his latest writing the composer had embraced the darker implications of Darwinism."

This book has a well-supported point-of-view. It is a great read. ... Read more