[humanities.music.composers.wagner] Wagner Books FAQ

[Derrick Everett]

Archive-name: music/wagner/books-faq
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Summary: Bibliographical FAQ for newsgroup humanities.music.composers.wagner.
URL: http://www.home.no/derrick/booksfaq.htm
Version: 1.25

------------------------------

Wagner Books FAQ for humanities.music.composers.wagner (PART 1)

This is the list of Wagner-related books for humanities.music.composers.
wagner (hmcw). Books are added to this list either when the book or its
author is mentioned in the newsgroup, or when the book is published or
republished.

Given that the primary language of the newsgroup is English, this FAQ
concentrates on titles that are available (although they are not
necessarily in print) in that language. A few books in other languages,
of relevance to matters discussed in the newsgroup but not available in
an English translation, are included. Where a book is a translation from
another language, the original title is also provided and the original
language is indicated.

This list only scratches the surface of a vast literature. Many of the
books listed here contain their own bibliography, which will be of
assistance to those readers who wish to explore specific subjects in
more depth. In addition to the books listed here, there is an extensive
Wagner literature in German, French and other languages. Various
academic journals and other publications, such as the programme books of
the Bayreuth Festival, contain many articles about Wagner, his writings
and his musical and dramatic works.

This booklist is a supplement to the main FAQ for hmcw, which can be
found at: http://home.c2i.net/monsalvat/wagnerfaq.htm (HTML edition)

Recently updated or new entries are marked with a * at the beginning of
the line in the table of contents. This version supersedes all previous
versions.

Number of books listed in this version: 350.

----------------------------------------

The bibliographic fields used are as follows:

%T Title. Except where otherwise indicated: where the book described is
a translation (check for a %F field), the title of the translation
appears first, followed by the original title in the original language.
Some books have alternative titles, for example a US title and a UK
title, or the respective titles of the paperback and hardback editions.
Therefore some entries contain several %T fields.

%M Language. Where the book described is a translation, this is the
language of the original, not the language of the book described. Where
the book is neither a translation nor in English, this field indicates
the language, which should be obvious from the %T field anyway. The
original language is not necessarily the language of first publication.
If no language is indicated, the book is in English as written.

To avoid any confusion, from version 1.21 on, we have indicated an
original language with a * in the %M field.

%A Author(s) or editor(s). The latter are indicated by (ed). Where the
book described is a translation there might be listed both the editor of
the original and the editor of the translation.

%F Translator(s).

%D Date of last known publication. If this was a reprint of a much older
book, then this is indicated. Where relevant the date of original
publication is given in the %O field.

%C Place(s) of publication of the most recent editions. Where relevant
the place of original publication is given in the %O field.

%I Publisher(s). Some of the books have been republished several times
by different publishers. We have tried to find the most recent editions.
Where relevant the original publishers are given in the %O field.

%G Identification. Usually this is an ISBN number or numbers. Older
books do not have ISBN numbers unless there has been a recent reprint.
If available the Library of Congress classification is also given, after
any ISBN.

%S Series. Where appropriate.

%V Volume. Either the volume number (in a series) or the number of
volumes.

%X Abstract. In some cases this is a mini-review of the book, indicating
how it fits into the literature and with an assessment of its text and,
where relevant, illustrations. Since the Wagner literature abounds in
misconceptions and misrepresentations (not least those by the man
himself), the editor has attempted to give an indication of the
reliability of the text of each book.

%O Other information. For example, who provided the foreword, or the
date of original publication in the language of first publication, with
original publisher where known.

----------------------------------------

Table of Contents

I. Introductory reading (4)

II. Biographical
A. Autobiography (1)
B. Biographies of Richard Wagner
B1 - Major biographies (14)
B2 - Shorter biographies (28)
B3 - Sketches and summaries (3)
B4 - For younger readers (3)
C. Biographies of Cosima Wagner (5)
D. Other Biographical Studies (6)
E. Wagner and his Circle (13)
F. Wagner and his Contemporaries (5)

III. General Titles about Richard Wagner
A. Influences on Wagner (3)
B. Wagner's Influence (4)
C. Wagner as Thinker (13)
D. Wagner as Poet (2)
E. Wagner as Musician (1)
F. Essay Collections (5)

IV. Books about Specific Works
A. Der fliegende Holländer (2)
B. Tannhäuser (4)
C. Lohengrin (6)
* D. Der Ring des Nibelungen
D1 - Wagner's sources (5)
D2 - Wagner's drama (28)
D3 - Musical analysis of the Ring (6)
D4 - Legal and ethical studies (3)
D5 - Psychological perspectives (4)
D6 - Performing the Ring (6)
D7 - For younger readers (1)
E. Tristan und Isolde (9)
F. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (7)
G. Parsifal (13)
H. Other Works (2)
I. Musical Analysis (2)
J. Other Commentary (17)
K. Libretto Translations (5)

V. Books about Specialised Topics
A. Literature (4)
B. Philosophy (4)
C. Politics and Society (10)
D. Religion (5)
E. Sex and Gender (4)
F. Theatre and Drama (6)
G. Other (4)

VI. Wagner's Own Writings and Correspondence
A. Correspondence (21)
B. Diaries of Richard and Cosima Wagner (3)
C. Prose Writings (12)

VII. Wagner Family and Bayreuth
A. Family (8)
B. Festival (10)
C. Theatre (2)

VIII. Wagnerism and Wagnerites (8)

IX. Staging Wagnerian Drama (11)

X. Discographies (2)

XI. Comics and Wagnerian Humour
A. Comics (2)
B. Novels (3)

XII. Publications on Digital Media (1)

XIII. Acknowledgements and Copyright

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: I. Introductory Reading

If you know little or nothing about Richard Wagner or his works, then
these books are a good place to start.

%T Wagner Without Fear : Learning to Love - and Even Enjoy - Opera's Most
Demanding Genius
%A William Berger
%D 1998
%C New York
%I Vintage Books
%G ISBN 0 3757 0054 4 pbk, ML410.W13 B47 1998
%X A gentle introduction to Wagner's works in general, and a more
detailed account of each of the ten "canonical" operas (see the main
FAQ, section II subsection E, for an overview). Written for the newcomer
who finds Wagner intimidating, this book provides an introduction to the
Wagner phenomenon and a biographical sketch, before presenting the
operas. The author also gives practical advice for the novice operagoer.
With recommendations for further reading and listening.

%T Richard Wagner's Music Dramas
%T Richard Wagners Musikdramen
%M German *
%A Carl Dahlhaus
%F Mary Whittall
%D 1979
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5212 2397 0 hbk, 0 5214 2899 8 pbk; ML410.W13 D153
%X One essay for each of the ten stage works in the Bayreuth canon.
Michael Tanner writes: "Carl Dahlhaus ... gives perhaps the most
succinct and helpful account of the specific dramatic and musical
features of each work, while largely abstaining from giving his view
of their import, or from passing any judgements".
%O German original published in 1971.

%T Decoding Wagner : An Invitation to his World of Music Drama
%A Thomas May
%D 2005
%C Portland, OR
%I Amadeus Press
%G ISBN 1 5746 7097 2 ; ML410.W13 M25 2004
%S Unlocking the Masters
%X Confronting commonly held assumptions, Mr. May presents a straight-
forward overview of what Richard Wagner attempted to achieve with his
"artwork of the future", the great emotional power in his art and the
world of this deeply misunderstood figure and cultural icon. In its
author's words, the book "aims to offer a sensible overview of his
achievement ... an introduction for those who would like to delve more
fully into these works ... The spotlight is on the works themselves, on
the common ground behind the music and the drama - and on the relevance
this continues to hold for us." With eight pages of b/w photographs.
%O Packaged with two full-length BMG Classics CDs.

%T Wagner Nights (UK title)
%T The Wagner Operas (US title)
%A Ernest Newman
%D 1991 (reprint)
%C Princeton
%I Princeton Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 6910 2716 1 pbk, 0 3944 0880 2 hbk; MT100.W2 N53 1991
%X An authoritative introduction to each of the ten canonical operas.
Although this book provides a detailed summary both of the dramatic
action and the music, and useful information on the sources and the
process of creation respectively of each work, it provides no
interpretation of the dramas. Michael Tanner writes: "Some of his
research is invariably dated, but not seriously so. Given the usual
misery of reading opera plots, it is an astonishingly enjoyable book".
Laon comments: "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 more depth, but this is still one of
the books to start with."
%O Originally published in 1949 but still relevant today.

------------------------------

Subject: II. Biographical

Many biographies have been written about Richard Wagner: this list is
by no means exhaustive. There are also biographies of Cosima Wagner.
Most of Wagner's biographers acknowledge that it is impossible to
discuss Wagner's life without also discussing his works; therefore
these biographies also contain, to a lesser or greater extent,
discussion of the origins and early history of the musical and
dramatic works.

------------------------------

Subject: A. Autobiography

%T My Life
%T Mein Leben
%M German *
%A Richard Wagner
%A Martin Gregor-Dellin (ed. German critical edition)
%A Mary Whittall (ed. English translation)
%F Andrew Gray
%D 1983 (second tr.)
%C Cambridge UK, New York
%I Cambridge University Press, Da Capo Press NY
%G ISBN 0 5212 2929 4; ML410.W1 W14 1911 (German), ML410.W1 W14 1969
(German), ML410.W1 W146 1976 and ML410.W1 W146 1994 (1st English tr.),
ML410.W1 W146 1983 and ML410.W1 W146 1992 (2nd English tr.)
%X Richard Wagner's autobiography, as dictated to Cosima. Wagner had the
first three volumes printed privately by G. A. Bonfantini in Basle, in
just 15 copies. The first volume was proofread by Friedrich Nietzsche.
The fourth and final volume was printed by Th. Burger in Bayreuth in
1880. The first edition of 'Mein Leben' is one of the rarest published
documents of the nineteenth century. Of the original 15 copies, those
that Wagner had given to selected friends were recalled by Cosima after
his death. Most were then destroyed (though, unbeknown to Wagner, his
printer Bonfantini had kept a private copy for himself, which was bought
from his widow by Mrs. Burrell). A mere handful of copies has survived
in the great libraries of the world.
First public edition published by F. Bruckmann, Munich in 1911; second
edition 1915, both with some passages suppressed. Suppressed passages
first published in 'Die Musik', xxii, 1929-30, p.725-31; translated by
Ernest Newman and published in 'Fact and Fiction about Wagner', London,
1931, p.199-202. First English translation begun by Wm. Ashton Ellis,
completed by an anonymous hand, published 1911 (see David Irvine's book
in subsection D below), reprinted by Scholarly Press, Michigan in 1976,
then by Constable in 1994. Critical edition of the complete German text,
1963, was the basis for the second English translation in 1983.
%O Take it with a pinch of salt. For the electronic edition of the
German text, see section XII below.

------------------------------

Subject: B. Biographies of Richard Wagner

In addition to some of the biographies listed here, marked with (P),
Deathridge and Dahlhaus include among the "principal biographies", those
by M. Koch ("Richard Wagner", Berlin, 1907-18), and M. Fehr ("Richard
Wagners Schweitzer Zeit", Aarau/Leipzig 1934 and Arrau/Frankfurt a.M.,
1954), neither of which appear to have been translated into English.

B1 - Major biographies

%T Richard Wagner : His Life in His Work
%T Wagner: Das Leben im Werke
%M German *
%A Paul Bekker
%F M. M. Bozman
%D 1981 (reprint)
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Press
%G ISBN 0 8371 3443 9 ; ML410.W13 B243 1971
%X This is a highly readable biography of the old-fashioned, romantic
kind. While some details have been corrected by later scholarship, this
does not detract from the value of the book as an introduction to
Wagner's life and work. Each chapter concentrates on one or more of the
thirteen operas, providing biographical background and introducing the
opera, in the order in which the music was written. Thus one chapter is
devoted to the creation of the 'Ring', while later chapters provide the
background to 'Siegfried' act 3 and 'Götterdämmerung' respectively; one
chapter is devoted to the creation of 'Tannhäuser' and a later chapter
considers the rewrite for Paris (the 'Venusberg') and ensuing scandal.
Bekker is particularly insightful on Wagner's music: he was, for
example, the first to observe that the motif 'Welterbschaft'
(Inheritance of the World) -- he calls it "the Siegfried melody" (p.397)
-- which appears for the first time in S-3-i and for the last time in
the closing bars of the tetralogy, is closely related to the march of
the Master- singers. He did not know, however, that this theme had been
conceived for 'Die Sieger' (see Osthoff, below). Although Bozman has
retained the original German in Bekker's quotations from Wagner's poems,
he provides English translations only from "singable" versions
(variously by Newman and Corder), which, by diverging from the meaning
of the German, can only serve to mislead and confuse the reader.
%O Original version was published in 1924 and the translation in 1931.

%T Richard Wagner : His Life and Works from 1813 to 1834 (P)
%A Mary Banks Burrell
%A John N. Burk (ed)
%D 1972 (reprint)
%C London
%I Vienna House Inc
%G ISBN 0 8443 0031 4 ; ML410.W1 B82 (1898)
%X An account of Wagner's early life compiled from original letters,
manuscripts, the first three volumes of Wagner's autobiography and other
documents by Mrs Burrell née Banks and illustrated with portraits and
facsimiles. See also (section VI) the edition of letters collected by
Mrs. Burrell. Ernest Newman wrote the following concerning Mrs. Burrell:
"About 1883, the year of Wagner's death, the Hon. Mrs. Burrell began
collecting material for a life of the composer. She managed to obtain
from the widow of Bonfantini, the Italian printer in Basle who, between
1870 and 1875, had set up the private edition of 'Mein Leben' (limited
to fifteen copies), an extra copy of that work which Bonfantini had
surreptitiously struck off for his own benefit. 'Mein Leben' set Mrs.
Burrell on the track of a number of people mentioned therein who were
still alive, or whose heirs would be likely to possess valuable Wagner
documents. She acquired a large number of these documents..."
Unfortunately Mrs. Burrell died in 1898 after completing only this first
volume of her Wagner biography.
%O Originally published in 1898 by A. Wyon, London.

%T Richard Wagner : With photogravures and collotypes, facsimiles and
engravings
%T Richard Wagner : Mit zahlreichen Porträts, Faksimiles, Illustrationen
und Beilagen
%M German *
%A Houston Stewart Chamberlain
%F George Ainslie Hight
%D 1897, 1900
%C Philadelphia, London
%I J.B. Lippincott, J. M. Dent & Co.
%V 2 vols.
%G ML410.W1 C41
%X Chamberlain, who never met Richard Wagner, would marry Eva Wagner in
1908 and become a central figure in the "Bayreuth Circle". He was born
an English aristocrat but took German nationality. He is best known
for his book 'Grundlagen des 19. Jahrhunderts', which described human
history in terms of racial struggles. Chamberlain's interpretation of
Wagner, from a viewpoint of anti-modernism and racial prejudice, can be
seen as one step towards his subsequent adoption by the Nazi movement.
For biographical information see 'Evangelist of Race: the Germanic Vision
of Houston Stewart Chamberlain', Geoffrey G. Field, Columbia Univ. Press,
1981.
%O German original published by F. Bruckmann (Verlagsanstalt für Kunst
und Wissenschaft) in 1896, Munich. This edition reprinted 1915 and 1925.

%T Life of Richard Wagner : Being an Authorized English Version of
'Das Leben Richard Wagners' (P)
%M Earlier chapters originally written by Glasenapp in German. *
%A William Ashton Ellis
%A Carl Friedrich Glasenapp
%D 1977 (reprint)
%C London
%I Da Capo Press Inc
%V 6 vols.
%G ML410.W1 G6 (1900), ML410.W1 G533 1977
%X The first part of Glasenapp's biography translated into English and
enlarged by Wm. Ashton Ellis. Glasenapp is generally regarded as having
continued the process of myth-making that Wagner himself began in 'Mein
Leben' and he has been accused of hagiography. Wagner himself said that
if he had not been an artist then he would have liked to have become a
saint -- but precisely because he was an artist, he could not also be a
saint. Despite its subtitle, Ellis' book only follows Glasenapp for its
first three volumes.
%O Ellis's biography was originally published 1900-08, Kegan Paul, Trench,
Trübner & Co., London. Glasenapp's biography was first published in 1894.
For the electronic edition of Glasenapp's biography, see section XII below.

%T Wagner and His Works : the Story of his Life, with Critical Comments
%A Henry Theophilus Finck
%D 1968 (reprint)
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Press
%V 2 vols.
%G ISBN 1 4047 9097 7 ; ML410.W1 F3 (1893)
%X Henry T. Finck was the music editor of "The New York Evening Post".
A review of this book, from 1893, appears in "The Wagner Library" at:
< http://users.belgacom.net/wagnerlibrary/articles/atl072432.htm >.
%O Originally published in 1893 by Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, and by H.
Grevel and Co, London.

%T Richard Wagner : His Life, His Work, His Century (P)
%T Richard Wagner : sein Leben, sein Werk, sein Jahrhundert
%M German *
%A Martin Gregor-Dellin
%F J. Maxwell Brownjohn
%D 1983
%C London, San Diego
%I Collins, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
%G ML410.W1 G73413 1983
%X Abridged version of the German original, Munich 1980. With bibliography.
%O For the electronic edition of the German text, see section XII below.

%T Richard Wagner : The Man, His Mind and His Music (P)
%A Robert W. Gutman
%D 1990 (revised edition)
%C London and San Diego; Toronto
%I Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
%G ISBN 0 1402 1168 3 pbk (1971), 0 1567 7615 4 pbk (1990) ; ML410.W1
G83 1990
%X Gutman has been criticized by Wagner scholars for selective and
inaccurate quotation, for misrepresenting his sources and for his
bizarre interpretations of Wagner's operas. Despite this, his book has
been very popular in the USA, where it has poisoned the minds of an
entire generation. Some Wagnerians, including the editor of this FAQ,
believe that Gutman has done great damage through his influence on other
authors (such as Rose, Weiner and Köhler) and on producers of Wagner's
works.
Gutman's account of Wagner's life is consistently inaccurate and often
highly misleading. He gets the facts wrong about Wagner's birth, his
death and much that happened in-between. His portrayal of the "the man"
could be considered defamatory. As far as "his mind" is concerned,
Gutman portrays Wagner as a sociopathic monster who bears little
resemblance to the man described by those who knew him; compare the
account by Praeger and 'Wagner Remembered' (personal accounts selected
and edited by Spencer). He also describes Wagner as a proto-Nazi and in
doing so, makes a better job of portraying a Wagner who would have been
acceptable to the Nazi ideologues than von Westernhagen did in his
'Richard Wagners Kampf gegen seelische Fremdherrschaft'. According to
Gutman, compared to Wagner, Adolf Hitler was a liberal. In general
Gutman's approach is to gainsay Wagner's more scholarly biographers
where there is a consensus and to agree with the minority where they are
divided, except where the majority view is critical of Wagner. Gutman's
comments on "his music" are superficial, misleading and built upon an
interpretation of Wagner's technique that the composer himself rejected.
On the basis of one word in the libretto -- probably a misprint --
Gutman claims that 'Tristan und Isolde' is about a triangular
relationship between the title characters and Tristan's boyfriend,
Melot. His novel interpretation of 'Parsifal' rests upon the assumption
that the libretto was influenced by the racial theories of 'Count'
Gobineau, despite the fact that Wagner had not read anything by Gobineau
until three years after he had completed his libretto. Gutman's
interpretation of 'Parsifal' as a celebration of "racial purity" was
demolished by Constantin Floros in 'Studien zur Parsifal-Rezeption' (in
'Richard Wagner: Parsifal', Musik-Konzepte, no. 25, ed. Metzger and
Riehn, 1982; pages 25 -32) and by Lucy Beckett in her Cambridge Opera
Handbook on 'Parsifal', pages 121-123. Unfortunately this perverse
interpretation is still being promoted by Barry Millington (see below).
His treatment of the brief relationship between Wagner and Gobineau
cannot be reconciled with the Wagner-Gobineau correspondence, which he
had obviously never consulted. When discussing the relationship between
Wagner and Nietzsche he accepts without question the distortions and
falsifications of Nietzsche's writings and correspondence made by his
sister Elisabeth, and he repeats von Westernhagen's interpretation of
the "mortal insult", one that later scholarship has shown to be
untenable.
The revised edition fails to correct many of the misconceptions, mis-
translations, and errors both of fact and of judgement that disfigured
the first edition. Those who are concerned for the environment can only
weep, at the thought that many trees were cut down for the sake of this
dreadful book.
%O Originally published in 1968, appearing in paperback in 1971. This
book is sometimes found with two others (Culshaw's 'Ring Resounding'
and Shaw's 'Perfect Wagnerite') in a boxed set issued by Time Life
Books. The discerning reader will keep only Culshaw and Shaw.

%T Richard Wagner : A Critical Biography
%A George Ainslie Hight
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%V 2 vols.
%G ISBN 0 7222 5579 9 ; ML410.Wl H63 (1925)
%X As well as an account of Wagner's life this book provides an
introduction to the major works, with extensive discussion of their
musical form and content.
%O Originally published in 1925 by Arrowsmith, London.

%T Richard Wagner : His Life and Works
%T Richard Wagner : sa vie et ses oeuvres
%M French *
%A Adolphe Jullien
%F Florence Percival Hall
%F B.J. Lang (introduction)
%D Original 1886 and 1892, reprint 1981
%C Boston; Neptune NJ
%I Millet; Paganiniana Publications
%G ISBN 0 8766 6579 2 (reprint), ML401.Wl J9 (1892)
%V Original in 2 volumes. Reprint in a single volume.
%X A profusely illustrated biography of Richard Wagner. The French
original contained fourteen engravings by Fantin-Latour, to whom the
book was dedicated, together with many contemporary illustrations.
The American edition added further illustrations: according to the
title page it contains, "... fifteen portraits of Richard Wagner and
one hundred and thirteen text-cuts; scenes from his operas; views of
theatres, autographs and numerous caricatures". The Paganiniana
reprint has added a few more drawings and photographs, introducing
material from the twentieth century. The caption writer was in error,
however, in describing Winifred Wagner as "granddaughter of Richard
Wagner" (under illustration facing page 415).
%O French original published by J. Rouam, Paris. English translation
first published by G. Wood, London, 1886. American edition 1892.

%T Richard Wagner : the Last of the Titans
%T Der Letzte der Titanen : Richard Wagners Leben und Werk
%M German *
%A Joachim Köhler
%F Stewart Spencer
%D 2004
%C New Haven and London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3001 0422 7
%X Joachim Köhler has been called "the von Däniken of Wagner scholarship".
In this radical reappraisal of Richard Wagner, he reveals that Wagner's
relationship with Cosima was based on fear, rather than love; that
Wagner was blackmailing his patron, the king of Bavaria; and that Wagner
set out to destroy another homosexual, Friedrich Nietzsche. According to
Köhler, the key to understanding Wagner's adult life (as the author
claims to understand that life) is to be found in his childhood and in
his relationships with his mother, his stepfather Geyer and his sister
Rosalie during those formative years. With 24 black and white
illustrations.
Reviewing this book for 'The Washington Post', Patrick J. Smith takes
the view that it is "very much a product, and victim, of current modes
of thought and sensibility. His subtitle, 'The Last of the Titans', is
meant to be cuttingly ironic. Here is a portrait of Wagner with not just
feet of clay but a whole body of it, a thoroughly nasty man leading a
thoroughly nasty life... Kohler discusses each opera -- even the early,
rarely performed ones -- but everywhere his aim is reductive and
psychologically obsessed. The transfiguration of woman that recurs in
Wagner's operas relates, we're told, to the composer's adoration of the
memory of his older sister Rosalie, who died young in childbirth; all
Wagner's evil geniuses are reincarnations of his stepfather, Ludwig
Geyer, a theater trickster and general nullity (whom Wagner uneasily
felt might be his father -- and possibly Jewish to boot). Even the
extended discussions of operas are reducible to psychological cliche,
such as the "insight" that Lohengrin's problem is a fear of castration,
while the essence of the 'Ring' cycle lies in the opposition of the
Aryan Siegfried and the Jew Hagen."
%O The German original was published by Claassen, Munich, in 2001.

%T The Life of Richard Wagner (P)
%A Ernest Newman
%D 1976 (reprint)
%C Cambridge
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5212 9149 6; ML410.W1 N532
%V 4 vols.
%X Despite it being more than 50 years old, and written at a time when
many primary sources were suppressed or difficult to obtain, this is
still considered to be one of the most authoritative Wagner biographies
in English. Newman had his blind spots, however; as Bryan Magee has
pointed out, he was inaccurate when writing about Schopenhauer and his
influence on Wagner; and Walker described his treatment of Franz Liszt
as "character assassination". Reference and source literature is listed
at the start of each volume.
%O Originally published in 1933-47.

%T Richard Wagner : the Story of an Artist
%T Wagner, histoire d'un artiste
%M French *
%A Guy Comte de Pourtalès
%F Lewis May
%D 1972 (reprint)
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Press
%G ML410.W1 P73 1972
%X A readable biography. It will be of little value to the scholar,
however, on account of the author's occasional carelessness with
chronology. In general he follows the canonical account of Wagner's
life and work, as defined by Glasenapp, Chamberlain and Wagner himself.
%O Originally published in 1932 by Harper and Brothers.

%T Wagner as I Knew Him
%T Wagner, wie ich ihn kannte (German translation)
%A Ferdinand Christian Wilhelm Praeger
%D 2001, 2003 (reprints)
%C Honolulu
%I University Press of the Pacific; Best Books
%G ISBN 1 4102 0771 4 pbk, 0 7222 5598 5 hbk ; ML410.W1 P9 (1892)
%X According to Sir W.H. Hadow this book "was received with great alarm
and indignation by the Wagnerians, partly because it fell short of
unthinking hero-worship, partly because it gave a full and indiscreet
account of the Dresden revolution, Wagner's part in which it was a
matter of religion to ignore or minimize. The German version of the book
was suppressed at the instance of H.S. Chamberlain ..." There can be no
doubt that Chamberlain's efforts to suppress this book were motivated by
the desire to eradicate all knowledge of Wagner's socialist views and of
his revolutionary activities, which had become an embarassment to the
reactionary "Bayreuth circle".
Hadow concluded: "I have read many books on Wagner ... and have come
to the conclusion that among contemporary biographies Praeger gives the
truest picture." On the other hand Newman described him as, "generally
untrustworthy", and he is sometimes misleading. Most of Praeger's
account is based on what he was told by Wagner himself; in some cases it
is likely that Praeger has misunderstood or that a conversation was less
than perfectly remembered. It should also be kept in mind that Wagner
did not always tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Praeger
also relied in part on other unreliable sources and he was not always
entirely truthful about his own friendship with Wagner. Despite these
faults, the book is a fascinating account of Wagner as he was known to
one of his friends.
Two years Wagner's junior, like him Praeger grew up in Leipzig but
settled in London from 1834. It was during a visit to Dresden in 1843
that Praeger was introduced to Wagner, perhaps by August Roeckel, with
whom he maintained a correspondence from which he quotes in this book.
Thus Praeger's account of Wagner's revolutionary years is partly based
on accounts by Wagner himself -- given during his Zürich years and so
before he began to conceal his part in the Dresden revolt -- and partly
on letters from Roeckel, who served a thirteen-year prison sentence for
his part in those events. Praeger and his wife got to know Wagner well
at the time of his London concerts in the spring of 1855. This visit is
described in detail, although Praeger might have exaggerated the part he
played in the decision to invite Wagner.
As well as being a writer, Praeger was a musician and composer. His
accounts of the creation of many of Wagner's musical works, although
based on conversations with Wagner and study of his scores (and in some
cases manuscripts), are not always to be relied upon. For example, his
comment that when writing 'Lohengrin' Wagner composed the third act,
then the first and second, is a misunderstanding based on examination of
the orchestral draft of the score, which was composed in that order,
although the earlier draft had been composed from act one to act three.
%O Originally published in 1885 by Longmans, Green and Co., London.
German translation (by the author) published in 1892 by Breitkopf &
Härtel, Leipzig. The Hawaii edition is a facsimile of an 1892 copy. It
does not correct any of the errors in the original, which shows little
evidence of editing or proofreading. This especially concerns the German
quotations and the titles of Wagner's works, some of which are garbled.

%T Wagner : A Biography (P)
%T Wagner
%M German *
%A Curt von Westernhagen
%F Mary Whittall
%D 1978
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5212 8254 3 ; ML410.W1 W543
%V 2 vols.
%X A conservative biography from a noted German scholar, who in the 1930s
had published a study of Wagner entitled, 'Richard Wagners Kampf gegen
seelische Fremdherrschaft' (Richard Wagner's Struggle against Spiritual
Foreign Domination), in which he tried to convince the Nazi movement to
adopt Wagner and to prefer him to Nietzsche. Even in 1968, Westernhagen
still played down Wagner's revolutionary involvement in 1848-9 and he
referred to Wagner's "alleged" anti-Semitism. Michael Tanner writes: "a
work of piety by an old Wagnerian, selectively making use of modern
research".
%O Originally published in 1968. See also Westernhagen's 'Richard Wagner:
sein Werk, sein Wesen, sein Welt' (P), Zürich 1956.

B2 - Shorter biographies

%T Wagner, a Biography : with a Selection of Books, Editions and Recordings
%A Robert Anderson
%D 1980
%C London and Hamden, Conn.
%I C. Bingley, Linnet Books
%S The Concertgoer's Companions
%G ISBN 0 2080 1677 5 ; ML410.W1 A599
%X With bibliography and discography.

%T Wagner
%A John Chancellor
%D 1978 and 1980
%C London, Boston
%I Weidenfeld and Nicolson; Little, Brown; Panther (pbk)
%G ISBN 0 2977 7429 8, 0 3161 3622 0 ; ML410.W1 C43 1978b
%X One of the first biographies to make extensive use of Cosima Wagner's
Diaries, then newly published. With bibliography.

%T Wagner, the Man and his Music
%A John Culshaw
%A Gerald Fitzgerald (picture ed.)
%D 1978 and 1979
%C New York and London
%I E. P. Dutton, Hutchinson
%S Composer Series
%G ISBN 0 5252 2960 4 ; ML410.W1 C9
%X
%Q Metropolitan Opera Guild

%T The New Grove Wagner
%A John Deathridge and Carl Dahlhaus
%D 1984
%C London and New York
%I W. W. Norton & Co
%G ISBN 0 3933 1590 8 pbk ; ML410.W1 D3 1984
%S New Grove Composer Biographies
%X A critical biography that destroys some of the myths created by Wagner
and later perpetuated by Glasenapp, Ellis and von Westernhagen. Given its
origin in a dictionary article, it is understandable that this book
emphasises the facts about Wagner and his works, and that it provides
little criticism or interpretation. The final chapters, concerning the
operas and music-dramas, are essentially an abridged version of Dahlhaus'
book 'Richard Wagner's Music Dramas'. There are useful appendices including
a list of Wagner's musical and dramatic works (based on the WWV catalogue),
a list of his writings and speeches (cross-referenced to GSD/SSD and to the
Prose Works), and an extensive bibliography. If, like Mr. Gradgrind, you
want facts alone, then this is the biography to obtain.
%O Reprinted in 1997. Not to be confused with the later book by Barry
Millington (see below).

%T The Life of Richard Wagner and the Wagnerian Drama
%A David Falkayn
%D 2002
%C
%I Fredonia Books
%G ISBN 1 5896 3927 8
%X

%T Richard Wagner
%A Hans Gal
%F Hans-Hubert Schönzeler.
%D 1976
%C New York
%I Stein and Day
%G ISBN 0 8128 1942 X ; ML410.W1 G143 1976b
%X Part 1: The life of an adventurer. Part 2: The man and his music.
%O German original published in 1963.

%T The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers : Wagner
%A Howard Gray
%D 1990
%C London, New York and Sydney
%I Omnibus Press
%G ISBN 0 7119 1687 X pbk ; ML410.W1 G685 1990
%X Wagner's life in words and pictures.

%T Richard Wagner
%A Sir William Henry Hadow
%D 1934
%C London
%I Thornton Butterworth, Ltd.
%G ML410.W1 H26
%X An entertaining biography that would make a good short introduction
to Wagner's life and works. Apart from 'Mein Leben' (in which Hadow
places a little too much faith) and various editions of Wagner's
letters, Hadow has distilled and condensed his material from the more
substantial biographies already published: primarily those by Bekker,
Chamberlain, Ellis, Finck, Hight and Wallace, the memoirs of Praeger,
Newman's 'Wagner as Man and Artist' and the first volume of his
monumental biography. In other words the book is mostly derivative.
There are some minor errors, some of which suggest that Hadow was not
intimately familiar with Wagner's scores; he is careless with dates.

%T Richard Wagner, His Life and His Dramas : A Biographical Study of the
Man and an Explanation of His Work
%A William James Henderson
%D 1990 (reprint)
%C
%I Reprint Services Corporation
%G ISBN 0 7812 9098 8 ; ML410.Wl H52 (1923)
%O Originally published in 1901 by G.P.Putnam's sons, NY and London.
Republished in 1923. Reprinted in 1971, AMS Press, NY.

%T Richard Wagner, 1813-1883
%A Francis Hueffer
%D 1934
%C London
%I Sampson, Low, Marston and Co., Ltd.
%X
%O First published in 1872, London.

%T Wagner
%A Robert L. Jacobs
%D 1977
%C
%I Littlefield Adams
%G ISBN 0 8226 0724 7 ; ML410.W1 J17
%S The Master Musicians
%X
%O Originally published in 1965 by J.M. Dent and Sons, London, and by
E.P. Dutton and Co., New York.

%T Wagner and the Romantic Disaster
%A Burnett James
%D 1983
%C New York and Tunbridge Wells
%I Hippocrene, Midas, Seven Hills.
%G ISBN 0 8825 4667 8, 0 8593 6106 3
%X With bibliography.

%T Wagner's life and works
%A Gustav Kobbé
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7812 9341 3, 0 7222 5586 1 ; ML410.W1 K72
%V 2 vols.
%X With bibliography.
%O Originally published by G. Schirmer, New York, in 1896.

%T Portrait of Wagner : an Illustrated Biography
%T Richard Wagner in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten
%M German *
%A Hans Mayer
%F Robert Nowell
%D 1972
%C New York
%I Herder and Herder, McGraw-Hill
%G ISBN 0 0707 3240 X ; ML410.W1 M28 1972
%X

%T Wagner
%A Barry Millington
%D 1984
%C London
%I J.M.Dent and Sons Ltd
%G ISBN 0 4600 3181 3 hbk, 0 4608 6069 0 pbk, 0 3947 5279 1 pbk ;
ML410.W1 M58 1984
%S The Master Musicians
%X Considered by many to be the best single-volume introduction to
Wagner's life and works, this short biography (of which only a little
over a hundred pages is strictly biographical, the remaining two-thirds
of the book considering the works) is very well researched and, in
general, a useful introduction. It is also problematic. Millington's
discussion of the sources, conception and development of the canonical
dramas should be treated with caution; first, because sometimes he puts
too much trust in Wagner's own accounts of their origins and secondly,
because of his extreme focus on Wagner's anti-Semitic and racial
obsessions; it has been suggested that Millington is the one with the
obsession.
The chapter on the 'Ring' provides a good introduction to the work.
Millington provides a brief overview of the sources of the libretto and
a detailed account of the origins and development of the scenarios,
poems and scores of the four component operas. He discusses Wagner's
approach to the synthesis of music and poetry, and he shares some
insight into Wagner's leitmotivic technique; he concludes this section
by following the Rhinemaiden's motif through all the fluctuations of
passion throughout the four-part drama, which is something Wagner
recommended in an 1879 essay. The chapter ends with a survey of
interpretations of the drama, concluding with the assertion that no
single interpretation has an exclusive claim to authenticity.
The chapter on 'Die Meistersinger' is the weakest in the book, with
its factual errors and strange omissions. In discussing Wagner's source
material, it ignores the sources that other commentators have regarded
as the most significant. It perpetuates old myths -- such as Wagner's
assertion that Hanslick walked out of a reading of the libretto when he
recognised himself in Beckmesser -- and introduces new ones, notably
Millington's fantasy about an anti-Semitic subtext; see the main Wagner
FAQ, part III, section D, for references that discuss this subject.
The earlier sections of his chapter on 'Parsifal' are informative and
in parts insightful. In the last three pages, however, Millington
embarks upon a muddled discussion of the views of Robert Gutman and the
even more extreme interpretation of 'Parsifal' by Hartmut Zelinsky. The
naive reader might be left with the impression that there was some
substance in these bizarre interpretations of the drama.
%O Appendices include a detailed chronology and a bibliography.

%T The New Grove Wagner
%A Barry Millington
%D 2001
%C London
%I St Martins Press
%G ISBN 0 3122 3324 8 ; ML410.W1 N46 2002
%X A "spin-off" from the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary,
this biography has been developed from articles by Barry Millington and
other contributors to New Grove. Some of these articles present a view
of each of the canonical dramas that Millington has developed further
since writing the 'Master Musicians' biography listed above.
Whilst it must be conceded that Barry Millington has read widely, if
not always critically enough, in the Wagner literature, and that he has
many facts at his fingertips, the reader should be aware that this
author holds an idiosyncratic view of Wagner's life and works. Other
commentators, such as Michael Tanner and Dieter Borchmeyer, strongly
disagree both with Millington's approach and with his conclusions. The
increasing domination of reference works in English by Millington has
led to his viewpoint becoming a paradigm, one that should not be taken
uncritically; indeed, it can be and should be challenged. Millington's
theories, regardless of how many times they appear in print, are not
facts and his opinions are by no means beyond criticism.
In his account of 'Die Meistersinger', Millington alleges that the
work was part of an "ideological crusade" that was waged by Wagner in
the 1860's. It would be interesting to see some evidence to support the
existence of this "crusade" and to know how, if it existed, it affected
'Die Meistersinger'. Millington repeats his claim that the character of
Beckmesser "carries, at the very least, overtones of anti-Semitic
sentiment". This claim is, to put it mildly, highly controversial, and
there are many who believe that, in his advocacy of this interpretation,
Millington has moved into the "lunatic fringe" of Wagner scholarship.
In his comments on 'Parsifal', Millington once more alleges that this
work contains "concepts of racial purity", an idea that he had absorbed
from Gutman's book. In fact, there are no references to racial purity,
neither direct or indirect, in 'Parsifal', and it is remarkable that
Millington persists in this delusion. Furthermore, the idea that Wagner
was concerned with racial purity is a misunderstanding that originated
with Gutman and one that all serious scholars have rejected.
%O Not to be confused with the earlier book, which was derived from the
first edition of New Grove, by Deathridge and Dalhaus.

%T Richard Wagner : a Sketch of his Life and Works
%T Richard Wagner : Eine Skizze Seines Lebens Und Wirkens
%M German *
%A Franz Muncker
%A Heinrich Nisle (illustrator)
%F D. Landman
%D 1891
%C Bamberg
%I Buchner
%G ML410.W1 M94
%X

%T Wagner as Man and Artist
%A Ernest Newman
%D Revised version 1963, reprints 1969, 1985 and 1989
%C London and NY
%I Victor Gollancz Ltd; Cape; Limelight Editions
%G ISBN 0 2246 1586 6, 0 8791 0052 4 and 0 8446 2653 8 ; ML410.W1 N5 1925
and ML410.W1 N55 1985
%X An expanded version of the 1914 original. Neither as detailed nor as
informative as Newman's four-volume biography (see above). In the 1914
edition Newman provided the first objective account of the Jessie Laussot
affair. J.K. Holman writes that Newman "cleared away a vast underbrush
of inadequate Wagner commentary ... he separated fact from fiction with
regard to aspects of Wagner's personal life, which had been rigidly
protected and/or extravagantly reinvented by the composer himself in the
autobiography 'Mein Leben', and subsequently by his wife, Cosima.
Newman also separated sense from nonsense in Wagner's extensive
theoretical writings ..."
%O Originally published by J.M. Dent and Sons, London and Toronto.
Republished in 1925 by John Lane at The Bodley Head, London. First US
edition published by Garden City Pub. Co. in 1937.

%T Wagner and his World
%A Charles Osborne
%D 1977
%C London and New York
%I Thames and Hudson, Charles Scribner's Sons
%G ISBN 0 5001 3060 4 ; ML410.W1 O8
%X Traces Wagner's life through hardships, debt, political exile, long
artistic frustrations and triumphant successes. With 142 b&w pictures.

%T Wagner
%A Elaine Padmore
%D 1971 and 1973
%C London and New York
%I Faber and Faber Ltd., T. Y. Crowell Co.
%S The Great Composers
%G ISBN 0 5710 8785 X, 0 6908 6512 0, 0 6908 6511 2 ; ML410.W1 P23
%X Elaine Padmore studied music variously at the University of
Birmingham, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Trinity College
of Music, London. After a short career as a singer, she became a music
producer with the BBC, where she was responsible for opera broadcasts.
Ms. Padmore has been director of the Wexford Festival (1982-1994) and
artistic director of the Royal Opera in Copenhagen (1993-2002). She is
currently the director of opera at Covent Garden.

%T Richard Wagner
%A Robert Raphael
%D 1969
%C New York
%I Twayne Publishers
%G ISBN 0 8057 2976 3 ; ML410.W1 R33
%X With bibliography. Michael Tanner writes concerning Raphael's account
of the works: "Robert Raphael ... is entirely concerned to elucidate
their significance, and mainly does so very well, though one often feels
he could be writing about spoken dramas".

%T Richard Wagner, Composer of Operas
%A John F. Runciman
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5599 3 ; ML410.Wl R82
%X Casts aside much previously written about Wagner (by Glasenapp and
Chamberlain, for example) and attempts to discover the real Wagner.
%O Originally published by G. Bell, London, in 1913.

%T The Real Wagner
%A Rudolph Sabor
%D 1987
%C London
%I Andre Deutsch
%G ISBN 0 2339 7870 4 ; ML410.W1 S12 1987
%X This biographical study consists of a series of essays, each of them
considering a different aspect of Wagner's character, yet also tracing
the story of Wagner's life. Much of that story is told in the words of
Wagner and his correspondents. The book is beautifully illustrated and
obviously a labour of love.
%O Foreword by Wolfgang Wagner.

%T Wagner
%A Michael Tanner
%D 1995
%C Cambridge UK, Princeton NJ
%I Cambridge Univ. Press, Princeton Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 0025 5532 8, 0 6910 1162 1 ; ML410.W13 T36 1996
%X This is more a series of essays than a complete biography. The author
discusses Wagner's life in relation to his dramas and the reverse.
Tanner's conservative and romantic viewpoint (he writes on opera for the
'Spectator') makes an interesting contrast to the more radical and
analytical approach of Millington, with whom Tanner has crossed swords.
%O Includes a chronology and a short but informative bibliography.

%T Richard Wagner : His Life, Art and Thought
%A Ronald Taylor
%D 1979
%C London and New York
%I Paul Elek, Taplinger
%G ISBN 0 8008 4792 X ; ML410.W1 T4 1979b
%X With bibliography.

%T Wagner
%A Walter James Redfern Turner
%D 1979, 1993 (reprints)
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Press
%G ISBN 0 7812 9629 3 ; ML410.W1 T8
%X Born in Melbourne in 1884, W.J.R. Turner went to London in 1907 to
become a writer. He spent some time in Germany and Austria in 1913-14
writing satirical sketches for the 'New Age' and concert reviews for the
'Musical Standard'. He served in the First World War during which he
published 'The Hunter and Other Poems' (1916), the first of sixteen
volumes of poetry. From 1918-1940 he was music critic of the 'New
Statesman'.
%O Originally published by Duckworth in 1933, London.

%T Richard Wagner as he Lived
%A William Wallace
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5602 7 hbk ; ML410.W1 W22 1933
%X
%O Originally published in 1933 by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co.,
London.

%T Richard Wagner : A Biography
%A Derek Watson
%D 1979, 1981, 1983
%C London, New York
%I J. M. Dent & Co., Schirmer, McGraw-Hill
%G ISBN 0 4600 3166 X hbk, 0 0287 2700 2 hbk, 0 0706 8479 0 pbk;
ML410.W1 W38 1981
%X With bibliography.

B3 - Sketches and summaries

%T Richard Wagner
%A Nathan Haskell Dole
%D 2003 reprint
%C
%I
%G ISBN 0 7950 4262 0 ; ML410.W1 D66
%X
%O Originally published in 1891.

%T Richard Wagner : an Introduction
%A Isaac Goldberg
%D 1924
%C Girard, Kansas
%I Haldeman-Julius Company
%G ML410.W13 G75
%X A short introduction to the life and work of Richard Wagner.

%T An introduction to the Life and Works of Richard Wagner
%A Chappell White
%D 1967
%C Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
%I Prentice-Hall
%G ML410.W1 W56
%X

B4 - For younger readers

%T Wagner
%A Greta Cencetti
%D 2001
%C
%I McGraw-Hill Childrens Publishing
%G ISBN 1 5884 5474 6
%X For children "in grades 2 to 6" (ages 7-12).

%T Richard Wagner and German Opera
%A Donna Getzinger and Daniel Felsenfeld
%D 2004
%C Greenboro, NC
%I Reynolds, Morgan Incorporated
%G ISBN 1 9317 9824 9
%X For young adults.

%T Richard Wagner : Titan of Music
%A Monroe Stearns
%D 1969
%C New York
%I F. Watts
%S Immortals of Music
%G ML410.W13 S78
%X For young readers in grades 4 to 8 (ages 9-14).

------------------------------

Subject: C. Biographies of Cosima Wagner

%T Cosima la sublime
%M French
%A Françoise Giroud
%D 1996
%C Paris
%I Fayard, Pocket
%G ISBN 2 2135 9532 1 hbk, 2 2660 7863 1 pbk ; ML429.W133 G57 1996
%X Giroud was a feminist, journalist, author, sometime government minister,
and cofounder of 'L'Express'.

%T Cosima Wagner
%T Cosima Wagner : Ein Lebens- und Charakterbild
%M German *
%A Richard Maria Ferdinand Graf Du Moulin-Eckart
%F Catherine Alison Phillips
%D 1995 (reprint)
%C Munich
%I Da Capo Press Inc
%V 2 vols.
%G ISBN 0 3067 6102 5 (pbk) ; ML410.W11 C624
%X The authorised biography of Cosima Wagner. With an introduction by
Ernest Newman. Introduction to the Da Capo edition by George Buelow.
Martin van Amerongen observes that Du Moulin-Eckart "must have written
his book lying flat on his stomach, so cringingly obsequious is its
tone". Ernest Newman, trying to determine the progress of Wagner's
affair with Cosima (in his 'Life'), found Du Moulin-Eckart's biography
infuriating: "he flits backwards and forwards from fact to fact, from
date to date, with as little sense of design as a fly zigzagging across
a window-pane".
%O Originally published by A.A. Knopf, New York, 1929-31.

%T Cosima Wagner
%A George Richard Marek
%D 1981-1983
%C New York and London
%I Harper and Row, Julia MacRae Books
%G ISBN 0 0601 2704 X, 0 8620 3120 6 ; ML429.W133 M4
%X

%T Richard and Cosima Wagner : Biography of a Marriage
%A Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1982
%C London and New York, Boston
%I Victor Gollancz Ltd, Houghton Mifflin Co.
%G ISBN 0 575 03017 8, 0 3953 1836 X ; ML410.W1 S43 1982
%X

%T Cosima Wagner : a Biography (UK title)
%T Cosima Wagner : Extraordinary Daughter of Franz Liszt (US title)
%A Alice Hunt Sokoloff
%D 1969, 1970
%C London and New York
%I Macdonald and Co.
%G ISBN 0 3560 2939 5 ; ML410.W11 S6 1970
%X

------------------------------

Subject: D. Other Biographical Studies

%T Wagner, a Case History
%T De buikspreker van God
%M Dutch *
%A Martin van Amerongen
%F Stewart Spencer
%F Dominic Cakebread
%D 1983 and 1984
%C London and New York
%I J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., G. Braziller
%G ISBN 0 4600 4618 7 ; ML410.W1 A59873 1984
%X An amusing and irreverent examination first of Richard Wagner's
life and works, and secondly of how his descendants have treated his
artistic legacy. With a short but interesting bibliography and a
brief discography.
%O Dutch original published in 1983 by Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers,
Amsterdam.

%T Wagner : A Documentary Study
%T Wagner : sein Leben und seine Welt in zeitgenossischen Bildern und
Texten
%A Herbert Barth
%A Dietrich Mack (ed)
%A Egon Voss (ed)
%F Peter Robert John Ford
%F Mary Whittall
%D 1975
%C London
%I Thames and Hudson
%G ISBN 0 5002 7399 5 ; ML410.W1 B1853 1975b
%X Preface by Pierre Boulez.

%T Two Essays on Wagner
%A David Irvine
%D 1912
%C London
%I Watts & co
%G ML410.W1 I72 1912
%X 1. Wagner's bad luck, an exposure of 800 errors in the authorised
translation of Wagner's autobiography. 2. The badness of Wagner's bad
luck, a first exposure of anti-Wagnerian journalism.
%O The first of these essays was published in 1911.

%T Wagner in Exile : 1849-62
%T Richard Wagners Verbannung und Rückkehr 1849-1862
%M German *
%A Woldemar Lippert
%F Paul England
%D 1930
%C London
%I G. G. Harrap & Co.
%G ML410.W11 L4 (German)
%X Coverage of a previously little-researched part of the composer's
life by the keeper of the principal public archives of Saxony. Contains
previously unpublished correspondence and other documents.
%O Original German version was published in 1927.

%T A Study of Wagner
%A Ernest Newman
%D 1974 (reprint)
%C New York
%I Vienna House
%G ISBN 0 8443 0065 9 ; ML410.W13 N5 1974
%X Newman's first book about Wagner, written while he was still
sceptical about his subject.
%O Originally published by Bertram Dobell, London in 1899.

%T Fact and Fiction about Wagner
%A Ernest Newman
%D 1931
%C London, NY
%I Cassell and Co., Alfred Knopf
%G
%X

------------------------------

Subject: E. Wagner and his Circle

%T The Dream King : Ludwig II of Bavaria
%A Wilfrid Blunt
%D 1970
%C London
%I Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
%G ISBN 0 2411 1293 1
%X A biography of Wagner's patron. Passages in this book have been
plagiarised, almost word for word, from Newman's 'Life'.
%O With a family tree and a short bibliography.

%T Ludwig II, the Mad King of Bavaria
%A Desmond Chapman-Huston, ed. Osyth Leeston
%D 1990
%C New York
%I Dorset Press
%G ISBN 0 8802 9493 0 ; DD801
%X It could be argued that Ludwig was not actually "mad" although he
probably did suffer from inherited schizophrenia.

%T Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe
%T Nietzsches Werke: historisch-kritische Ausgabe (electronic edition)
%M German
%A eds. Giorgio Colli, Mazzino Montinari
%A electronic ed. Malcolm Brown
%D 1980 and 1995 (CDROM)
%C Munich
%I Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag
%V 15 vols.
%G ISBN 3 4235 9044 0 (pbk), 3 1101 6599 6 (hbk), 1 5708 5117 4 (CDROM
Windows), 1 5708 5079 8 (CDROM Mac) ; B3312 .A2 1980
%X Includes all of Nietzsche's writings and his previously unpublished
manuscript notes (Nachgelassene Fragmente),which take up more than half
of this edition. "Only with the publication of these previously
unpublished jottings has it been possible to appreciate the paradigmatic
importance of Wagner for Nietzsche. With their richly faceted analyses
of the pros and cons of their relationship, they provide a counterweight
to the exaggerations of Nietzsche's last two anti-Wagnerian tracts, 'Der
Fall Wagner' and 'Nietzsche contra Wagner'. Against the background of
his unpublished papers, Nietzsche's published statements on Wagner
appear in a substantially different light. It now becomes clear, for
example, that Nietzsche's break with Wagner was by no means as radical
as posterity, in its ignorance of the sources, long believed. The idea
that he changed overnight from an unquestioning Wagnerian to an equally
unquestioning anti-Wagnerian belongs to the past." (Dieter Borchmeyer,
in 'Drama and the World of Richard Wagner', 2003).
The editors corrected many distortions and restored many omissions of
previous editions, most of them resulting from the attempts of the
philosopher's sister Elisabeth to misrepresent aspects of Nietzsche's
life, especially concerning his friendships with Richard and Cosima
Wagner. Much that had been written about these relationships, by the
respective biographers of Nietzsche, Richard and Cosima Wagner, was
revealed to have been based on falsehood.
%O Originally published by Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.

%T Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe
%M German
%A eds. Giorgio Colli, Mazzino Montinari, Wolfgang Müller-Lauter, Karl
Pestalozzi
%D 1967-
%C Berlin
%I Walter de Gruyter
%V 40 vols. (projected)
%G ISBN 3 1100 7774 4
%X This annotated and strictly chronological complete edition of Nietzsche's
writings and notes extends and completes the 'Kritische Studienausgabe'. It
aims to render obsolete all previous editions (of which there have been
several, in various degrees incomplete and inaccurate).

%T Wagner and Nietzsche
%T Wagner und Nietzsche : der Mystagoge und sein Abtrünniger
%M German *
%A Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
%F Joachim Neugroschel
%D 1976-1978
%C New York and London
%I Seabury Press
%G ISBN 0 8164 9280 8 ; ML410.W19 F563
%X Like Robert Gutman, Fischer-Dieskau gives too much credence to the
"official" version of the breach between Wagner and Nietzsche. Cosima's
Diaries and other evidence provide abundant grounds to doubt the story
of the final conversation between Wagner and Nietzsche, which according
to the "official" version took place at Sorrento on 2 November 1876. In
fact this story is entirely the invention of Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.
Much that has been written about the relationship between Wagner and
Nietzsche, including parts of this book, has been made obsolete by more
recent scholarship, which has in large part been concerned with tearing
down the edifice constructed by Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth. An
important part in this has been played by the critical editions
respectively of Nietzsche's writings (1980) and of his letters (1986)
edited by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. These editions have,
amongst other corrections, revealed some of the passages concerning
Wagner in Nietzsche's later works to have been falsified by Nietzsche's
sister.
%O Originally published in 1974, Stuttgart.

%T Wagner at Home
%T Le collier des jours : le troisième rang du collier
%T Visites à Richard Wagner
%M French *
%A Judith Gautier
%F Effie Dunreith Massie
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C Best Books
%I ISBN 0 7222 5572 1 hbk; ML410.W1 G28 (1912)
%X Memoirs of Judith Gautier (1845-1917), a French author (member of the
the Academie Goncourt and of the Legion d'Honneur) with whom Wagner
became infatuated during the 1870s. She kept him supplied with fabrics,
perfumes and intimate letters (which he destroyed) during the
composition of 'Parsifal'. Judith translated the libretto into French.
%O French original published in 1909, revised edition 1943. Translation
originally published in 1910-11 by Mills and Boon Ltd (London) and John
Lane Inc. (New York). See below for a biography of Judith Gautier.

%T Magic Fire : Scenes Around Richard Wagner.
%A Bernita Leonarz Harding
%D 1953
%C Indianapolis
%I Bobbs Merrill
%X These scenes focus on four of the most important people in Wagner's
life: Minna Wagner, Mathilde Wesendonck, King Ludwig II, and Cosima
Wagner. Written in a popular style, not scholarly.

%T Nietzsche and Wagner : A Lesson in Subjugation
%T Friedrich Nietzsche und Cosima Wagner : Die Schule der Unterwerfung
%M German *
%A Joachim Köhler
%F Ronald Taylor
%D 1998
%C New Haven and London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3000 7640 1; B3316 .K63 1998
%X Laon writes: "I am sorry to say that this book has the scholarly merit
of a UFO abduction memoir. Köhler asserts that Nietzsche was homosexual,
a claim for which he adduces no evidence at all. But we have plenty of
evidence of Nietzsche's heterosexuality and no evidence at all of
same-sex desire or practice. Nietzsche was a misogynist, hostile and
contemptuous towards women, also clearly afraid of them, but that
doesn't make him homosexual. Köhler seems to think that claiming
something is the same as making it so. He also claims that after the
Nietzsche-Wagner split Wagner conducted a relentless and vindictive
campaign against Nietzsche on the grounds that he was homosexual. Again,
Köhler doesn't support this claim of a homophobic campaign by Wagner with
any evidence. But then, how could he? There was no such campaign. It is
clear from Cosima Wagner's Diaries that Wagner's private reaction to the
split with Nietzsche was regret, a wish to have the breach healed, and
an undoubtedly patronising pity for 'that poor young man' Nietzsche.
These are not the sort of feelings that lead to persecution or a
campaign of vilification, as Köhler claims. Wagner's actual attitude to
homosexuals is suggested in an earlier letter to a homosexual friend.
Wagner suggests that his friend 'try to cut down a little, on the
pederasty'. The attitude is one of amused tolerance, which won't do now,
but it was progressive and liberal by the standards of his time. Wagner
was not a homophobe. Wagner did not respond in public to Nietzsche's
repeated attacks (except once, a very indirect reference in one of his
essays, without mentioning Nietzsche's name); contra Köhler, the abuse
was very much a one-way street, and not in the direction that Köhler
suggests. Köhler also presents a Nietzsche who wrote anti-Semitic
passages in his works during the alliance with Wagner, but who stopped
after the split. This is simply and flagrantly untrue. The post-Wagner
Nietzsche attacked anti-Semites, but he also continued to attack and
insult Jews."
%O The German original appeared in 1996.

%T The Swan King : Ludwig II of Bavaria
%A Christopher McIntosh
%D 1982
%C London
%I Allen Lane
%G ISBN 0 7139 1204 9
%X Another biography of Wagner's patron.

%T Personal Recollections of Wagner
%T Erinnerungen an Richard Wagner
%M German *
%A Angelo Neumann
%F Edith Livermore
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5592 6 ; ML410.W1 N42
%X Neumann was a singer, producer and impresario who, while director
of the Leipzig opera, obtained permission from Wagner to stage the
'Ring' there. He proposed to establish a Wagner theatre in Berlin,
although sufficient funding was never raised for this project. In
1882 with Wagner's permission, Neumann produced a staging of the 'Ring'
suitable for touring, which he staged all over Europe. Like many of
Wagner's most enthusiastic supporters, remarkably, Neumann was Jewish.
%O German original published in 1907, Leipzig. English translation
first published in 1908 by H. Holt and Co., New York, and in 1909 by
Archibald Constable and Co., London.

%T Judith Gautier : A Biography
%A Joanna Richardson
%D 1986, 1987
%C London and New York
%I Quartet books, Franklin Watts Inc., Interlink Publishing
%G ISBN 0 7043 2483 0, 0 5311 5025 9 hbk, 0 7043 0085 0 pbk ;
PQ2257.G9 Z84 1987
%X Judith Gautier was Wagner's muse during the composition of 'Parsifal'.

%T A Richard Wagner Dictionary
%A Edward M. Terry
%D 1939
%C New York
%I H.W. Wilson
%G ML410.W1 A15
%X This is a quick alphabetical reference guide to places and people in
Wagner's life, titles of his prose works (keyed to the Ellis' translation),
synopses of the operas, and biographies of the operas' characters . With
musical examples.

%T Recollections of Richard Wagner
%T Erinnerungen an Richard Wagner
%M German *
%A Baron Hans von Wolzogen
%F Agnes and Carnegie Simpson
%D 1894
%C Bayreuth
%I C. Giessel
%G ML410.W1 W7
%X The young poet Hans von Wolzogen became an enthusiastic disciple of
Wagner in his student days, corresponded with Wagner, and was invited to
Bayreuth in October 1877 to become editor of the publication 'Bayreuther
Blätter'. This periodical became his life's work; publication ended
with Wolzogen's death in 1938. He also produced a series of thematic
guides to Wagner's operas (see section IV) and edited three volumes of
Wagner's letters (see section VI).

------------------------------

Subject: F. Wagner and his Contemporaries

%T Mozart, Weber, and Wagner : With Various Essays on Musical Subjects
%M French *
%A Hector Berlioz
%F Edwin Evans
%D 1986, 1999 (reprints)
%C New York
%I Somerset, Reprint Services Corp.
%G ISBN 0 7812 0566 2 ; ML410.B5 A543 1918z
%X
%O Originally published in translation by W. Reeves, London, in 1918.

%T Aus Eduard Hanslicks Wagner-Kritiken
%M German
%A Eduard Hanslick
%A Heinrich Kralik (ed)
%D 1947
%C Vienna and New York
%I Europa Verlag
%G ML410.W13 H16
%X

%T Hanslick's Music Criticisms
%M German *
%A Eduard Hanslick
%F Henry Pleasants
%D 1988
%C New York
%I Dover Publications
%G ISBN 0 4862 5739 8 ; ML246.8.V6 H242 1988
%X

%T Richard Wagner's Visit To Rossini And An Evening At Rossini's In Beau-
Sejour
%M French *
%A Edmond Michotte
%F Herbert Weinstock
%D 1992
%C Chicago; London
%I Univ. of Chicago Press; Quartet Books
%G ML410.W11 M42
%X Two short memoirs by a friend of Rossini, first published in 1906 and
1893.

%T Wagner Remembered
%A Stewart Spencer
%D 2000
%C London
%I Faber and Faber Ltd
%G ISBN 0 5711 9653 5
%X Richard Wagner as portrayed in the memoirs and diaries of relatives,
friends and fellow musicians. Including Queen Victoria, King Ludwig and
Giacomo Meyerbeer.

------------------------------

Subject: III. General Titles about Richard Wagner

These are general books about Wagner, his ideas and his influence, that
are not primarily biographical.

------------------------------

Subject: A. Influences on Wagner

%T Schiller and Wagner : a Study of their Dramatic Theory and Technique
%A Marie Haefliger Graves
%D 1938
%C Ann Arbor, MI
%I Published by the author.
%G PT2494 .G7
%X Graves compares the dramatic techniques of Schiller and Wagner, and
discusses the influence of Shakespeare and classical Greek drama on both
dramatists.
%O Reprinted in 1947.

%T The Influence of Shakespeare on Richard Wagner
%A Margaret Inwood
%D 2000
%C New York, Queenstown Ontario and Lampeter Wales
%I Edwin Mellen Press
%G ISBN 0 7734 7774 8
%S Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music
%V No.64
%G ML410.W19 I59 1999
%X

%T Wagner and Beethoven : Richard Wagner's Reception of Beethoven
%T Wagner und Beethoven : Untersuchung zur Beethoven-Rezeption Richard
Wagners
%M German *
%A Klaus Kropfinger
%F Peter Palmer
%D 1991
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5213 4201 5 ; ML410.W19 K9313 1991
%X The impact of Beethoven's music on Wagner and its importance for his
conception of musical drama. Kropfinger charts and scrutinizes Wagner's
early responses to the composer and considers his experience as a
conductor of Beethoven's music.
%O Table of contents: < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam028/90001505.html >

------------------------------

Subject: B. Wagner's Influence

%T Darwin, Marx, Wagner : Critique of a Heritage
%A Jacques Barzun
%D 1981
%C Chicago
%I Univ. of Chicago Press
%G ISBN 0 2260 3859 9 ; CT105 .B33
%X Among the subjects discussed in the book are Wagner's relationships
with Berlioz, Liszt and Nietzsche, and his influence on literature and
artistic life in Germany and England respectively.
%O Originally published in 1941 by Little, Brown and Co., Boston

%T Wagner and Debussy
%A Robin Holloway
%D 1979
%C London
%I Eulenburg
%G ISBN 0 9038 7325 7
%X

%T Musica Ficta : Figures of Wagner
%M French *
%A Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
%F Felicia McCarren
%D 1994
%C Stanford
%I Stanford Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 8047 2385 0 hbk, 0 8047 2376 1 pbk ; ML410.W19 L213 1994
%X The title of this book is deceptive: although Wagner is very much
present in the first of the four essays, he progressively fades away in
the remaining three. The first essay deals with the impact of Wagner's
music on Baudelaire, who wrote an extraordinary letter to the composer
after first hearing excerpts from four of Wagner's operas at a concert
in 1860. He declared them "sublime". It is interesting to note that this
initial reaction was to Wagner's music as absolute music and not in the
context of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk', and so not to the Wagnerian program
itself. If not already, then before writing his 'Richard Wagner and
Tannhäuser in Paris' a year later, Baudelaire had read an article in
which Wagner summarised his theoretical ideas. Lacoue-Labarthe (or his
translator) refers to it as the 'Letter on Music' but it might be better
known to the reader as 'Zukunftmusik' or 'The Music of the Future'. The
second essay concerns Mallarmé, who was expressing opinions about Wagner
before he had heard a note of his music; although Mallarmé had read both
Baudelaire's essay and 'Zukunftmusik'. Those who find Mallarmé's prose
opaque should not expect Lacoue-Labarthe to provide illumination.
The next essay is about Heidegger's views on art. Although Wagner is
scarcely mentioned in Heidegger's works -- neither is music -- the
author has found one place where he is discussed: in a series of
lectures on Nietzsche's ideas about art and aesthetics, 'The Will to
Power as Art', which Lacoue-Labarthe explores together with an almost
contemporary essay by Heidegger, 'On the Origin of the Art-work'. It is
not always easy to tell when the author is discussing Nietzsche's
thought and when he is discussing Heidegger's thoughts inspired by
Nietzsche; and to complicate matters further, the discussion is grounded
in Hegel's theory of the historical development of art and aesthetics.
The essay touches on such interesting questions as whether Wagner's
post- 1850 dramas were an artistic project or an aesthetic one, whether
this project was "a failure", and whether Nietzsche's break with Wagner
was justified on philosophical grounds. Heidegger claimed that it was a
historical necessity, and in particular a necessity of German history.
The last essay is about Adorno and contains few mentions of Wagner,
which is perhaps just as well. It starts out in the direction of a
general discussion of the relative importance of words and music in
opera (the theme of Strauss' 'Capriccio') but soon focuses on a late
(1963) essay by Adorno, one concerning Schoenberg's 'Moses and Aaron',
and ends up considering this opera in relation to Hegel's concept of the
sublime. The author's connection of this essay to Hölderlin's theory of
tragedy is clever rather than explanatory and his comparison of
Schoenberg's opera to 'Parsifal' is superficial; it would have been more
interesting to read a discussion of whether Adorno's arguments about
'Moses' also could be applied to 'Tannhäuser'.
Although one can sympathise with a translator who has to render a work
filled with philosophical terminology from French, and in addition cope
with extensive quotations from works originally published in German, the
result could be described as polyglot and must be read with some care.
It would have helped if the translator had taken more care with near-
cognates; for example, by writing *Affekt* rather than (as noun) affect.
As far as I know, there is no such word in English as "historial" (which
is used throughout the book); the correct translation of
"geschichtliche" is, historical or historic. It does not help that the
author delights not only in using Greek words (such as mimesis
=representation; agôn, anamnesis ="the remembrance of things past",
eidos, ekphanastathon, épistèmè, katharsis, lexis, metexis, mousiké,
phainesthai, physis, polémos, propos, tekhnè, topos, tupein, haplè
diègèsis) and quoting from St. John's Gospel but also in using words
derived from Greek roots (such as, eidetic). Those readers who have
forgotten their Greek should have a dictionary close to hand.
%O French original was published in 1991. Table of contents:
< http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam028/94015594.html >

%T Richard Wagner : The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art: The 1998
Larkin-Stuart Lectures
%A M. Owen Lee
%D 1999
%C Toronto and New York
%I University of Toronto Press
%G ISBN 0 8020 4721 1 ; ML410.W13 L44 1999
%X Discusses various aspects of Wagner and his influence.

------------------------------

Subject: C. Wagner as Thinker

%T The Ideas of Richard Wagner : An Examination and Analysis
%A Alan Aberbach
%D 2003 (second edition)
%C Lanham and Oxford
%I University Press of America
%G ISBN 0 7618 2524 X ; ML410.W13 A22 2003
%X As its sub-title indicates, this book examines and analyses the wide
range of ideas that Wagner absorbed, developed and in many cases made
his own. The author presents these ideas largely in Wagner's own words,
as expressed in his prose works and letters. Unlike the authors of some
of the books listed here, Aberbach provides generous, relevant and
revealing quotations, rather than just phrases, from Wagner himself, in
the best translations available.
The book might be considered a biographical supplement, since it
traces the development of Wagner's thoughts from optimistic youth through
pessimistic middle- age to irascible old-age. The book contains three
sections, entitled respectively: 'The Political Stage', 'The Spiritual
and Religious Stage' and 'The Artistic Stage'. With bibliography.
%O First edition published 1988.

%T In Search of Wagner
%T Versuch über Wagner
%M German *
%A Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno
%F Rodney Livingstone
%D 1981
%C London
%I Verso Books
%G ISBN 0 8609 1796 7 ; ML410.W1 A5953 1981
%X A Marxist viewpoint on Wagner and his works. As far as the editor has
been able to establish, Adorno was the first to suggest that Beckmesser
and Klingsor might be Jewish caricatures. Michael Tanner writes:
"important because of its author, showing how a thinker of genius can be
led by reacting to Wagner's art into wild postures of rejection, and
sneaking admiration".
Adorno's writing on Wagner betrays an ideological obsessiveness to wrap
Wagner up into a Marxist framework. He thus searches for both progressive
and regressive tendencies in Wagner to fit his dialectical metaphor,
relates the atomization of the musical materials to factory production
methods and even recasts Wagner's assumed dual roles of poet and composer
as a reaction against capitalist division of labour.
%O German original was published in 1952. Translation was last reprinted
in 1991. For an assessment of Adorno's reaction to Wagner, see the book
'Musica Ficta' by Lacoue-Labarthe, above.

%T Wagner and the Reform of the Opera
%A Edward Dannreuther
%D 1904
%C London
%I Augener and Co.
%G ML410.W13 D18
%X Dannreuther was the founder of the London Wagner Society in 1872.
He assisted Wagner in obtaining a dragon and other properties for the
1876 Bayreuth 'Ring' and with his London tour a year later.

%T Richard Wagner : His Tendencies and Theories
%A Edward Dannreuther
%D 1873
%C London
%I Augener and Co.
%G ML55.T2 vol. 6
%X A collection of essays in which the author discusses Wagner's
aesthetic theories. Dannreuther emphasises the inspiration that Wagner
found in Greek tragedy, which he believes that Wagner had tried to
revitalise "under the guidance of the spirit of music".

%T The Fertilizing Seed : Wagner's Concept of Poetic Intent
%A Frank W. Glass
%D 1982
%C Ann Arbor MI
%I UMI Research Press
%S Studies in Musicology
%V No.63
%G ISBN 0 8357 1561 2 ; ML410.W19 G46 1983
%X Glass discusses Wagner's theories as presented in his most extensive
treatise 'Oper und Drama' and examines how his ideas developed
subsequently. The majority of writers about Wagner's theory and practise
have concluded that his ideas underwent a reversal between 1851 and
1870. Glass prefers to see this as a change of emphasis. He argues that
Wagner consistently held on to one idea: that the "poetic intent"
stimulates a musical response and calls it forth as drama. Glass calls
this the fundamental idea of 'Oper und Drama' and finds it still
present, although with a different emphasis, in the later theoretical
writings.

%T Wagner's Musical Prose : Texts and Contexts
%A Thomas S. Grey
%D 1995
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5214 1738 4 ; ML410.W19 G83 1995
%S New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism
%X A study of the prose writings of Richard Wagner and their relevance
to an understanding of his music and drama, as well as their relation to
music criticism and aesthetics in the 19th century in general. Grey
considers Wagner's ambivalence concerning the idea of absolute music and
the capacity of music to project meaning or drama; Wagner's
appropriation of a Beethoven legacy, the metaphors of musical gender and
biology in 'Oper und Drama', and the critical background to ideas of
motive and leitmotif in theory and practice.
%O Table of contents: < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam024/94011417.html >

%T Richard Wagner and the Music of the Future : History and Aesthetics
%T Richard Wagner und die Musik der Zukunft
%A Francis Hueffer
%D 1971 (reprint)
%C Freeport, NY
%I Books for Libraries Press
%G ISBN 0 8369 2508 4 ; ML390 .H88 (1874)
%S The Great Musicians
%X According to Hueffer, Schopenhauer's doctrine that music is an
immediate and direct copy of the Will led Wagner to believe that only
music could express the inner life of mankind.
%O English version published by Chapman and Hall, London, in 1874.
German version published by F.E.C. Leuckart, Leipzig, in 1877.

%T The Truth about Wagner
%A Philip Dutton Hurn
%A Waverley Lewis Root
%D 1930
%C New York
%I Frederick A. Stokes Company
%G ML410.W1 H93
%X In part based on documents in the Burrell Collection. With eleven
illustrations in black and white.

%T A Wagnerian's Midsummer Madness
%A David Irvine
%D 1899
%C London
%I H. Grevel and Co.
%X Essays by a Scottish evangelist for Wagner and Schopenhauer, who
appropriated their ideas for his own philosophical and political ends.
Unlike G.B. Shaw, whose Wagnerism was closely related to his Fabianism,
Irvine's Wagnerism is metaphysical.

%T Pro and Contra Wagner
%T Wagner und unsere Zeit
%M German *
%A Thomas Mann
%F Allan Blunden
%D 1985
%C London and Chicago
%I Faber
%G ISBN 0 5711 3150 6 hbk, 0 5711 3636 2 pbk ; ML410.W1 M253 1985
%X Includes Mann's 1933 lecture, "The Sorrows and Grandeur of Richard
Wagner". There is a clear tendency in much recent writing about Wagner
and his works to regard Mann as an authority. Although he was often
perceptive, Mann was often wrong on these matters, and many later
writers have been unwise to rely on Mann's judgements. For example, his
claim, made in the above-mentioned essay, that in his Dresden years
Wagner had seen "his whole career carefully mapped out in advance". In
fact, many of the projects that were "mapped out" in those years, such
as 'Wieland der Schmied', were never carried out, while the romances of
Tristan and Parzival respectively were (at most) two among many possible
subjects that Wagner was considering for operatic treatment.
%O With an introduction by Erich Heller and a preface by Patrick Carnegy.

%T Wagner in Thought and Practice
%A Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1992
%C Portland, OR
%I Amadeus Press
%G ISBN 0 9313 4058 6 ; ML410.W13 S54 1992
%X

%T Richard Wagner and the Synthesis of the Arts
%A Jack M. Stein
%D 1973
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
%G ISBN 0 8371 6806 6 ; ML410.W1 S83
%X Professor Stein considers the development of Wagner's ideas about the
synthesis of poetry, music, dance and drama from the writings of his
Paris years through to the 'Beethoven' essay of 1870 and the lecture 'On
the Destiny of Opera' in 1871. Stein examines how the stage-works from
'Rienzi' to 'Parsifal' reflect the development of Wagner's theoretical
ideas.
%O Originally published by Wayne Univ. Press, Detroit, in 1960.

%T Interpreting Wagner
%A James Treadwell
%D 2003
%C New Haven and London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3000 9815 4 ; ML410.W13 T73 2003
%X It is not entirely clear why this book was written, except that the
author obviously wanted to write it. He declares at the outset that it
was not intended as an interpretation of Wagner, nor as a guide to how
Wagner ought to be interpreted. On page 133 he confides, "this is not a
book about what Wagner's work means but *how* it means"; by which he
might mean, how those works work.
Much of what Treadwell writes (and he writes well) is insightful. He
finds an appropriate balance of discussion between concepts, words and
(without being too technical) music; and care has been taken with
translations. On the other hand, too much of the book is derivative,
repeating analysis to be found in earlier books listed in this
bibliography. Some might find this book too much influenced by Adorno,
or too conventional, or question some of Treadwell's judgements (for
example, that 'Tristan' is formless). The author has little to say that
has not been said before.
The text is sometimes inaccurate (e.g. his unqualified assertion that
the 'Parsifal' material was mentioned several times by Wagner in 1856)
or misleading (e.g. when he refers to Parsifal as a "holy fool"), and
the reflective reader will not agree with all of the author's sweeping
generalizations. The best part is a concise analysis of 'Meistersinger';
the weakest parts are those in which the author reveals a limited grasp
of Wagner's ideas about religion.
%O Table of contents: < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy043/2003101946.html >

------------------------------

Subject: D. Wagner as Poet

%T Wagnerian Drama : an Attempt to Inspire a Better Appreciation of Wagner
as a Dramatic Poet
%A Houston Stewart Chamberlain
%D 1923
%C London
%I John Lane
%G ML410.W13 C54
%X A look at Wagner as a dramatic poet instead of Wagner, the musician.

%T Richard Wagner as Poet
%T
%M German *
%A Wolfgang Golther
%F Jessie Haynes
%D 1905
%C London
%I W. Heinemann
%G ML410.W18 G72
%X Wolfgang Golther is best known as the editor of the correspondence
between Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck. He also wrote a series
of books that explore Wagner's source material.

------------------------------

Subject: E. Wagner as Musician

%T Wagner Werk-Verzeichnis : Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke Richard
Wagners und ihrer Quellen : Erarbeitet im Rahmen der Richard Wagner-
Gesamtausgabe
%M German
%A John Deathridge (ed)
%A Martin Geck
%A Egon Voss
%A Isolde Vetter (ass.ed)
%D 1986
%C Mainz
%I Schott
%G ISBN 3 7957 2201 2 ; ML134.W1 A15 1986
%X The (almost) complete catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic
works, including sketches, unfinished and lost works, and even some
works for which text, but no music, was written. For each of the works
included, the catalogue lists its title, subtitle, genre and, where
appropriate, an indication of key and the musical forces for which it
was written. For the stage works, it gives the locations of the action
and role lists as they appear in printed editions. Musical incipits are
given for each work for which any music has survived. Manuscripts are
listed both for text (sketches, prose drafts and poems) and for music
(drafts, complete drafts and facsimiles). Early printed editions of the
full text and of scores (full, vocal and extracts) are listed for each
of the published works.

------------------------------

Subject: F. Essay Collections

%T The Wagner Companion
%A Peter Burbidge (ed)
%A Richard Sutton (ed)
%D 1979
%C London, New York
%I Faber; Cambridge Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 5711 0471 1 ; ML410.W13 W12 1979
%X J.K. Holman writes, "This is a collection of essays covering Wagner's
life and work, arranged by subject and covering a wide range of
significant issues. The chapters on the German intellectual and literary
background, rarely explored in English, are particularly useful. The gem
is Deryck Cooke on Wagner's development of revolutionary harmonic
techniques to articulate a coherent musical language."
%O There is another book with a similar name by Raymond Mander and Joe
Mitchenson. Cooke's analysis of the musical motives of the 'Ring' has
been reissued on a CD set, Decca/London 443 581-2.

%T Re-reading Wagner
%A Reinhold Grimm (ed)
%A Jost Hermand (ed)
%D 1993
%C Madison
%I Univ of Wisconsin Press
%G ISBN 0 2999 7076 0 ; ML410.W131 R3 1993
%X A collection of diverse essays about Wagner and his influence.

%T Aspects of Wagner
%A Bryan Magee
%D 1988 (revised edition)
%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press
%G ISBN 0 1928 4012 6 ; ML410.W13 M105 1988
%X Laon writes: "This is not a comprehensive overview of Wagner's life,
work and thought, but a collection of essays on different Wagner topics.
Magee is interesting on the notoriously strong emotional response --
positive or negative -- people have to the music, and offers some
thoughts on why this is so. The essay, 'Jews, not least in music' puts
Wagner's infamous essay 'Das Judentum in der Musik' into perspective, as
considerably less inflammatory than many people, who have perhaps only
heard the title, believe. It is also interesting on Wagner's influence
in literature, poetry, painting, and so on. A short book, just over 100
pages, written in absolutely plain English. It's an odd thing about a
man whose works are famous for their length, but the shorter books about
Wagner tend to be the best."
%O First edition published in 1968.

%T The Wagner Compendium : A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music
%A Barry Millington (ed)
%D 1992
%C London
%I Thames and Hudson, Macmillan
%G ISBN 0 0287 1359 1 ; ML410.W13 W122 1992
%X Includes a detailed list of Wagner's writings and a general
bibliography. Millington takes the opportunity to ride his favourite
hobby-horses. Other contributors are Stewart Spencer, Thomas Grey, David
Large, Konrad Bund, Roger Hollinrake, Warren Darcy, Raymond Furness,
David Breckbill, William Weber, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Joachim Thierry,
Ulrich Tröhler, Arnold Whittall, Michael Hall, and Christopher Wintle.

%T Wagner Handbook
%T Wagner Handbuch
%M German *
%A Ulrich Müller (ed)
%A Peter Wapnewski (ed)
%F John Deathridge (ed. translation)
%D 1992
%C Cambridge MA
%I Harvard University Press
%G ISBN 0 6749 4530 1 ; ML410.W131 R41613 1992
%X An extensive collection of essays on Richard Wagner's career,
cultural relationships, and psychology. In addition to essays and
reference material provided by Müller, Wapnewski and Deathridge, the
Handbook contains contributed essays by Carl Dahlhaus, Isolde Vetter,
Rüdiger Krohn, Dieter Borchmeyer, Ernst Hanisch, Volker Mertens, Peter
Branscombe, Hartmut Reinhart, Manfred Eger, Erwin Koppen, Günter Metkin,
Werner Breig, Oswald Bauer, Jens Malte Fischer, and Jürgen Kühnel.
Michael Tanner writes: "Whether you want to know about Wagner in
Literature and Film, Wagner's Middle Ages, the Operas as Literary Works,
or to consult a large bibliography, or read on any of the central areas
of 'Wagner research', you will find at least one substantial chapter
here".

----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTINUED IN PART 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------

This compilation copyright (C) 2000-2005 by Derrick Everett. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED. Copyright in contributed material is the property of its
author. Permission is hereby granted for electronic distribution by non-
commercial services such as internet, provided that it is posted in its
entirety and includes this copyright statement. This document may not be
distributed for financial gain. Any other use, or any commercial use of
this document without permission is prohibited by law.

[Derrick Everett]

Version: 1.25

------------------------------

Wagner Books FAQ for humanities.music.composers.wagner (PART 2)

------------------------------

Subject: IV. Books about Wagner's Works

Each of these titles is devoted either to a specific work, or to a set
of works, by Richard Wagner. For books about the staging of the dramas
and about specific productions, see section IX below.

------------------------------

Subject: A. Der fliegende Holländer

WWV 63 in the catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic works. Modern
critical edition of the score published as volume 4 (ed. Isolde Vetter)
of the 'Sämtliche Werke'. Documents relating to the development and
initial reception of the work are to be published in volume 24.

%T The Flying Dutchman : a Guide to the Opera
%A Frank Granville Barker
%D 1979
%C London
%I Barrie and Jenkins
%G ISBN 0 2142 0655 6 ; ML410.W132 B4
%S Masterworks of Opera
%X With a background to the opera and the legend, a synopsis of the
plot, Wagner's advice to the players, and its music. With a survey of
perfomances and recordings.
%O Foreword by Norman Bailey.

%T Richard Wagner : 'Der fliegende Holländer'
%A Thomas S. Grey (ed)
%D 2000
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge Univ Press
%G ISBN 0 5215 8285 7 ; ML410.W132 .R48 2000
%S Cambridge Opera Handbooks
%X Contributors include Barry Millington on the sources and genesis of
the libretto, Patrick Carnegy and David Breckbill on the history of the
work in performance, and Stephen McClatchie on the belated arrival of
the Dutchman in Bayreuth. Appendices include: a translation by Stewart
Spencer of the relevant part of Heine's short story; a translation by
Peter Bloom of Wagner's original (French) scenario; Spencer's
translation of the surviving fragment of the (German) Prose Draft; and
selected passages from Wagner's prose writings and correspondence
concerning the work.
%O There is a contents page and a sample chapter of the book online at:
< http://assets.cambridge.org/0521582857/sample/0521582857WS.pdf >

------------------------------

Subject: B. Tannhäuser

WWV 70 in the catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic works. Modern
critical edition of the score published as volume 5 (stages 1 and 2, ed.
Reinhard Strohm) and volume 6 (stages 3 and 4, ed. Peter Jost) of the
'Sämtliche Werke'. Documents relating to the development and initial
reception of the work are to be published in volume 25. Wagner's own
piano and vocal arrangements of the various stages of the score are
included in volume 20.

%T From History to Myth : Wagner's 'Tannhäuser' and its Literary Sources
%A Mary A. Cicora
%D 1992
%C Frankfurt a.M. and New York
%I Peter Lang
%G ISBN 3 2610 4408 X ; ML410.W135 C5 1992
%S Germanic Studies in America
%V No.63
%X Cicora discusses Wagner's usage of Tieck, Hoffmann, Heine, Lucas,
Bechstein and of medieval sources concerning Tanhusære or Danheüser,
the legend of the Venusberg, Heinrich von Ofterdingen and the song
contest on the Wartburg.
%O There is a considerable literature concerning the Tannhäuser legend,
apart from the use Wagner made of it. See for example Dietz-Rüdiger
Moser, 'Die Tannhäuser-Legende: Eine Studie über Intentionalität und
Rezeption katechistischer Volkerzählungen zum Buss-Sakrament', Berlin
and NY, 1977.

%T 'Tannhäuser' and 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg' : Described and
Interpreted in Accordance with Wagner's Own Writings
%A Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump
%D 1912
%C London
%I Methuen & Co.
%X A discussion of the two operas, with musical notation of important
themes.

%T 'Tannhäuser' : An Examination of Thirty-Six Editions
%A Cecil Hopkinson
%D 1973
%C Tutzing
%I Schneider
%G ISBN 3 7952 0122 5 ; ML410.W135 H66
%X

%T 'Tannhäuser', a dramatic poem
%A Thomas William Rolleston
%A Willy Pogàny (illustrator)
%D 1911
%C London
%I G.G. Harrap & Co.
%G ML50.W14 T22 1911b
%X See the entry for the related book on 'Lohengrin'.

------------------------------

Subject: C. Lohengrin

WWV 75 in the catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic works. Modern
critical edition of the score published as volume 7 (ed. John
Deathridge and Klaus Döge) of the 'Sämtliche Werke'. Documents
relating to the development and initial reception of the work are to
be published in volume 26.

Some of these books about Wagner's swan knight are probably of more
interest for their illustrations than for their texts.

%T 'Lohengrin' : The Story of Wagner's Opera
%A Alan Blyth
%A Maria A. Gambaro (illustrator)
%D 1981-82

%C London and New York

%I Julia MacRae Books, Franklin Watts
%G ISBN 0 8620 3068 4 hbk ; MT100.W23 B6 1981
%X The story of Wagner's opera retold for younger readers, with full
page colour illustrations.

%T Parsifal, Lohengrin and the Legend of the Holy Grail : Described and
Interpreted in Accordance with Wagner's Own Writings
%A Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump
%D 1904
%C London
%I Methuen & Co.
%X Mrs. Cleather was a member of the Theosophical Society. Her writings
include a biography of Madame Blavatsky and studies of Buddhism from a
Theosophist viewpoint.

%T 'Lohengrin' : The Story of Wagner's Opera
%A Robert Lawrence
%A Alexander Serebriakoff (illustrator)
%D 1938
%C New York
%I Silver, Burdett and Co., Grosset and Dunlap
%G MT100.W23 L3
%X From a series intended to acquaint children with opera.
%Q Metropolitan Opera Guild

%T Lohengrin
%A Hans Ferdinand Redlich
%D 1949
%C London
%I Boosey and Hawkes
%S Covent Garden Opera
%G MT100.W23 R4
%X Brief history of the opera, analysis (basic), with information on
Wagner and some suggested reading material.

%T Tale of Lohengrin, Knight of the Swan after the Drama of Richard
Wagner
%A Thomas William Rolleston
%A Willy Pogàny (illustrator)
%D 1913
%C London
%I G.G. Harrap & Co.
%G PR5236.R3 A77 1913
%X Similar books were produced on the subjects of 'Tannhäuser' and
'Parsifal' respectively. The Hungarian-born Pogàny (1882-1955) studied
in Budapest, Munich and Paris, then migrated first to London, where he
designed these volumes; one year later (1914), he went on to America,
where he achieved renown for the design of stage sets for the
Metropolitan Opera and for Broadway productions, for institutional and
theatrical murals, for architectural design, for Hollywood art
direction and for his book design and illustration.

%T The Story of Wagner's 'Lohengrin'
%A Frederick Colin Tilney (text and illustrations)
%D 1911?
%C London
%I George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.
%X With six colour illustrations.

------------------------------

Subject: D. Der Ring des Nibelungen

WWV 86 in the catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic works. Modern
critical edition of the score published as volumes 10-13 (ed. Egon Voss
and Hartmut Fladt) of the 'Sämtliche Werke'. Documents relating to the
development and initial reception of the work published in volume 29
(ed. Werner Breig and Hartmut Fladt). For translations of the libretto
with commentaries, see subsection K below.

D1 - Wagner's sources

%T Wagner and the Volsungs : Icelandic sources of 'Der Ring des
Nibelungen'
%T Wagner og Völsungar : Niflungahringurinn og islenskar
fornbókmenntir
%M Icelandic *
%A Árni Björnsson
%F Anna Yates, Anthony Faulkes
%D 2003
%C London
%I Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London
%G ISBN 0 9035 2155 5 ; ML410.W15 A76 2000 (Icelandic)
%X Originally written for an Icelandic readership, this important new
study of Wagner's primary sources asserts that 80% of the literary
motives that Wagner adapted to his own purposes in 'Der Ring des
Nibelungen' originated in Old Icelandic literature. The book begins with
a brief biography of Richard Wagner, followed by a chronological table
of his lifetime. It then gets down to business with chapters on the
development of German national consciousness and on the growing interest
in Icelandic literature in 18th and 19th century Germany.
The author then describes the literary development of Wagner's text,
with particular reference to his indirect and direct use of Icelandic
literature as a source of inspiration. This brings us to a point about
one-third of the way through the book. The remaining two thirds present
a detailed analysis of Wagner's use of primary sources, which goes well
beyond anything previously attempted; such as the studies respectively
published by Wolfgang Golther, Deryck Cooke and Elizabeth Magee (see
below). Together with Magee's research, which it extends and
complements, Björnsson's book is indispensable for all students of the
'Ring'.
%O Original Icelandic edition published by Mál og menning, Reykjavik,
2000. Dr. Golther's seminal analysis of Wagner's sources appeared in
1902, as 'Sagengeschichtliche Grundlagen der Ringdichtung Richard
Wagners'.

%T The Teutonic Mythology of Richard Wagner's 'The Ring of the Nibelung'
%A William O. Cord
%D 1989-1991

%C New York, Queenstown Ontario and Lampeter Wales
%I Edwin Mellen Press

%G ISBN 0 8894 6441 3 (vol.I), 0 8894 6442 1 (vol.II), 0 8894 6443 X
(vol.III); ML410.W15 C7 1989

%S Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music

%V 3 vols.
%X An examination of the Nordic and Germanic sources of the 'Ring'.
Volume I, 'Nine Dramatic Properties' (178p), includes extensive
treatments of: the World Ash, the Rainbow Bridge, Donner's Golden
Hammer, Valhalla, and the ring itself. Volume II, 'The Family of Gods'
(225p), presents each god in rich detail and coverage. Volume III,
'The Natural and Supernatural Worlds' (606p), is in two parts and in
encyclopedic format. It includes a supplement on the names detailed,
with specific examination of every person, thing, or object given a
proper name in the drama. In a review of this book Elizabeth Magee
drew attention to a number of factual errors. None of the sources of
the 'Ring' are, strictly speaking, Teutonic; see the book by
Björnsson, listed above.

%T Wagner and Aeschylus : The 'Ring' and the 'Oresteia'
%A Michael Ewans
%D 1982
%C London
%I Faber and Faber
%G ISBN 0 5711 1808 9 ; ML410.W15 E9 1983
%X Wagner read Aeschylus' trilogy shortly before beginning work on his
'Ring'. In his autobiography Wagner wrote that his ideas about the
significance of drama and of the theatre had been moulded by his
response to this classical masterpiece. Ewans shows how it influenced
Wagner at many levels, from the basic idea of developing a festival
drama, as Aeschylus had done, using mythical materials, through to the
selection and treatment of the subject matter in the 'Ring'. Ewans
argues for a broad correspondence between the opening chorus of the
'Agamemnon' and Wagner's "preliminary evening", between the remainder
of that first play and 'Die Walküre', and between 'Choephori' and
'Siegfried'. Where the respective concluding dramas are concerned, the
contrasts between 'Eumenides' and 'Götterdämmerung' are at least as
significant as their affinities. In an appendix Ewans dismisses the
argument that 'Prometheus Bound' (previously attributed to Aeschylus,
possibly by Euphorion) was an influence on Wagner's 'Ring', despite
the obvious allusions in Wagner's text.
%O Barry Millington in his 'Wagner', page 194, characterises Ewans' book
as "tendentious". It is not, however, as tendentious as many things
that Mr. Millington has written. Those who live in glass houses ...

%T Richard Wagner and the Nibelungs
%A Elizabeth Magee
%D 1990
%C Oxford and New York
%I Oxford University Press
%G ISBN 0 1981 6190 5 ; ML410.W15 M3 1991
%X A comprehensive account of Wagner's reading and research during the
creation of his texts for the 'Ring', developed from the author's
doctoral thesis. In addition to the catalogue of Wagner's personal
library at Dresden (see section V, subsection G, below), Magee studied
the loan records of the Royal Library there, to develop a chronology of
Wagner's reading during the last years before his exile. The author is
on less certain ground when she asserts that Wagner could not have known
'Völsungasaga' when he wrote his sketch 'Der Nibelungen Mythus' in 1848,
since internal evidence strongly suggests that he was familiar with the
saga. Anyone who has read Cooke's 'I Saw the World End' and wants to
know more about the background to the 'Ring' should obtain this book.
Magee's discussion of solar myth (pages 138-152), an aspect of the
'Ring' and its sources neglected by other commentators, throws sunlight
on several passages that are otherwise difficult to explain.
%O See also the later book by Björnsson, "Wagner and the Volsungs",
above.

%T Legends of the Ring
%A Elizabeth Magee (ed), Simon Brett (illustrator)
%F Selections variously translated by Elizabeth Magee, R.G. Finch,
Patricia Terry, Jean I. Young, A.T. Hatto, Edward R. Haymes
%D 2004
%C London
%I The Folio Society
%X In his 'Communication', Wagner wrote that his literary studies had
taken him "through the legends of the Middle Ages, right down to their
foundation in old-Germanic myth"; stripping away one layer of legend and
poetry after another, he discovered beneath them "the type of the true
human being". This type was Siegfried. "Now for the first time did I
recognise the possibility of making him the hero of a drama; a
possibility that had not occurred to me while I only knew him from the
medieval 'Nibelungenlied'." This collection of source materials contains
not only that epic poem, in A.T. Hatto's prose translation, but also
literature from the other layers studied by Wagner before he completed
his 'Ring' poems in 1852.
Elizabeth Magee has selected and ordered items from Wagner's reading
material, which she had described in the book listed above. For those
readers who have not read the latter, Magee has provided a General
Introduction that summarises its most important information in a mere 24
pages. This is followed by two books, containing respectively
Scandinavian (what Wagner called, "old-Germanic") and German sources.
Each book is in four parts, each part containing a set of translated
material. Each book begins with an introduction divided in two: the
first section discusses the stuff itself and the second considers how
Wagner reacted to and made use of that stuff. The same structure is used
for the introduction to each part within the book, and where appropriate
for each chapter.
Book One (The Ring Legends of Scandinavia) begins, sensibly, with the
Saga of the Volsungs. Since this is a complete narrative, the Saga
provides a framework to which the reader should be able to relate the
poems that follow. As a supplement to Magee's structured introductions,
the reader will find Björnsson's book (see above) invaluable as a guide
to Wagner's use of these sources. Book One contains the following:
Part 1: The Saga of the Volsungs (tr. R.G. Finch)
Part 2: The Heroic Poems of the Elder Edda (tr. Patricia Terry)
Ch.1: Of Heroes, Swanmaidens and Valkyries
Ch.2: Sigurd Ascendant
Ch.3: Sigurd's Death
Ch.4: Death of the Niflungs
Ch.5: End of the Line
Part 3: From the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson (tr. Jean I. Young)
Ch.1: The Deluding of Gylfi (Gylfaginning)
Ch.2: Selections from Poetic Diction
Part 4: The Mythological Poems of the Elder Edda (tr. Patricia Terry*)
Ch.1: Wisdom and Knowledge
Ch.2: Comedy and Insult
Ch.3: Quest and Prophecy

Dr. Magee has supplemented the work of other translators with a few
translations of her own. The first of these is a poem, 'The Lay of
Haakon', taken from Snorri's 'Heimskringla', included in Part 2. It
relates how two of Odin's valkyries came to take the Christian king
Haakon to Valhalla; rather surprisingly, he accepts. Otherwise the
heroic poems are supplemented by Magee's translations of connecting
prose passages from the 'Elder Edda'. Part 4 includes the poem 'Balder's
Dreams', generally considered to be part of the 'Elder Edda' although it
does not appear in the most important manuscript, the 'Codex Regius'.
Dr. Magee provides a translation of a spurious work, 'Odin's Raven
Magic', that seems to have been written, much later, as an introduction
to 'Balder's Dreams'. The former is relevant because, when Wagner read
these poems, they were thought to be contemporary.

As well as the complete 'Nibelungenlied', Book Two (The Ring Legends
of Germany) contains three items that are likely to be less familiar:
Part 1: The Nibelungenlied (tr. A.T. Hatto)
Part 2: From the Saga of Dietrich of Bern (tr. E.R. Haymes)
Part 3: The Lay of Horn-Skinned Siegfried
Part 4: The Tragedy of Horn-Skinned Siegfried, by Hans Sachs

In Part 2 Dr. Magee has selected from 'Thidrekssaga' those passages
that concern Young Siegfried and one (ch.6) that tells how Hagen lost an
eye. The last two parts are Magee's own translations. The poem of Part 3
is a splendidly inconsistent and amusing patchwork of doggerel. That it
was known to Wagner is revealed by it being the only Siegfried poem in
which the hero's mother was called Sieglinde. Whether Wagner read Hans
Sachs' play about Siegfried (from 1557) is less certain; if he did, it
might have shown him what a dramatist could achieve by manipulating the
older material.
With 16 engravings. There is a glossary of names but no index.
%O *In some of these poems there are minor differences between Terry's
translation (1990 edition) and the one published here. The last of the
poems, 'Völuspá' (The Sibyl's Prophecy) is a less accurate translation
(it confuses first and second person narrative) of this complex poem
about Ragnarök than the one by Paul Schach that was selected by Terry.
For the background to this poem, the student might consult the notes
following Schach's translation in Terry's 1990 edition. Those who "seek
wisdom still" should consult the extended analysis and in-depth
commentary accompanying Ursula Dronke's parallel-text translation (The
Poetic Edda: Volume II, Mythological Poems, OUP 1997).

D2 - Wagner's drama

As well as the books listed in this subsection, many other books in this
list contain discussion of the tetralogy. Concise introductions to the
cycle can be found in Millington's 'Wagner' and in Newman's 'Wagner
Nights'. A readable and informative guide to the 'Ring' is the fifth
volume of Sabor's set, a companion to his libretto translations (see
subsection K below). Also worth reading are the four guides, one for
each of the operas, in the ROH/ENO series (see subsection J below).

%T A Guide to The Ring of the Nibelung, the Trilogy of Richard Wagner :
Its Origin, Story, and Music
%A Richard Aldrich
%D 1905
%C Boston MA and New York
%I Oliver Ditson Company
%G MT100.W25 A4
%X

%T A Ring for the Millennium : A Guide to Wagner's 'Der Ring des
Nibelungen'
%A Peter Bassett
%D 1998
%C Kent Town, South Australia
%I Wakefield Press
%G ISBN 1 8625 4471 9 ; MT100.W25 B2 1998
%X Issued in conjunction with the first 'Ring' production in Adelaide.

%T The Nibelung's Ring : A Guide to Wagner's 'Der Ring des Nibelungen'
%A Peter Bassett
%D 2004
%C Kent Town, South Australia
%I Wakefield Press
%G ISBN 1 8625 4624 X
%X Expanded version of the earlier book?

%T Wagner's Ring : an Introduction
%A Alan Blyth
%D 1980
%C London
%I Hutchinson
%G ISBN 0 0914 2011 3 ; MT100.W25 B4 1980
%X

%T Richard Wagner: 'The Nibelung's Ring': An Act by Act Guide to the
Plot and Music
%A Aylmer Buesst
%D 1952
%C London
%I Newman Neame
%G MT100.W25 B9 (1932), MT100.W25 B9 1952
%X
%O Originally published in 1932 by Bell, London.

%T Classically Romantic : Classical Form and Meaning in Wagner's 'Ring'
%A Jeffrey L. Buller
%D 2001
%C
%I Xlibris Corporation
%G ISBN 0 7388 5107 8 hbk, 0 7388 5108 6 pbk
%X What did Richard Wagner know about ancient Greece? More importantly,
what did he think he knew? How did his attitudes shape the Ring cycle?
This book explores how Wagner's ideas about the past were shaped, not
by the classical world itself, but by the Romantic Age's select view of
antiquity.
%O See also the book by Michael Ewans listed in this section and those
by Pearl Wilson and M Owen Lee in section V.

%T Mythology as Metaphor : Romantic Irony, Critical Theory, and Wagner's
'Ring'
%A Mary A. Cicora
%D 1998
%C Westport, CT
%I Greenwood Publishing Group
%G ISBN 0 3133 0528 5 ; ML410.W15 C53 1998
%X An original interpretation of the Ring tetralogy that challenges the
standard political analyses of the work.

%T Wagner's 'Ring' and German drama : Comparative studies in mythology
and history in drama
%A Mary A. Cicora
%D 1999
%C Westport, CT
%I Greenwood Publishing Group
%G ISBN 0 3133 0529 3 ; ML410.W15 C54 1999
%X The relationships of the Ring to the German literary and dramatic
tradition, from Goethe and Schiller to von Hofmannsthal.

%T The Ring of the Nibelung : An Interpretation Embodying Wagner's Own
Explanations
%A Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump
%D 1977 (reprint)
%C
%I Folcroft Library Editions
%G ISBN 0 8414 1844 6 ; MT100.W25 C6 1977
%X
%O Originally published in 1904, second edition (Methuen and Co.) 1924.

%T I Saw the World End : A Study of Wagner's 'Ring'
%A Deryck Cooke
%A Jacqueline Cooke (ed)
%D 1979

%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press

%G ISBN 0 1931 5318 1 ; ML410.W15 C67
%X Sadly, Deryck Cooke died without completing this fascinating study,
which is widely considered to be essential reading for anyone interested
in the 'Ring' cycle. J.K. Holman writes: "Cooke intended to refute the
Jungian Robert Donington and other 'Ring' analyses that Cooke considered
nonobjective. 'After all', he wrote, 'the question is not, "What meaning
can we find in 'The Ring'?", but "What did Wagner really mean by 'The
Ring'? Cooke believed that 'the overt meaning of each element in the
drama must be accepted as what it is (and what Wagner intended it to
be), and not explained away or made to mean something else.'"
%O Cooke's analysis of the musical motives of the 'Ring' has been

reissued on a CD set, Decca/London 443 581-2.

%T An Introduction to Richard Wagner's 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' :
A Handbook
%A William O. Cord
%D 1995
%C Athens OH
%I Ohio University Press
%G ISBN 0 8214 1112 8 ; ML410.W22 C67 1983, ML410.W22 C67 1995
%X An overview of the mythology, of the history of Bayreuth, a list of
related characters in mythology, a bibliography, a discography,
biographies of the 1876 cast, a diagram of the relationships between
the characters and more.
%O First published in 1983.

%T Wagner and the New Consciousness : Language and Love in the 'Ring'
%A Sandra Corse
%D 1990
%C Cranbury, NJ
%I Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
%G ISBN 0 8386 3378 1 hbk ; ML410.W15 C73 1990
%X Sandra Corse's book is fascinating but also frustrating. Fascinating
because Dr. Corse sets out to explore the influence of the ideas of
Hegel and Feuerbach on Wagner before and during the creation of the
'Ring'. If anyone doubts that these thinkers provided key ingredients
of the mix from which the tetralogy was baked, then little doubt will
remain after reading this book. Frustrating because Dr. Corse does not
deliver everything that she promises. Although she relates Wagner's
thinking to key ideas in books that he is known to have read (or at
least tackled), it is not entirely clear that she understands either
the originals or Wagner's understanding of them. This does not mean
that we should reject her ideas, e.g. concerning Wagner's creative
reworking of Hegel's phenomenology. The book might have been better
without the digressions into Marxist theories about language and
society, which the author apparently thinks relevant because Marx,
even more so than Wagner, was influenced by Feuerbach and Hegel.
Finally it is a little disturbing that an English teacher makes so
many grammatical mistakes and that she persistently spells the name
of a noted Wagner scholar as "Dalhouse"!

%T Reflections on Wagner's 'Ring'
%A John Culshaw
%A Frank Dunand (photographs)
%D 1976
%C New York, London
%I Viking Press, Secker and Warburg
%G ISBN 0 6705 9301 X ; MT100.W25 C9
%X The first four chapters are based on a series of intermission
features on the Texaco Met Opera radio broadcasts of the 'Ring' during
the 1974-5 season. The last chapter is expanded from an article that
appeared in 'Opera News'. With bibliography.

%T Penetrating Wagner's 'Ring' : An Anthology
%A John Louis DiGaetani (ed)
%D 1991
%C Cranbury NJ and London
%I Da Capo Press
%G ISBN 0 3068 0437 9 pbk ; ML410.W15 P46 1983
%X J.K. Holman writes: "A compendium of short pieces on a broad range
of 'Ring' topics by many of its most gifted analysts and performers,
such as Georg Solti, Adolphe Appia, Wieland Wagner, Culshaw, Donington,
Porter, and G.B. Shaw." Some participants in hmcw find the title of
this book an endless source of mirth.
%O Originally published in 1978, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press.

%T The Ring of the Nibelung
%A Burton D. Fisher
%D 2001
%C
%I Opera Journeys Publishing
%G ISBN 1 9308 4139 6 pbk
%S Opera Classics Library
%X With musical examples, discography, videography and dictionary of
musical and operatic terms. One of a large series of opera guides.

%T Wagner's 'Ring' : A Listener's Companion and Concordance
%A J.K. Holman
%D 1996 and 2001
%C Portland OR
%I Amadeus Press
%G ISBN 1 5746 7014 X (hbk), 1 5746 7070 0 (pbk) ; ML410.W22 H65 1996
%X Some of the most interesting material in this useful and wide-
ranging guide to the 'Ring' is to be found in the appendices. Holman
reviews production approaches to the cycle during the 20th century,
"with a portfolio of photographs". Strangely the name of Appia is not
mentioned. For more information the reader is directed (in the short
but informative bibliography) to Bauer and Osborne. Other appendices
provide (a) a survey of the (43) occurrences of one leitmotif, "Woman's
Worth", which reveals that Wagner's technique is subtler than many
have realised; (b) a summary of the possession of the ring; and (c) a
description of the fate, if known, of each of 25 characters or groups
who appear in the cycle.
The more substantial chapters respectively are concerned with
background, story, music, characters and words. All of them are
fascinating, although a few errors have crept in. The chapter on
background begins by considering, briefly, Wagner's source material.
Here Holman draws on Deryck Cooke and on Elizabeth Magee for his
information; he has misread the latter, however, concerning Fouqué's
trilogy 'Held des Nordens'; it is not possible to say for certain (as
Holman does, on pages 26 and 200) that Wagner had read these plays.
Holman then provides an overview and a chronology of Wagner's life,
with particular reference to the 'Ring'. He gets at least two dates
wrong: 'Opera and Drama' could not have been published in February
1850, since Wagner only began writing it the following October! It was
finished in late January 1851 and first published in November that
year. Also, it was a prose version of 'Parsifal' that Wagner completed
in August 1865, not the poem. The chronology also omits to make any
mention of Wagner's drafts for the music of 'Siegfried's Tod'.
The chapter on story is more than a scene by scene synopsis; it
amounts almost to a prose version of Wagner's 'Ring' poems. Those who do
not understand German will find it useful, although it is not a complete
substitute for reading a good English translation. When Holman nods, it
is probably the result either of relying too much upon the condensed
stage directions given in the Schirmer vocal scores, or of confusing the
ideas of producers with Wagner's own directions. Thus in the
introduction to W-1-i (p.58), it is *not* "the great World Ash Tree"
that stands at the centre of Hunding's dwelling but simply an ash-tree
(der Stamm einer mächtigen Esche); and in S-2-i Erda does not say, as
Holman claims (p.81), that the Wanderer "is no longer who he once was".
The chapter on the music consists of a brief introduction -- strongly
influenced by Gutman and perpetuating his wrong-headed ideas about
Wagner's Leitmotiven -- followed by a discussion of each of 145 motives
or complexes. This discussion is interesting, although it does not add
very much to what the reader can find in Deryck Cooke's articles and
recordings. As well as being, like many American writers, influenced by
Gutman's dreadful book, Holman is also keen on Donington's Jungian
interpretations of the 'Ring'. As a result the chapter on the music
should be treated with more caution than the other chapters.
The chapter on the major characters and groups is readable and
accurate, although Holman might have said more about the influence of
Greek mythology. For example, Wagner's Fricka owes more to the Greek
Hera, who is not mentioned by Holman, than to the Norse Frigg. The
concordance lists the occurrences of 160 "principal words". It is based
on the "literal" English translations by Lionel Salter and William Mann,
presumably because these can be found in the booklets accompanying major
studio recordings. It is *not* a concordance of the German poems. One
might question the selection of "principal words"; Holman ignores key
words such as "eternal" (Ewig), "distress" (Noth) and "envy" (Neid) but
includes words such as "eel", which appears once in the cycle. It might
be objected that this book only engages with Wagner's text on a surface
level of trivia, leaving its depths untouched.
%O With bibliography and discography.

%T Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung' and the Condition of Ideal Manhood
%A David Irvine
%D 1897

%C London
%I H. Grevel and Co.

%G ML410 .W15172
%X

%T Richard Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung' : An Illustrated Handbook
%A J.P. Jackson
%D 1882
%C
%I David Bogue
%X With six woodcut illustrations and musical examples.

%T Finding an Ending : Reflections on Wagner's 'Ring'
%A Philip Kitcher, Richard Schacht
%D 2004
%C Oxford
%I Oxford Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 1951 7359 7
%X Two professional philosophers, who are also amateur singers, offer
their views on the 'Ring'. The book doesn't, as its title might suggest,
discuss the ending of the 'Ring'; nor does it examine the difficulties
that Wagner experienced in deciding on an ending for the cycle. The
ending referred to in the book's title is "das Ende", the outcome that
Wotan seeks, even after he has given up all other objectives and
ambitions. Kitcher and Schacht do not presume to present "a full-blown
philosophical interpretation" of the tetralogy but rather "a
philosophical excursion" through it. They argue that the 'Ring' is a
work of philosophical substance and depth, even though Wagner was by his
own admission not a philosopher. Although their discussion of the work
is mainly concerned with ideas and concepts, it is illustrated by
references to the words and music, and clearly based on a close study of
Wagner's scores.
Michael Tanner writes: "... Kitcher and Schacht break free from the
contemporary clichés of producers determined to show Wotan as nothing
more than a capitalist crook, and of commentators more interested in
Wagner's political and ideological opinions than in his surpassing
artistic achievement. It is the latter that they are exclusively
concerned with, and they argue their case with style and passion."
Lucy Beckett, reviewing this book in the 'Times Literary Supplement',
writes: "The organization of the book, in short and coherent chapters
which nevertheless take us through the complicated course of four
operas, is exemplary; there is a helpful, detailed synopsis of the whole
work; the discussion is concerned with profound questions, yet is
readily comprehensible to a reader without specialist knowledge. It is
difficult to imagine anyone interested in The Ring, from old Wagner
hands to beginners attracted by bits of music, who would not gain much
from reading this book."

%T How to Understand Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung' : the Story and
Descriptive Analysis, with Musical Examples of the Leading Motives of
each Drama (UK title)
%T Wagner's 'Ring Of The Nibelung' : A Descriptive Analysis Containing
all the Leading Motives (US title)
%A Gustav Kobbé
%D 1991 (reprint)
%C London and NY
%I Reprint Services Corporation
%G ISBN 0 7812 9341 3 ; MT100.W25 K6 1976
%X Also contains a sketch of Wagner's life by N. Kilburn.
%O Originally published by William Reeves, London, in 1895, and by
Schirmer in New York, 1897.

%T Wagner's 'Ring' : Turning the Sky Round
%A M. Owen Lee
%D 1994
%C New York
%I Limelight Editions
%G ISBN 0 8791 0186 5 ; ML410.W15 L3 1994
%X An edited transcript of 1990 radio intermission talks. Includes a
discography. J.K. Holman writes: "Lee views 'The Ring' as evolutionary,
both inwardly in terms of a soul in crisis and outwardly as the
prevailing religious cosmos gives way to a higher level of ethical
consciousness. This may be a doctrinal interpretation, but it is made as
elegantly and persuasively as any 'Ring' analysis." Includes a
discography.
%O Originally published by Summit Books, 1990.

%T Wagner's Music Drama of the 'Ring'
%A L. Archier Leroy
%D 1925
%C London
%I Noel Douglas
%G ML410.W15 L34
%X
%O Wood-cut illustrations by Paul Nash.

%T Beyond the Tragic Vision : The quest for identity in the nineteenth century
%A Morse Peckham
%D 1962
%C New York
%I G. Braziller; W.W. Norton
%G ISBN 0 8076 0461 5 ; B803 .P4
%X

%T Rackham's Color Illustrations for Wagner's 'Ring'
%A Arthur Rackham
%A James Spero (introduction and captions)
%D 1979

%C New York
%I Dover

%G ISBN 0 4862 3779 6 ; ND1942.R32 A4 1979
%X The 64 watercolour illustrations of scenes from the 'Ring' that were
first published, with an English translation of the poems, in 1911-12.
%O Originally published by Heinemann in London, and by Doubleday, Page
and Co. in New York.

%T The Dream of Self-Destruction : Wagner's 'Ring' and the Modern World
%A Lelland Joseph Rather
%D 1979
%C Baton Rouge and London
%I Louisiana University State Press
%G ML410.W15 R4
%X The author examines the historical origins of 19th century European
interest in Northern myth, the relationship of the 'Ring' to Sophocles'
'Oedipus', and the 'Ring' as an allegory of the course of European
history in the 18th and 19th centuries.

%T New Studies in Richard Wagner's 'The Ring of the Nibelung'
%A Herbert Warren Richardson (ed)
%D 1991
%C Seattle WA
%I Edwin Mellen Press
%G ISBN 0 8894 6445 6 ; ML410.W15 N48 1991
%X Papers presented at the 1988 Wagner conference in Seattle exploring
this cycle as music, myth, theatre art, and literature, including such
topics as dialectical materialism in the 'Ring', the psychological
development of Brünnhilde and the influence of Wagner's cycle on Eliot
and Hitler respectively.

%T The Perfect Wagnerite : A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring
%T The Perfect Wagnerite : A Commentary on the Ring of the Niblung
%A George Bernard Shaw
%D 1967

%C New York
%I Dover Publications

%G ISBN 0 4862 1707 8 pbk ; MT100.W25 S5 1905
%X An idiosyncratic interpretation of the 'Ring'. J.K. Holman writes:
"Shaw's interpretation seems more misguided today than ever." This is a
little harsh. In at least two respects, Shaw was right. First, in
drawing attention to the political dimension of the work. Although the
'Ring' is not exactly the socialist parable that Shaw would have us
believe it, in its initial conception the tetralogy was very much
political. At the end of his Dresden years Wagner was preoccupied with
revolution, not just affecting art and the theatre but society in
general. His world-view, although it was coloured by utopian socialism,
was essentially anarchistic. This is reflected in the 'Ring' by the
rejection of laws and commandments, "troubled treaties' treacherous
bonds" and "custom's stern decree", as it was expressed by Wagner in the
1852 ending. Shaw played down the anarchism because he wanted us to see
Wagner as a socialist; in reality his political outlook was both more
naive and more complex than Shaw was willing to acknowledge. Secondly,
Shaw was largely justified in his characterization of 'Götterdämmerung'
as grand opera. Compared to 'Das Rheingold', the last part of the cycle
is indeed closer, in structure and forms, to operatic conventions than
to the prescriptions of 'Opera and Drama'. This might be because
'Götterdämmerung' was based upon the original, single opera 'Siegfried's
Tod', which was drafted before Wagner had developed the theoretical
principles that he tried to implement in the first three operas of the
tetralogy.
%O Originally published in 1898, reprinted 1923. First US edition in
1905.

%T Redemption or Annihilation? : Love versus Power in Wagner's 'Ring'
%A John Tietz
%D 1999
%C New York
%I Peter Lang Publishing
%G ISBN 0 8204 4148 1 ; ML410.W15 T64 1999
%X An interpretation is presented in which Nietzsche's criticisms form
the basis of a positive reading of the 'Ring'.

D3 - Musical analysis of the Ring

Many of the books listed in other subsections also address the music
of the tetralogy. Those listed below are primarily musicological
studies and discussions of the music.

%T Wagner's 'Das Rheingold'
%A Warren Darcy
%D 1993, 1996
%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press
%G ISBN 0 1981 6603 6 hbk, 0 1981 6603 6 pbk ; MT100.W26 D33 1993
%S Studies in Musical Genesis and Structure
%X A musical analysis of 'Das Rheingold', drawing on Lorenz and
Schenker.

%T The Musical Design of the 'Ring'
%A Alan Edgar Frederic Dickinson
%D 1926

%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press

%G MT100.W25 D4
%X
%O Paperback

%T A Musical Guide to Richard Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung'
%A Ernest Hutcheson
%D 1976 (reprint)
%C
%I AMS Press, Inc.
%G ISBN 0 4040 3462 4 ; MT100.W25 H8
%X A concise introduction to the music of the 'Ring'. With booklet
entitled 'Table of Themes'.
%O Originally published in 1940 by Simon and Schuster, NY.

%T Wagner's 'Siegfried' : Its Drama, History and Music
%A Patrick McCreless

%D 1982
%C Ann Arbor MI
%I UMI Research Press
%S Studies in Musicology

%V No.59
%G ML410.W15 M35 1982
%X A musical analysis of 'Siegfried', using Schenkerian techniques.

%T The Forging of the 'Ring' : Richard Wagner's composition sketches for
'Der Ring des Nibelungen'
%T Die Entstehung des 'Ring'

%M German *
%A Curt von Westernhagen

%F Arnold Whittall
%A Mary Whittall (ed)
%D 1976

%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press

%G ISBN 0 5212 1293 6 ; ML410.W15 W1853
%X The first systematic investigation of Wagner's sketches for the
'Ring'. Von Westernhagen, taking each of the four dramas in turn,
compares the sketches with the finished score. He shows how far the
original inspirations were preserved, clarified or modified in the
process of forging the 'Ring'.
%O Originally published in 1973.

%T Guide through the Music of R. Wagner's 'The Ring of the Nibelung'

%M German *
%A Baron Hans von Wolzogen

%F Ernst von Wolzogen; Nathan Haskell Dole
%D 1882
%C Leipzig and London, New York
%I Senf Brothers, G. Schirmer
%G MT100.W25 W7 1898
%X Wolzogen is credited with inventing the term 'Leitmotiv' and his
analysis of Wagner's works is largely a guide to the Leitmotiven and
their evolution. Many of the names given to these 'musical calling
cards' by Wolzogen (such as 'Inheritance of the World' or 'Sea-motif')
have stuck, whether we like it or not. Its title varied as the Guide
was republished.

D4 - Legal and ethical studies

%T The Ethics of Wagner's 'The Ring of the Nibelung'
%A Mary Elizabeth Lewis

%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books

%G ISBN 0 7222 5588 8 ; ML410.W15 L4 (1906)
%X Lewis looks at the ethics portrayed in the 'Ring' by studying each
portion scene by scene and expounding upon each point as it is
presented throughout the cycle.
%O Originally published in 1906 by Putnam, NY.

%T The Turning Wheel : A Study of Contracts and Oaths in Wagner's 'Ring'
%A David A. White
%D 1988
%C Selinsgrove PA, London and Toronto
%I Susquehanna University Press, Associated University Presses
%G ISBN 0 9416 6489 9 ; ML410.W15 W19 1988
%X For the legally minded.
%O Related (in German): 'Richard Wagners Ring des Nibelungen im Lichte
des deutschen Strafrechts', 1979, by Ernst von Pidde, alias Jörg von
Uthmann.

%T Speaking to Our Condition : Moral Frameworks in Wagner's 'Ring of the
Nibelung'
%A Anthony Winterbourne
%D 2000
%C Cranbury, NJ
%I Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
%G ISBN 0 8386 3847 3 ; ML410.W15 W28 2000
%X

D5 - Psychological perspectives

%T Ring of Power : The Abandoned Child, the Authoritarian Father, and
the Disempowered Feminine : a Jungian Understanding of Wagner's 'Ring'
Cycle
%T Ring of Power : Symbols and Themes, Love vs. Power in Wagner's
'Ring' Cycle and in Us : a Jungian-feminist Perspective
%A Jean Shinoda Bolen
%D 1992
%C San Francisco
%I HarperCollins
%G ISBN 0 0625 0086 4 pbk ; ML410.W15 B64 1992
%X A Jungian understanding of Wagner's 'Ring' cycle. Bolen uses the
characters and situations of the 'Ring' as a starting point to discuss
Jungian ideas, without casting much light on the 'Ring' in the process.

%T Women Characters in Richard Wagner: A Study in the 'Ring of the
Nibelung'
%A Louise Brink
%D 2001
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5563 2 ; ML410.W15 B9 (1924)
%X A Freudian viewpoint on the female characters in the 'Ring'.
%O Originally published by the Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing
Company, New York, 1924.

%T Wagner's 'Ring' and its Symbols : The Music and the Myth
%A Robert Donington
%D 1963

%C London
%I Faber and Faber Ltd

%G ISBN 0 5710 4818 8 ; ML410.W15 D6 1969
%X Laon writes: "Jungian analysis can be interesting when it is applied
to myth. It is, after all, largely based on Jung's ideas about myth,
which makes Jungian ideas fairly apt for reading a myth-based work like
the 'Ring'. Robert Donington is a Jungian true believer, who applies
Jung's ideas with considerable ingenuity and interest. Sometimes he will
do anything to fit Wagner into the Jungian framework. For example, he
reads the very male dragon Fafner as 'the mother in her devouring
aspect'. That is a pretty desperate reading: Fafner is nobody's female
principle, and only someone with a strongly pre-determined agenda could
try to make him one. Still, Donington is often insightful. Why is there
a brief reminiscence of Erda's theme when Fricka appears in Walküre Act
II? Because, says Donington, Fricka is somehow representing Erda's
wisdom in this appearance. Fricka may not seem wise but on this occasion
she is right. This and a hundred other small insights makes this a
worthwhile and constantly interesting book, which is also very good on
Wagner's mythological sources. Donington is right in thinking that the
Ring is an endlessly complex and profound work; but probably wrong in
thinking that Jung holds the key. While Donington's overall reading is
eccentric and not entirely reliable, this is a very enjoyable and often
an insightful book."

%T Symposium on the Threat to the Cosmic Order: Psychological, Social,
and Health Implications of Richard Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung'
%A Peter Ostwald and Leonard S. Zegans (eds.)
%D 1997
%C Madison CT
%I International Universities Press Inc.
%G ISBN 0 8236 6528 3
%S Mental Health Library
%X Symposium on Wagner's opera held June 8-9, 1990 on a college campus.

D6 - Performing the Ring

%T A Memoir of Bayreuth 1876 related by Carl Emil Doeppler
%A Peter Cook
%D 1979
%C London
%I Peter Cook
%G ISBN 0 9504 3601 1 ; ML410.W2 C65 1979
%X Including colour illustrations of his costume designs for the first
production of the 'Ring'.

%T Ring Resounding : the Recording in Stereo of 'Der Ring des
Nibelungen'
%A John Culshaw
%D 1967
%C London, New York
%I Secker and Warburg, Viking Press
%G ISBN 0 6705 9889 5 ; ML410.W15 C8
%X J.K. Holman writes: "A good behind-the-scenes account of an artistic
collaboration, this book documents with wit and charm the successes and
trials of the immense effort. Moreover, by showing us how musical
problems were faced and solved, Culshaw sheds much light on the meaning
of 'The Ring' itself."
%O FAQ: The singer referred to as "our Siegfried" was Ernst Kosub.

%T The Centenary 'Ring' in Bayreuth : a Critical Examination of the Tetralogy
which Marked the 100th Anniversary of the Bayreuth Festival
%T Der Jubiläums-Ring in Bayreuth 1976 : e. krit. Auseinandersetzung mit d.
Neu-Inszenierung d. Tetralogie zum 100jährigen Bestehen d. Bayreuther
Festspiele
%M German *
%A Uwe Faerbe
%F Stewart Spencer
%D 1977
%C Berlin
%I Bote und Bock
%X

%T The 'Ring' : Anatomy of an Opera
%A Stephen Fay, Roger Wood (photographer)
%D 1984
%C London
%I Secker and Warburg
%G ISBN 0 4361 5180 4 ; ML410.W15 F4 1984
%X An account of the Hall and Solti production of the 'Ring' in
Bayreuth. With 32 pages of photographs.

%T Wagner in Rehearsal 1875-1876 : The Diaries of Richard Fricke
%T 1876, Richard Wagner auf der Probe : das Bayreuther Tagebuch
des Ballettmeisters und Hilfregisseurs Richard Fricke
%T Bayreuth vor dreissig Jahren
%M German *
%A Richard Fricke
%F George Fricke
%A James Andrew Deaville (ed)
%A Evan Baker (ass.)
%D 1998
%C Stuyvesant, NY
%I Pendragon Press
%G ISBN 0 9451 9386 6 ; ML410.W2 F713 1998
%S Franz Liszt Studies Series
%V No.7
%X Notes by one of the Wagner's production team.

%T Wagner Rehearsing the 'Ring' : An Eye-Witness Account of the Stage
Rehearsals of the First Bayreuth Festival
%T Die Bühnenproben zu den Bayreuther Festspielen des Jahres 1876
%M German *
%A Heinrich Porges
%F Robert L. Jacobs
%D 1983

%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press

%G ISBN 0 5212 3722 X ; ML410.W2 P853 1983
%X Notes taken in the Festspielhaus while Wagner directed his 'Ring'.
%O Originally published between 1881 and 1896.

D7 - For younger readers

%T Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung'
%A Robert Lawrence
%A Alexander Serebriakoff (illustrator)

%D 1939
%C New York

%I Grosset and Dunlap
%V 4 vols.
%G MT100.W25 L28
%X From a series intended to acquaint children with opera.
%Q Metropolitan Opera Guild

------------------------------

Subject: E. Tristan und Isolde

WWV 90 in the catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic works. Modern
critical edition of the score published as volume 8 (ed. Isolde Vetter)
of the 'Sämtliche Werke'. Documents relating to the development and
initial reception of the work are to be published in volume 27.

A facsimile of the autograph full score was published in 1923, Munich.

Students of 'Tristan' who understand German will also benefit from
reading Lorenz's analysis of the score (1926) and Ernst Kurth's seminal
study, 'Romantische Harmonik und ihre Krise in Wagner's Tristan' (1920).

For overviews of the Tristan romances, see Newman's 'Wagner Nights' or
Jessie Weston's 'Legends of the Wagner Drama'. Those who read German
might prefer Wolfgang Golther's 'Tristan und Isolde in der Dichtungen
des Mittelalters und der neuen Zeit', 1907.

%T Richard Wagner : Prelude and Transfiguration from 'Tristan und
Isolde' : Authoritative Scores, Historical Background, Sketches and
Drafts, Views and Comments, Analytical Essays
%A Robert Bailey
%D 1985
%C New York
%I Norton
%S Norton Critical Scores
%G ISBN 0 3939 5405 6 ; M1505.W13 T83 1985
%X For a "critical score" there are too many misprints in the music.
Compare with one of the recent critical scores. Some of the essays
(from various commentators including Donald Tovey and Alfred Lorenz)
are valuable.

%T The Tragic and the Ecstatic : The Musical Revolution of Wagner's
'Tristan und Isolde'
%A Eric Chafe
%D 2005

%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press

%G ISBN 0 1951 7647 2
%X Chafe argues that Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde' is a musical and
dramatic exposition of metaphysical ideas inspired by Schopenhauer. The
book is a critical account of 'Tristan', in which the drama is shown to
develop through the music.

%T Tristan and Isolde : An Interpretation Embodying Wagner's Own
Explanations
%A Alice Leighton Cleather and Basil Crump
%D 1905
%C London
%I Methuen & Co.
%X

%T Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' : an Essay on the Wagnerian Drama

%A George Ainslie Hight
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C

%I Indypublish.com, Best Books
%G ISBN 1 4043 7915 0 pbk, 0 7222 5580 2 hbk; ML410.W14 H6 (1912)
%X
%O Originally published in 1912 by S. Swift and Co. Ltd., London.
Also available as an Ebook from Project Gutenberg: online edition at:
< http://www.gutenberg.net/etext05/8wtri10h.htm >

%T Wagner's Most Subtle Art : An Analytic Study of 'Tristan und Isolde'
%A Roger North
%D 1999 (2nd edn.)
%C London
%I Roger North
%G ISBN 0 9527 9751 8
%X This 700-page study of Wagner's score is surely the most thorough
analysis ever attempted of any of Wagner's works. North shows that
behind the Leitmotiven that dominate the analyses of Wolzogen, Lorenz
and others, the musical material of 'Tristan' was developed from three
simple figures, all heard in the Prelude. In the first edition there
are many misprints in the musical examples; look for the second
edition.
%O Originally published in 1996.
URL: < http://www.roger.north.btinternet.co.uk >

%T Tristan and Isolde
%A Hans Ferdinand Redlich
%D 1948
%C London
%I Boosey and Hawkes
%S Covent Garden Operas
%G MT100.W24 R4 1948
%X Brief history of the opera, analysis (basic), with information on
Wagner and some suggested reading material.

%T Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's 'Tristan and
Isolde'
%A Roger Scruton
%D 2003
%C Oxford and New York
%I Oxford Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 1951 6691 4 ; ML410.W14 S47 2004
%X Roger Scruton's new book is a thoughtful and perceptive study of a
difficult but important work. Scruton aims to vindicate the stature of
'Tristan', presenting it as more than just a sublimation of the
composer's love for Mathilde or a wistful romantic dream. He argues that
the drama has profound religious meaning, as relevant today as it was to
Wagner's contemporaries. Scruton shows that the governing thought of the
drama is a single idea, that of the consummation of love in death.
Both philosophical and musicological, Scruton's analysis touches on
the nature of tragedy, the significance of ritual sacrifice, and the
meaning of "redemption" as the concept appears in this drama. He
provides a guide to 'Tristan' while offering philosophical insight into
the nature of erotic love and the peculiar place of the erotic in our
culture.
Reviewing this book for 'The Spectator', Michael Tanner wrote: "This
distinguished, characteristically contentious book sets a standard of
Wagnerian commentary which it would be a great relief to see other
writers attempting to follow."
%O There are copious notes, a useful "table of motives" and an eclectic
bibliography.

%T Guide to the Legend, Poem and Music of Richard Wagner's 'Tristan und
Isolde'
%T Richard Wagners Tristan und Isolde : ein Leitfaden durch Sage,
Dichtung und Musik für das Deutsche Theaterpublikum

%M German *
%A Baron Hans von Wolzogen

%F ?
%D 1884
%C Leipzig
%I Breitkopf and Härtel
%G ML410.W14 W8 (German)
%X One of Wolzogen's thematic guides. The book also provides an account
of the literary background to the work.
%O German original was published in 1880.

%T The First Hundred Years of Wagner's 'Tristan'
%A Elliot Zuckermann
%D 1964

%C New York and London

%I Columbia University Press
%G ISBN 0 2310 2699 4 ; ML410.W14 Z8
%X Relates the genesis and subsequent history of 'Tristan und Isolde'
With three appendices: 1. Major premieres, 2. Swinburne and the Sea,
3. Joyce and Eliot. Michael Tanner writes: "The cataclysmic effect of
'Tristan' on musicians, poets, novelists etc. is dealt with in a
pioneering piece of intellectual history ... by the hostile Elliot
Zuckermann".

------------------------------

Subject: F. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

WWV 96 in the catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic works. Modern
critical edition of the score published as volume 9 (ed. Egon Voss) of
the 'Sämtliche Werke'. Documents relating to the development and
initial reception of the work are to be published in volume 28.

A facsimile of the autograph full score was published in 1922, Munich,
and a facsimile of the 1862 libretto was published in 1983, Mainz.

%T The Sources and Text of Richard Wagner's Opera 'Die Meistersinger
von Nürnberg'
%A Anna Maude Bowen
%D 1897
%C Munich
%G ML410.W16 B6 1977
%X This is A.M. Bowen's doctoral thesis (Cornell). Bowen examines
Wagner's use of his sources, including the technical details of the art
of the Mastersingers, i.e. the actual rules of the tablature; the tunes
described by David in act one; and the historical Mastersingers and
their music. In the process the author explains many of the obscurities
and subtleties of Wagner's poem. She also examines the origins of the
story in relation to works by a tale by Hoffmann, a drama by Deinhard-
stein and a comic opera by Lortzing based on the former; and Wagner's
quotations from and paraphrases of his main historical source,
Wagenseil. There is a short comparison of different versions of
Wagner's poem. Finally the author examines the language of the poem, in
which she variously identifies archaic words and forms, imitation of
Hans Sachs' poetry and hints of Bavarian dialect.
%O Reprinted by AMS Press in 1977.

%T Wagner and 'Die Meistersinger'
%A Robert Macey Rayner
%D 1940
%C London
%I Oxford University Press
%G ML410.W16 R29
%X Rayner was one of the first commentators on any of Wagner's dramas
to understand the importance of considering the music and words
together, and to study the interaction between the poem and the score.
The book discusses the origins and development of 'Die Meistersinger'
and the final score. Appendices consider Wagner's sources. With five
b&w plates.

%T Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century : City politics and life between
Middle Ages and modern times
%A Gerald Strauss
%D 1976
%C Bloomington
%I Indiana University Press
%G ISBN 0 2533 4150 7, 0 2533 4149 3 ; DD901.N94 S78 1976
%X Not about Wagner's opera but a useful source of historical
information about the real Nuremberg at the time of Hans Sachs.

%T Wagner and Wagenseil : A Source of Wagner's Opera 'Die Meistersinger'
%A Herbert Thompson
%D 1927
%C London
%I Humphrey Milford and Oxford Univ. Press
%G ML410.W16 T39
%X A concise treatment of Wagner's usage of J.C. Wagenseil's Nuremberg
chronicle, 'Buch von der Meistersinger holdseligen Kunst'. According
to Sir W.H. Hadow, "a book which is indispensable to all students of
the subject".

%T Wagner's 'Meistersinger': Performance, History, Representation
%A Nicholas Vaszonyi (ed)
%D 2003, 2004

%C New York and London

%I Univ. of Rochester Press, Boydell & Brewer Ltd
%G ISBN 1 5804 6131 X, 1 5804 6168 9 ; ML410.W1 A286 2002
%X The first section of this volume, 'Performing Meistersinger',
contains three articles commissioned from internationally respected
artists - a conductor (Peter Schneider), a stage director (Harry Kupfer)
and a singer (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau). The second section,
'Meistersinger and History', examines both the representation of German
history in the opera and the way the opera has functioned in history
through political appropriation and staging practice. The third section,
'Representations', is the most eclectic, exploring, among other topics,
the problematic question of genre from the perspective of a theatrical
historian, the fashionable theory that there is an anti-Semitic subtext
in this opera, and the claim that Beckmesser is a caricature of Eduard
Hanslick.

%T Richard Wagner : 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'
%A John Hamilton Warrack (ed)
%A Michael Tanner
%A Lucy Beckett
%A Patrick Carnegy
%D 1994

%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press

%G ISBN 0 5214 4444 6 hbk, 0 5214 4895 6 pbk ; ML410.W1 A286 1994
%S Cambridge Opera Handbooks
%X John Warrack traces the evolution of 'Die Meistersinger' from plans
for a light comic opera or "satyr-play", through all the drafts and
literary influences on them, into the eventual comedy; he then presents
an analysis of the music, and investigates what Wagner found in the
historical Mastersingers and their music. Lucy Beckett contributes an
insightful essay into the influence of Schopenhauer and the changes that
this brought about in the work as it developed. She also explores the
complexity of expression in the work. Michael Tanner suggests new ways
of interpreting the opera's inner and outer worlds. Patrick Carnegy
provides a stage history. Includes a synopsis, bibliography and three
appendices: versions of the 'Wahn' monologue, Sachs' final address, and
the Prize Song respectively.
%O Table of contents: < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam024/93039615.html >

%T The Master-Singers of Wagner
%A Cyril Winn
%D 1925

%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press

%G ML410.W226 W5
%X
%O Paperback

------------------------------

Subject: G. Parsifal

WWV 111 in the catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic works. Modern
critical edition of the score published as volume 14 (ed. Egon Voss and
Martin Geck) of the 'Sämtliche Werke'. Documents relating to the
development and initial reception of the work, together with rehearsal
notes from the 1882 premiere, published in volume 30 (same editors).

A facsimile of the autograph full score was published in 1925, Munich.

There is a comprehensive bibliography of the 'Parsifal' literature,
listing more than sixty studies, in Mary A. Cicora's book, described
below. They range from short program notes to extensive studies such as
Wolfgang Golther's 'Parzival und der Gral' (1925), which explores the
medieval sources behind Wagner's libretto.

%T A Guide to Parsifal, the Music Drama of Richard Wagner : Its Origin,
Story, and Music
%A Richard Aldrich
%D 1904
%C Boston MA and New York
%I Oliver Ditson Company
%G MT100.W31 A4
%X

%T Wagner's 'Parsifal' : The Journey of a Soul
%A Peter Bassett
%D 2001
%C Kent Town, South Australia
%I Wakefield Press
%G ISBN 1 8625 4512 X pbk ; ML410.W17 B33 2000
%X A long-overdue, perceptive study of Wagner's 'Parsifal'. For Bassett
the message of this work is that human salvation is to be achieved not
through the satisfaction of worldly desires but through compassion.
Wagner shows Parsifal's inner journey towards enlightenment through
compassion, in which he is able to ease the burdens of others. Bassett
has looked at the relationship between Wagner's sources and his text,
which is shown to owe more to those sources than many people suspect.
He limits his study to the medieval sources, however, overlooking the
allusions in Wagner's text to contemporary literature. In contrast to
the study by Lucy Beckett (see below), Peter Bassett paints a balanced
picture of the world-view behind 'Parsifal', taking into account
Wagner's interest in Buddhism and the impact that Buddhist ideas had
upon Wagner in general and this work in particular. Includes a synopsis,
a prose translation of the libretto, a chronological table and a short
bibliography.

%T Richard Wagner : 'Parsifal'
%A Lucy Beckett (ed)
%A Arnold Whittall
%D 1981

%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press

%G ISBN 0 5212 2825 5 hb, 0 5212 9662 5 pbk ; ML410.W17 B37
%S Cambridge Opera Handbooks
%X Beckett approaches 'Parsifal' as a profoundly and exclusively
Christian work; a view that some people, including the editor of this
FAQ, find unsatisfactory. Includes a thorough review of the reception
history of 'Parsifal'. Whittall contributes some insightful comments on
the score. Unfortunately, by separating their analysis of text and
music, the authors fail to see how these are connected.
In Beckett's view, 'Parsifal' is inconsistent because of an internal
tension between Christian and pagan elements. In the broader sense she
uses pagan to mean "non-Christian", while in a narrower sense she is
thinking of the Grail, the Spear and the Fisher King. Wagner uses
explicitly Christianized versions of these elements, however: the Grail
is described as the cup of the Last Supper, the Spear is the lance that
pierced the side of Christ, and the Fisher King has been wounded in the
same place by the same lance. Beckett's point might be that one does not
have to scratch these elements very hard, to find their pagan origins
beneath the surface. Yet it is hard to see how they create a tension.
Nor is there any tension between Christian and non-Christian (i.e.
Schopenhauerian and Buddhist) doctrines, since Wagner looked for points
of convergence. Therefore it would be more appropriate to speak of
complementarity than of tension.
Beckett's discussion of Wagner's sources is understandably incomplete,
since they were many and varied. She emphasises Wolfram's 'Parzival',
the most obvious of his medieval sources, but quite ignores a medieval
religious work that was arguably of equal importance. Beckett pays
little attention to the inspiration that Wagner found in books about
Buddhism. The reader who seeks a more balanced view is advised also to
consult the book by Suneson, supplemented by Welbon (on Wagner and
Nirvana) and Osthoff (on Wagner and reincarnation).
% Table of contents: < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam024/80040870.html >

%T 'Parsifal' Reception in the Bayreuther Blätter
%A Mary A. Cicora
%D 1987
%C Frankfurt am Main, Berne and New York
%I Peter Lang Publishing
%S American univ. studies series I: Germanic languages and literature
%V No.55
%G ISBN 0 8204 0385 7 ; ML410.W17 C55 1987
%X Cicora discusses the significance that Wagner's last major work had
for the members of the Bayreuth circle, as revealed by the periodical
'Bayreuther Blätter'. She describes its founding and asks to what
extent the periodical reflected, or misrepresented, Richard Wagner's
views on art and society as presented in his prose writings. Through a
close analysis of articles from the periodical, three of which (one from
each of the three phases of the Bayreuth Circle, as it was analyzed by
Winfried Schüler) Cicora studies in detail. The first, from 1879 and
thus before the first performance of 'Parsifal', asserts that it is a
metaphysical work of art. The second, from 1915, offers a psychological
approach, while the third, from 1930, gives a mystical interpretation.
Each article, in a different way, discusses the regeneratory effect of
the drama.
It might be significant, in view of claims advanced by Zelinsky about
an anti-Semitic agenda in 'Parsifal', that Cicora found no evidence that
even the most orthodox Wagnerites had hit on the idea of interpreting it
as an anti-Semitic work.
With an extensive bibliography listing the many articles cited,
relevant primary literature, literature by or about the Bayreuth Circle,
literature dealing specifically with 'Parsifal', and other secondary
literature.
%O Originally a doctoral thesis.

%T Parsifal : the Guileless Fool
%A Howard Duffield
%D 1904
%C New York
%I Dodd, Mead, and Co.
%G ML410.W17 D83
%X With an afterword by Fiona MacLeod. The description of Parsifal as
guileless derives from an unfortunate choice made by Frederick Corder
in his English translation of Wagner's libretto: "der reine Tor" became
"the guileless fool".

%T Parsifal and Wagner's Christianity

%A David Irvine
%D 1899
%C London
%I H. Grevel and Co.

%G ML410.W17 I6
%X Reviewing this book for 'The Daily Chronicle' (9 June 1899), G.B.
Shaw commented on the difficulty of Irvine's arguments and the
complexity of his sentences. He hailed him as, "our first unquestioning
apostle of the faith, calling the world, in greenclad volumes only to be
interpreted by strenuous spirit wrestlings, to turn aside from the
Jewish Jehovah and all other gods; from belief in creation; from
subjection to the illusions of time, space, causation and death; above
all, from indelicately wilful methods of perpetuating the species, to
ideal manhood in Grail Castles of the fourth dimension. His matter is
mystic; but his manner is lively and concrete to the verge of
obstruseness and often over it."

%T Das Weltüberwindungswerk : Wagners 'Parsifal' - ein szenisch-
musikalisches Gleichnis der Philosophie Arthur Schopenhauers
%M German
%A Ulrike Kienzle
%D 1992
%C Laaber
%I Laaber Verlag
%G ISBN 3 8900 7276 3
%S Thurnauer Schrifter zum Musiktheater
%V No.12
%G ML410.W17 K52 1992
%X Although at present only available in German, this book is essential
reading for the student of 'Parsifal', the "work about overcoming the
world"; which Kienzle regards as a parable of the philosophy of
Arthur Schopenhauer. While her analysis is persuasive, it is not
complete. An understanding of 'Parsifal', it seems, was almost but not
quite within her grasp. Although Kienzle devotes sixteen pages to a
discussion of Kundry, she fails to interpret Kundry as a Schopenhauerian
metaphor. Therefore Kienzle has not fully understood what Kundry
represents.
Her references to Schopenhauer are mostly to 'The World as Will and
Representation'. This is too narrow; the latter book does not contain
the whole of Schopenhauer's philosophy, and Kienzle's analysis would
have benefited from closer study of one of his essays on ethics, 'On
the Basis of Morality', which holds some of the keys to the parable.

%T The 'Parsifal' of Richard Wagner : with accounts of the 'Perceval'
of Chrétien de Troies and the 'Parzival' of Wolfram von Eschenbach
%T Parsifal de Richard Wagner : Légende, drame, partition
%M French *
%A Maurice Kufferath
%F Louise M. Henermann
%D 1904
%C New York
%I H. Holt and Co
%G ML410.W17 K82 1904
%X With the leading motifs in musical notation and illustrations of the
scenes at the Metropolitan opera house. In Kufferath's interpretation
of the drama, 'Parsifal' is based on the ideas of "Schopenhauerian
Buddhism". Thus Kundry represents the Will to Live or Desire, Amfortas
is Suffering Born of Desire, and Parsifal the Renunciation of Desire and
Peace in Negation of the Will. With 8 black and white plates, showing
the scenery of the first production at the Metropolitan Opera, 1903.
%O Introduction by H.E. Krehbiel. French original published in 1890,
Paris.

%T Parsifal: The Finding of Christ Through Art or Richard Wagner As
Theologian
% Parsifal: A Wagnerian Study
%A Albert Ross Parsons
%D Original 1890, reprint 1997
%C
%I Kessinger Publishing Co.
%G ISBN 1 5645 9368 1 pbk, 0 7873 0659 2 pbk : ML410.W17 P17 (1890)
%X
%O Originally published by G.P. Putnam's sons, London and New York.
Republished by The Metaphysical Publishing Company, New York, 1893.

%T Parsifal
%A Hans Ferdinand Redlich
%D 1951
%C London
%I Boosey and Hawkes
%S Covent Garden Operas
%G MT100.W31 R4
%X Brief history of the opera, analysis (basic), with information on
Wagner and some suggested reading material.

%T Parsifal; or, The legend of the Holy Grail, retold from ancient
sources with acknowledgement to the 'Parsifal' of Richard Wagner
%A Thomas William Rolleston
%A Willy Pogàny (illustrator)
%D 1912
%C London
%I G.G. Harrap & Co.
%G PR5236.R3 A7
%X See the entry for the related book on 'Lohengrin'.

%T A Pagan Spoiled: Sex and Character in Wagner's 'Parsifal'
%A Anthony Winterbourne
%D 2003
%C Cranbury, NJ
%I Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, Associated Univ. Presses
%G ISBN 0 8386 3978 X ; ML410.W17 W72 2003
%X The subtitle refers to Otto Weininger's 'Geschlecht und Charakter'
(Vienna, 1903). Winterbourne devotes many pages to the pursuit of this
red herring. The reason is to be found in Nike Wagner's assertions, not
only that Weininger understood Kundry but also that 'Parsifal' is a
staging of 'Sex and Character', and that the latter explains the former.
Although open to Nike Wagner's suggestions that the portrayal of Kundry
is misogynistic, Winterbourne is sceptical concerning claims that Kundry
is an anti-Semitic figure. He notes that Wolzogen suggested to Wagner
that Kundry was a female Ahasverus but overlooks the fact that already
in the 1865 Prose Draft, Wagner had written that Kundry wanders in a
manner reminiscent of the Wandering Jew. Winterbourne also seems not to
be aware that it was Heinrich Heine who first described his Dutchman as
"the Wandering Jew of the sea" (and whose influence on Wagner's dramas,
including 'Parsifal', was more significant than Wagner was prepared to
admit or Winterbourne appears to realise). He recognizes, however, that
the sympathetic nature of her portrayal rules out any possibility of an
anti-Semitic subtext.
The references to paganism must relate to Lucy Beckett's idea that
there is in 'Parsifal' a tension between Christian and non-Christian,
or "pagan", elements. While not dwelling on the Christian elements,
Winterbourne seems to be confused about the nature and importance of
the "pagan" elements. He makes some rather dismissive statements about
Nirvana, a concept which deserves more serious attention than he is
willing to give to it, and he obstinately refuses to see any character
other than Kundry as based on Buddhist or Indian ideas. He considers
and rejects the possibility that Kundry is "a bodhisattva approaching
enlightenment". It seems to me that he has misread Suneson, who saw
Parsifal, not Kundry, both as a Christ-figure and as one who finds and
follows the path of the bodhisattva. Despite the internal and external
references to reincarnation, when Parsifal reveals that he has had many
names Winterbourne comments that this should not be read as a hint
that he like Kundry, who also has had many names, has been reincarnated.
Winterbourne's assumption that, in Wagner's original conception, she
only appeared in the first act is untenable. The whole point of Wagner's
original conception was that the restless Kundry of the first act was to
reappear, much changed, in the third act. A Kundry who only appeared in
the first act would have been pointless. Weininger, however, thought
that she should have been allowed to die in the second act, on the
grounds that she becomes superfluous when Parsifal is not interested in
having sex with her. This too is untenable since, as Parsifal tells
Kundry, he has been sent for her salvation. Winterbourne would have done
better to focus on some of those "pagan" elements in Wagner's redemption
drama.

%T Guide through the Music of R. Wagner's 'Parsifal'
%T Thematischer Leitfaden durch die Musik zu Richard Wagners Parsifal :
nebst einem Vorworte über den Sagenstoff des Wagner'schen Dramas

%M German *
%A Baron Hans von Wolzogen

%F J.H. Cornell

%D 1891
%C New York

%X Another of Wolzogen's thematic guides. The book also provides an
account of the mythical and literary background to the work as it was
understood (not always accurately) by Wolzogen.
%O German original published in 1882 by F. Reinboth, Leipzig.

------------------------------

Subject: H. Other Works

'Rienzi' appears as WWV 49 in the catalogue of Wagner's musical and
dramatic works. Modern critical edition of the score published as volume
3 of the 'Sämtliche Werke'. Documents relating to the development and
initial reception of the work are to be published in volume 23. See
also chapter 2 in Borchmeyer's 'Drama and the World of Richard Wagner'.

%T Wagner's 'Rienzi' : A reappraisal based on a study of the sketches
and drafts
%A John Deathridge
%D 1977
%C Oxford and New York
%I Clarendon Press
%G ML410.W132 D4
%X

The abandoned dramatic project 'Die Sieger' is WWV 89 in the catalogue
of Wagner's musical and dramatic works. Documentation related to WWV 89
is to be published in volume 31 of the 'Sämtliche Werke'.

%T Richard Wagner's Buddha-Project 'Die Sieger' ('The Victors') :
Its traces in the ideas and structures of 'The Ring' and 'Parsifal'
%T Richard Wagners Buddha-Projekt 'Die Sieger' : Seine ideellen und
strukturellen Spuren in 'Ring' und 'Parsifal'
%M German *
%A Wolfgang Osthoff
%F William Buchanan
%D 1996
%C Zürich
%I Museum Rietberg
%G ISBN 3 9070 7068 2
%X Lecture for the centenary of Wagner's death, given on 13 February
1983, in the Villa Wesendonck, now the Museum Rietberg. Osthoff
identified traces of the ideas associated with Wagner's Buddhist drama
'The Victors', and in particular his interest in reincarnation, in
'Siegfried', 'Götterdämmerung' and 'Parsifal'.
%O The translation is not as accurate as might be wished. The German
original was published in 'Arkiv für Musikwissenschaft', vol.40, no.3,
p.189-211, 1983.

------------------------------

Subject: I. Musical Analysis

%T Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner
%M German
%A Alfred Ottokar Lorenz
%D 1966 (reprint)
%C Tutzing
%I Hans Schneider
%V 4 volumes (Ring 1924, Tristan 1926, Meistersinger 1930, Parsifal
1933)
%G ML410.W22 L82
%X A classic analysis of Wagner's later stage works, in terms of simple
forms such as the 'bar' and the 'arch'.
%O Originally published 1924-33, Berlin, Hesse Verlag. See below for a
book about Lorenz.

%T Musical Structures in Wagnerian Opera
%A Marshall Tuttle
%D 2001

%C New York, Queenstown Ontario and Lampeter Wales
%I Edwin Mellen Press

%G ISBN 0 7734 7642 3 ; MT100.W2 T87 2000

%S Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music

%V No. 65
%X

------------------------------

Subject: J. Other Commentary

See also the books by Dieter Borchmeyer, listed under 'Theatre and
Drama' in the next section.

%T Wagner and his Music Dramas
%A Robert C. Bagar
%D 1950
%C New York
%I Grosset & Dunlap
%Q NY Philharmonic Symphony Society
%G ML410.W13 B15
%X A pocket guide to the composer and his canonical dramas.
%O Originally published in 1943.

%T Modern Myths and Wagnerian Deconstructions : Hermeneutic Approaches
to Wagner's Music-Dramas
%A Mary A. Cicora
%D 2000
%C Westport, CT
%I Greenwood Publishing Group
%S
%V No. 57
%G ISBN 0 3133 0539 0 ; ML410.W13 C6 2000
%X Poststructural analysis of Wagner's dramas. In particular discussing
Wagner's use of mythical material, which he claimed was an inexhaustible
source for the creative artist.
%O With bibliography.

%T Wagner the Dramatist
%A Hugh Frederick Garten
%D 1985
%C London, New York, and Totowa, NJ
%I John Calder Ltd, Riverrun Press Inc., Rowan Littlefield
%G ISBN 0 8476 6058 3 ; ML410.W1 G195
%X An account of Wagner's stage works and their sources.
%O First published in 1977.

%T Richard Wagner, 'Rienzi' to 'Parsifal'
%T Richard Wagner and his poetical work from 'Rienzi' to 'Parsifal'
%T Richard Wagner et son oeuvre poétique depuis Rienzi jusqu'à Parsifal

%M French *
%A Judith Gautier
%F

%D 1983 (reprint)
%C New York
%I Da Capo Press
%G ISBN 0 3067 6172 6 ; ML410.W13 G23 1983
%X
%O French original published in 1882 by Charavay frères, Paris. First
US edition published by A. Williams, Boston, in 1883.

%T Wagner's Operas
%A Lawrence Gilman
%D 1937
%C New York and Toronto
%I Farrar and Rinehart, Inc.
%G ML410.W1 G3
%X

%T The Musical Dramas of Richard Wagner
%A Paul Henry Grummann
%D 1930
%C Lincoln, Nebraska
%I University of Nebraska Press
%G ML410.W21 G7
%X

%T Studies in the Wagnerian Drama
%A Henry Edward Krehbiel
%D 1977 (reprint)
%C New York
%I Haskell
%G ML410.W13 K8 (1891)
%X A view of Wagner's style and message, discussing each of the major
dramas.
%O Originally published by Harper and Brothers, New York, in 1891.

%T The View from Afar
%T Le Regard Eloigné
%M French *
%A Claude Lèvi-Strauss
%F Joachim Newgroschel
%F Phoebe Hoss
%D 1985
%C New York, Oxford
%I Basic Books Inc, Basil Blackwell Ltd
%G ISBN 0 6311 3966 4 ; GN362 .L47413 1985
%X Contains the essays, 'A Note on the Tetralogy' and 'From Chrétien de
Troyes to Richard Wagner'. A structuralist view of Wagner's dramas.
%O Originally published in 1983.

%T Richard Wagner, Fritz Lang, and the Nibelungen: The Dramaturgy of
Disavowal
%A David J. Levin
%D 1999
%C Princeton
%I Princeton Univ Press
%G ISBN 0 6910 4971 8 ; ML410.W22 L48 1998
%X Levin explores the uses that have been made of the Nibelung legend in
shaping German national and cultural identity. He seeks and finds anti-
Semitic messages both in Wagner's "Ring" and in Lang's "Nibelungen"; but
makes no mention of the inconvenient fact that Lang was of Jewish
descent or that he fled Germany when his work was banned by the Nazis.
%O Table of contents: < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/prin031/97027022.html >

%T Who's Who and What's What in Wagner
%A Jonathan Lewsey
%D 1997
%C Aldershot; Brookfield VT
%I Scolar Press; Ashgate Publishing Company
%G ISBN 1 8592 8280 6 hbk, 1 8592 8285 7 pbk ; ML410.W19 L43 1997
%X

%T Analyzing Wagner's Operas : Alfred Lorenz and the German Nationalist
Ideology
%A Stephen McClatchie
%D 1998
%C Rochester NY
%I University of Rochester Press
%G ISBN 1 5804 6023 2 ; ML423.L637 M33 1998
%X Developed from the author's doctoral thesis, 'Alfred Lorenz as
Theorist and Analyst'. McClatchie outlines the origins and development
of the expressive aesthetic in writings by Wagner and others, as well
as in early twentieth-century theories of musical form, and the book
considers Lorenz's work and contributions in this light. It also hopes
to show, to the extent possible, where the work by Lorenz acted as a
sort of "musical metaphor" for German nationalist ideology during the
Nazi era.

%T Opera Guides
%A John Nicholas (ed)
%D 1980-1988

%C London and New York

%I John Calder Ltd, Riverrun Press Inc.
%S ENO/ROH Opera Guides
%V 6 (Tristan), 12 (Holländer), 19 (Meistersinger), 21 (Walküre), 28
(Siegfried), 31 (Götterdämmerung), 34 (Parsifal), 35 (Rheingold), 39
(Tannhäuser), 47 (Lohengrin)
%X Each of these pocket-size books contains a synopsis, essays (of
variable quality), a thematic guide, an English translation of the
libretto, a brief discography and a short bibliography, related to the
work.

%T The Complete Operas of Richard Wagner : A Critical Guide
%A Charles Osborne
%D 1990, 1991
%C Cambridge MA and London
%I Da Capo Press, Victor Gollancz, Grange
%G ISBN 0 3068 0522 7 pbk, 0 9439 5533 5 hbk, 0 5750 5380 1 ; ML410.W13 O8
1991
%X A guide to Wagner's operas (including the three early ones).
Osborne's view of Wagner and his works is heavily influenced by Gutman,
and his claim that Wagner was a closet homosexual has not been widely
accepted. Although Wagner did spend a lot of time in his closet.

%T The Sources for the Music Dramas of Richard Wagner : Der Fliegende
Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan, and Der Ring des Nibelungen.
%A James Henry Renz
%D 1956

%C Ann Arbor, MI
%I

%X

%T Wagner and His Operas
%A Stanley Sadie
%D 1999 and 2000
%C London
%I St Martins Press, Macmillan
%S New Grove Composers ; ML410.W13 W124 2000
%G ISBN 0 3122 4432 0 hbk, 0 3337 9021 9 pbk
%X Contributed articles by among others Arnold Whittall and Barry
Millington. Material recycled from the New Grove Dictionary of Opera.

%T The Legends of the Wagner Drama : Studies in Mythology and Romance
%A Jessie Laidlay Weston
%D 1978 (reprint)
%C New York
%I AMS Press
%G ML410.W13 W4 (1900)
%X In his 'Ring' and in several other dramas ('Tannhäuser', 'Lohengrin',
'Tristan und Isolde' and 'Parsifal') Wagner drew upon the riches of
medieval literature. Jessie Weston is remembered mainly for her studies
of the Grail legend (in books such as 'The Quest of the Holy Grail',
'The Legend of Sir Perceval' and 'From Ritual to Romance') and as a
translator into English of Wolfram's epic poem 'Parzival'. Weston was a
dedicated Wagnerian, regularly attending the Bayreuth Festival between
1890 and 1926. In this book she reviewed the medieval sources both in
their own right and as sources used by Wagner. While some of her ideas
have been discarded or modified by later scholars, Weston's account of
the medieval romances remains as readable and interesting as it was on
its publication a century ago. Her insight into Wagner's use of the
sources is intelligent and often enlightening.
%O Originally published by D. Nutt Ltd. in London, 1896, then by
Scribner's Sons Inc., New York, 1900. Reprinted by Longwood Press,
Boston, in 1977. For a more detailed treatment of the medieval sources
of 'Tristan und Isolde' and 'Parsifal' respectively the reader with
sufficient knowledge of German will benefit from the respective studies
by Wolfgang Golther ('Tristan und Isolde in der Dichtungen des
Mittelalters und der neuen Zeit', 1907, 'Parzival und der Gral in der
Dichtungen des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit', 1925). For the 'Ring',
see his 'Sagengeschichtliche Grundlagen der Ringdichtung Richard
Wagners'.

%T Wagner Opera : Plots and Analyses
%A Audrey Williamson
%D 1962

%C London and New York

%I John Calder Ltd, Riverrun Press Inc.
%G ISBN 0 7145 0603 6 pbk ; MT100.W2 W383
%X A guide to Wagner's stage works with a short biography.

------------------------------

Subject: K. Libretto Translations

Some of these translations are accompanied by extensive commentary.

%T The Ring of the Nibelungen
%F William Mann
%D 1964
%C London
%I Centurion Press Ltd
%V 4 vols.
%X An accurate translation of the Ring. Also issued with the Furtwängler
RAI recording of the cycle.
%O Originally published by the Friends of Covent Garden.

%T Guide des Opéras de Wagner
%M French
%A Michel Pazdro
%A Jean Cabourg
%A Dominique Jameux (introduction)
%F Dennis Collins (libretti)
%D 1988
%C Paris
%I Fayard
%G MT100.W2 G93 1988
%X Libretti with French translation, thematic guide, analysis and
discography.

%T Richard Wagner : 'The Ring'
%F Andrew Porter
%A Eric Fraser (illustrations)
%D 1976
%C London
%I W.W. Norton and Co
%G ISBN 0 3930 0867 3 ; ML50.W14 R32 1976
%X A singable translation of the 'Ring'. The English text of each the
'Ring' operas was reprinted in the separate ENO/ROH Opera Guides for
each of those operas.

%T 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' : A Companion, Translation and Commentary
%A Rudolph Sabor
%D 1997
%C London
%I Phaidon
%G ISBN 0 7148 3650 8 ; ML410.W15 S33 1997 (vol.5)
%V 5 vols.
%X Includes a new translation of the 'Ring', scene-by-scene synopses,
explanation of leitmotifs, bibliographies, discographies, and commentary
on the action. There is one volume for each part of the tetralogy and a
companion volume (available separately) concerning the 'Ring' as a
whole. The companion volume is a cornucopia of information about the
tetralogy: one that informs, enlightens and occasionally provokes.
Sabor's is a poetic translation although it follows the German as
closely as possible; if not always in literal meaning then at least in
metre and rhyme pattern. Detailed references to the Leitmotiven by
"short names" allow the reader to follow the music in relation to the
words.

%T Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelung' : The Full German Text with a New
Translation and Commentaries
%F Stewart Spencer
%A Barry Millington (ed)
%D 1993

%C London
%I Thames and Hudson

%G ISBN 0 5000 1567 8 ; ML50.W14 R32 1993
%X An annotated, literal translation of the 'Ring' including deleted
text, with related essays. These include: Spencer on translating the
'Ring', Elizabeth Magee on Wagner's medieval sources, and studies by
Millington, Roger Hollinrake and Warren Darcy. There is a chronology
of the composition process, a glossary of names, a bibliography, and
a survey of audio and video recordings. With 8 pages of black and
white plates.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTINUED IN PART 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------

This compilation copyright (C) 2000-2005 by Derrick Everett. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED. Copyright in contributed material is the property of its
author. Permission is hereby granted for electronic distribution by non-
commercial services such as internet, provided that it is posted in its
entirety and includes this copyright statement. This document may not be
distributed for financial gain. Any other use, or any commercial use of
this document without permission is prohibited by law.

--
Derrick Everett (deverett at c2i.net)

====== Writing from 59°54'N 10°36'E ======

http://home.c2i.net/monsalvat/index.htm
http://home.c2i.net/monsalvat/wagnerfaq.htm

[Derrick Everett]

Version: 1.25

------------------------------

Wagner Books FAQ for humanities.music.composers.wagner (PART 3)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: V. Books about Specialised Topics

The titles in this section of the FAQ are now arranged according to the
following subsections: Literature, Philosophy, Politics and Society,
Religion, Sex and Gender, Theatre and Drama, Other.

------------------------------

Subject: A. Literature

For discussions of the manifold connections between Wagner and European
literature, see the books by Dietrich Borchmeyer listed in subsection F
below. For a detailed examination of Wagner's impact on Baudelaire and
Mallarmé respectively, see 'Musica Ficta' by Lacoue-Labarthe described
in III-B above.

%T Richard Wagner and the Modern British Novel
%A John Louis DiGaetani
%D 1978

%C Cranbury NJ and London

%I Associated University Press, Fairleigh Dickinson
%G ISBN 0 8386 1955 X hbk, 0 8386 1795 6 pbk ; PR888.W34 D5
%X Examines Wagner's influence on J. Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, E.M.
Forster, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce.

%T Wagner and Literature
%A Raymond Furness
%D 1982
%C Manchester
%I Manchester University Press
%G ISBN 0 3128 5347 5 ; ML410.W13 F95 1982
%X

%T Wagner to 'The Waste Land' : A Study of the Relationship of Wagner
to English Literature
%A Stoddard Martin
%D 1982
%C London and Basingstoke
%I Macmillan, Barnes and Noble
%G ISBN 0 3332 8998 6, 0 3892 0250 9 ; PR468.W34 M37 1982
%X

%T Joyce and Wagner : A Study of Influence
%A Timothy Peter Martin
%D 1991
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 5213 9487 2 ; PR6019.O9 Z7268 1991
%X Timothy Martin documents Joyce's exposure to Wagner's operas and
finds a pervasive Wagnerian presence in his work. Wagner emerges as an
important source in the development of literary modernism, and as one of
Joyce's most important influences from the previous century. Exploring
such specific themes in Joyce's writings as the artist-hero, the problem
of exile, and redemption through a woman's love, Martin demonstrates
their origins in Wagner's work. Parallels are drawn between characters:
for example, Siegfried in the 'Ring' and Stephen Dedalus in 'A Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man' ; the wandering captain in 'The Flying
Dutchman' and Leopold Bloom in 'Ulysses'. In a more general sense,
Martin finds that Joyce's works are Wagnerian in their underlying mythic
structure.

------------------------------

Subject: B. Philosophy

%T The Quest for Voice : On Music, Politics and the Limits of Philosophy
%A Lydia Goehr
%D 1998 and 2002

%C Oxford
%I Oxford Univ. Press

%G ISBN 0 1981 6696 6 (pbk) ; ML3845 .G64 1998b
%X Goehr presents five essays that although discrete are interlinked.
The argument underlying her book is that music as a metaphor is able to
speak to philosophy about its inherent limits. Here she is following a
hint given by Barthes: "perhaps that is the value of music: to be a good
metaphor". Goehr shows how Wagner employed a metaphor of the musical --
life, spirit, breath -- as a cultural and metaphysical yardstick, and
that this is a key with which to unlock aspects of his work: (a) his
attacks on formalism, (b) his move away from the composition of
instrumental music, (c) his commitment to musical performance as an
event in which politics is served only if the aesthetic of expression
also is served, and (d) his linkage between creativity, expression and
national identity.
Wagner claimed that music is the only language that can express the
(otherwise) inexpressible; it is, he said, the natural language of
immediate feeling. Goehr explores the theme of expressing the
inexpressible, which she relates to contemporary concerns (in aesthetics
and critical theory) about formalism, autonomy and censorship. She
argues that the concept of the purely musical functioned, in the
nineteenth century, as a metaphor to capture the silence of philosophy,
or to say that which philosophy could not say. She relates this to
Wagner's aesthetic ideas, in which the purely musical was related to the
purely human, in his words, "the essence of humanity as such, freed from
all convention and all dogma". Goehr claims that music's freedom from
external constraint enables it to express itself in, with and on its own
terms, which in turn gives it freedom to "express or reflect upon"
society at a critical distance.
Using the libretto of 'Die Meistersinger' as a basis, Goehr explores
the paradoxical relations between rules and creativity, conditions and
exemplars, and tradition and innovation. She argues that there are
revealed and concealed relations in this libretto between aesthetics,
politics and philosophy. Goehr finds four threads or arguments in "Die
Meistersinger" and considers each of them separately: the historical
argument, the musical-aesthetic argument, the political argument, and
the philosophical argument. In her last three essays, Goehr considers
the debate between Wagner and the formalists, the subject of performance
practice, the relation between creativity, expression and national
identity and the experiences of composers in exile.

%T Nietzsche, Wagner and the Philosophy of Pessimism
%A Roger Hollinrake
%D 1982
%C London
%I Allen and Unwin
%G ISBN 0 0492 1029 7 ; B3317 .H56 1982
%X The author advances the interesting theory that 'Also Sprach
Zarathustra' was intended as a response to Wagner's 'Parsifal'.
Includes extracts from the Nietzsche-Wagner correspondence.

%T The Philosophy of Schopenhauer
%A Bryan Magee
%D 1997

%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press

%G ISBN 0 1982 3722 7 ; B3148 .M27 1983
%X Includes a chapter about Schopenhauer's influence on Wagner, one that
covers this subject in more depth than he does in his later book (see
below). Magee takes Wagner's attempt to correct Schopenhauer more
seriously than other commentators have done, explaining Wagner's problem
and his attempted solution in relation to 'Tristan'. Magee points out
the rather obvious (to anyone who has read Schopenhauer) traces of
Schopenhauer's influence on this drama and on 'Die Meistersinger'. In
his comments on 'Parsifal' Magee overlooks some Schopenhauerian ideas in
this drama that have been examined by more recent writers, notably
Ulrike Kienzle in 'Das Weltüberwindungswerk'.
%O Originally published in 1983.

%T Wagner and Philosophy (UK title)
%T The Tristan Chord (US title)
%A Bryan Magee
%D 2000, 2001
%C Oxford, New York
%I Oxford University Press, Metropolitan Books
%G ISBN 0 7139 9480 0 (UK), 0 8050 6788 4 (US) ; ML410.W19 M14 2001
%X As Magee remarks at the beginning of this book, Wagner was the only
one of the "great composers" to take a serious interest in philosophy.
His later works would not be what they are without the ideas that he
found in the writings of contemporary philosophers (primarily Feuerbach
in the 'Ring' and primarily Schopenhauer in 'Tristan', 'Mastersingers'
and 'Parsifal'). Wagner's name is also closely associated with that of
another philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, although, as Magee explains,
in this case the influence flowed from composer to philosopher. The
belief that there was significant influence from Nietzsche to Wagner is
one of those that Magee shows to be false, in a chapter entitled
"Wagner's Misleading Reputation". Another falsehood is the view of
Wagner as a proto-Nazi; Magee devotes many pages to Wagner's political
beliefs and activities. He also discusses Wagner's attitude to religion
and to the common ground of religion and philosophy, i.e. metaphysics
and ethics.
In his last chapter, "Wagner and Nietzsche", Magee repeats the theory --
first put forward by von Westernhagen in 1956 -- that the "mortal
insult", mentioned in a letter from Nietzsche to Overbeck, was Wagner's
correspondence with his doctor and the resulting gossip about Wagner's
belief that self-abuse had ruined Nietzsche's health. Magee seems not to
be aware that another letter written on the same day to another friend
of Nietzsche made it very clear that the mortal insult was something
entirely different. This letter was first published in 1980 and it was
later included in the critical edition of Nietzsche's correspondence
(see below, section VI-A).
In an appendix Magee discusses Wagner's anti-Semitism and the way in
which this subject has been discussed in recent decades. This appendix
is probably the most balanced assessment of the subject published to
date.

------------------------------

Subject: C. Politics and Society

Although they are listed in other sections of this bibliography, there
are two books which must be highly recommended as an introduction to
Richard Wagner's political ideas. One of them is Bryan Magee's 'Wagner
and Philosophy', described in V-B above, which provides a lucid and
accurate account of the development of those ideas in chapters 3 to 5.
The other is A.D. Aberbach's 'The Ideas of Richard Wagner', described
in III-C above, which devotes its first hundred pages ("The Political
Stage") to that aspect of Wagner's life and thought.

%T The Political Concepts of Richard Wagner
%T Les Idées politiques de Richard Wagner
%M French *
%A Maurice Boucher
%F Marcel Honoré

%D 1950
%C New York

%I M&H Publications
%G ML410.W1 B6412
%X With a short bibliography.
%O French original was published in 1948.

%T Richard Wagner : Patriot and Politician
%A Frank B. Josserand
%D 1981
%C Washington DC
%I Univ. Press of America
%G ISBN 0 8191 1418 9 ; ML410.W19 J67
%X A study of Wagner's changing political convictions, commitment and
activities.
%O Printed from typescript.

%T The Twisted Muse : Musicians and their Music in the Third Reich
%A Michael Kater
%D 1997, 1999

%C London and New York

%I Oxford Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 1950 9620 7 hbk, 0 1951 3242 4 pbk
%X Kater provides an example of how an ignorant writer, who does not
check his facts and figures, can contribute to the folklore that
"everybody knows" about Wagner and his works. He claims (p.35) that
'Parsifal' contains anti-Semitic messages (which, surprisingly, even
Barry Millington has been unable to decipher), that Wagner was Hitler's
political inspiration (p.37) and that the title of 'Mein Kampf' was a
homage to Wagner's 'Mein Leben'. Each of these claims is nonsensical.
Kater quotes selectively from Rosenberg's 'Mythus' to give the false
impression that the leading Nazi ideologist approved of Wagner. In fact,
as the 'Mythus' itself makes clear, Rosenberg's views on Wagner ranged
from scepticism to hostility.
Kater's interpretation of the data on performances of Wagner's operas
in the Third Reich arrives at the opposite of the conclusions drawn by
other commentators and, on close examination, cannot be reconciled with
the numbers. Contrary to Kater, the facts are that Wagner was the most
performed opera composer in German opera houses before the Nazis came
to power but that total performances of his operas decreased thereafter,
Wagner becoming less popular than Verdi by 1938, and continued to
decrease throughout the Nazi period.

%T The Darker Side of Genius : Richard Wagner's Anti-Semitism
%T Richard Wagner : Vorbote des Antisemitismus
%T Rikhard Vagner : bi-sevakh ha-antishemiyut
%M German *
%A Jacob Katz
%F Allan Arkush
%D 1986
%C Hanover NH
%I University Press of New England
%G ISBN 0 8745 1368 5 ; ML410.W19 K3313 1986
%S Tauber Institute for the study of European Jewry series
%X Katz considers both the role of Richard Wagner in the history of
modern anti-Semitism and the role of anti-Semitism in the life of
Richard Wagner. He notes (on page ix) that the assumption that Wagner's
anti-Jewish phobia left traces in his artistic creation is one that
first arose after Hitler and which, in his view, "was clearly a residue
of the appropriation of Wagner by the Nazis". In the post-Nazi period
some critics chose to see this phobia as the key to interpreting
Wagner's art but "without forced speculation, very little in the
artistic work of Wagner can be related to his attitude towards Jews and
Judaism". For examples of such "forced speculation", see the books by
Rose and Weiner, below.

%T Wagner's Hitler : The Prophet and His Disciple
%T Wagners Hitler : Der Prophet und sein Vollstrecker

%M German *
%A Joachim Köhler
%F Ronald Taylor

%D 2000

%C New Haven and London

%I Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd
%G ISBN 0 7456 2239 9 ; DD247.H5 K73 2000
%X A detailed study of the relationship between Richard Wagner and Adolf
Hitler. Köhler argues that the influence of Richard and Cosima Wagner
and their associates played a vital role in shaping the cultural context
in which Nazism developed. More controversially, Köhler claims that both
Wagner's writings and his music-dramas were a formative influence on
Hitler. Also that Hitler's experience of Wagner's stage works (from
'Rienzi' to 'Parsifal') was the source of his megalomania. Köhler does
not help his case by making absurd claims that are easily falsifiable:
for example, that Wagner had instructed that Klingsor "should be dressed
as a rabbi" (p.220). The copious footnotes might give the impression
that this book is well researched; however, a significant proportion of
the references that I checked did not support the author's statements.
The reader should also take note of Köhler's sources of information: he
has a tendency to make assertions on the basis of unreliable sources,
such as memoirs that are largely based on uncorroborated gossip.
The author consistently misrepresents Wagner's attitudes and opinions,
in some cases inverting them: thus he claims, for example, that (in his
last years) Wagner saw the origin of meat-eating in racial degeneration
(p.218) and held that the Germans were racially pure (p.210). In fact,
Wagner stated in his "regeneration essays" his opinion that meat-eating
had contributed to human degeneration, since man's natural diet was
vegetarian, and he noted on several occasions that the Germans were a
mongrel nation. It is clear that Köhler's view of Wagner has been formed
under the influence of Zelinsky, Rose (see below) and Weiner (see below)
and that his ideas about Wagner's influence on Hitler were drawn from
the books by Rauschning and Kubizek, both of which have been discredited
by serious historians. This book is an unhappy blend of fact (too
little) and fiction (too much).

%T Chaos and Dancing Star : Wagner's Politics, Wagner's Legacy
%A Roy Pateman
%D 2002
%C Lanham, MD
%I Univ. Press of America
%G ISBN 0 7618 2180 5
%X

%T Wagner : Race and Revolution
%A Paul Lawrence Rose
%D 1992
%C London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3000 6745 3 ; ML410.W19 R75 1992
%X Described by Michael Tanner (in 'The Spectator') as "a prodigious
work of hatred" -- venom drips from its every page -- this intemperate
polemic is also one of considerable ingenuity and astounding dishonesty.
Using selective quotation and misquotation from Wagner's writings,
correspondence and conversations, Rose attempts to make a case for two
theses: (1) that the inspiration, motivation and themes of Wagner's
operas, from 'Holländer' onwards, were anti-Semitic; (2) that Wagner
invented "racial anti-Semitism".
Wagner's words, however, even when misquoted, were not sufficient for
Rose's purposes, so he supplemented them in three ways. First, he takes
short phrases from Wagner and uses them to fabricate new "quotations";
in this way he is able to make Wagner say anything. Secondly, Rose
claims to be privy to thoughts that Wagner had not expressed in words;
he condemns him for those thoughts and then he condemns him for not
expressing them. Finally, Rose makes copious use of a spurious work
entitled 'The Work and Mission of My Life' (p.150 ff), which he
discusses as if written by Wagner. It was not written by him, as Rose
must have known.
Rose identifies a linkage between anti-Jewish feeling and German
revolutionary and liberal thought in the first half of the 19th century.
This does not mean, as Rose appears to think it does, that every
revolutionary statement made by Wagner can be read as anti-Semitic. Nor
is Rose justified in labelling all of Wagner's outbursts against
philistinism as anti-Semitic, on the grounds that in one notorious essay
(which as Rose recognises was influenced by the writings of Proudhon and
Marx on the "Jewish Question") he accused Jews of turning art into a
commodity. Nor is he justified in reading every mention of Judaism or
Jews in Wagner's writings as anti- Semitic. In his private terminology,
as Rose might have realised if he had studied the primary material
thoroughly, Wagner applied the label "Jew" not only to Jewish people but
also to anyone whom he saw as mercenary or cosmopolitan, and habitually
referred to journalists as "Jews and Jesuits".
Rose rightly criticizes Wagner for his anti-Semitic attitude; but he
fails to distinguish between Wagner's private anti-Semitic statements
(of which many were recorded by Cosima) and his rare public expressions
of anti-Semitism, and so gives the impression that Wagner was engaged in
a public campaign against the Jews. This is not the case; however many
anti-Semitic comments and tasteless jokes Wagner made at the breakfast
table, they could not amount to an anti-Semitic campaign. Rose also
fails to distinguish between Wagner's anti-Semitism and his criticism of
Judaism and its influence on Christianity. He alleges, wrongly, that
'Judaism in Music' ends with a call for the physical destruction of the
Jews. In his 1869 "afterword" to the essay, Wagner made it clear that he
was arguing for assimilation of the Jews. He claimed that it would
benefit both them and the Germans. Wagner later referred to this plan
for assimilation as his "grand solution" of the Jewish problem. Blinded
by pathological hatred of Wagner, Rose entirely fails to understand any
of this.
Rose's discussion of Wagner's views on, and relations with, Jews and
Judaism is both superficial and misleading. Rose sneers at Wagner's
Jewish friends and associates (namely Tausig, Porges, Gautier, Neumann
and Rubinstein), calling them his "house-Jews" and extending his hatred
of Wagner also to them. Since Rose believes that Wagner hated all Jews
on racial grounds, he thinks that these people could not be "real" Jews.
Like many of Rose's arguments, this one is circular: no "real" Jew could
be a friend of Wagner, therefore Wagner had no Jewish friends, which
confirms his "racial" selectivity.
Rose observes that the content of Wagner's dramas was influenced by
thinkers such as Feuerbach and Schopenhauer, and from this argues that
those dramas challenge and reject traditional "Judaeo-Christian" modes
of thinking. While this might be true, it cannot be equated, as Rose
claims, to an anti-Semitic agenda or motivation. Even if we agree with
Rose that the 'Ring' (which was begun under the influence of Feuerbach)
contains a rejection of at least some of the ten commandments of Moses,
this does not make the 'Ring' anti-Semitic, since it rejects religious
commandments in general and not only those of Judaism and
Christianity. Rose's claim that 'Tristan' is anti-Semitic because it
tolerates adultery and therefore rejects one of the Mosaic commandments
is simply ridiculous. This argument for anti-Semitic content in the
dramas is, to use Jacob Katz's expression, "forced speculation".
Rose is unwise enough to rely upon Robert Gutman's unreliable book.
In order to argue that the 'Ring' was conceived as an anti-Semitic work,
he cites Gutman's theory that there was a draft of the 'Judaism' essay
as early as 1848. This idea is fanciful; in fact there is no evidence
whatever of any anti-Semitic sentiment on Wagner's part before August
1850. In other places Rose freely manipulates dates to suit his
argument. He expands on Gutman's bizarre interpretation of 'Parsifal'
(without considering the false premises on which it was based), as an
expression of biological racism. His arguments for a racial basis to
Wagner's anti-Semitism are not likely to convince anyone except those
who already believe that Wagner was a racist. This book fails to deliver
all that it promises: in particular, Rose fails to prove that ideas
about race were central, rather than peripheral, to Wagner's thinking,
or to demonstrate that racism was an element in his world-view.
%O This is not a book to be set lightly aside, as Constant Reader once
said of a novel, it should be thrown with great force.

%T Imagined Germany : Richard Wagner's National Utopia
%A Hannu Salmi

%D 1999
%C New York
%I Peter Lang Publishing

%G ISBN 0 8204 4416 2 ; DD210 .S24 1999
%S German Life and Civilization
%V No.29
%X

%T The Racial Thinking of Richard Wagner
%A Leon Stein

%D 1950
%C New York

%I Philosophical Library
%G ML410.W19 S83
%X A study of Wagner's anti-Semitism and pan-Germanism. Stein's grave
misunderstanding of the prose writings can be excused to some extent by
the fact that essential background materials (such as the Gobineau
correspondence or Cosima's Diaries) were not available to him. It
remains the case, unfortunately, that Stein's misconceptions about
Wagner's opinions and attitudes have been adopted, uncritically, by
several later writers.
Unlike some (but by not means all) recent commentators on the subject,
Stein found no manifestations of Wagner's phobia about Jews and Judaism
in his artistic creations. Those commentators who have observed that,
if there are no such manifestations, then it is incredible, might like
to reverse the argument. If there are no racist or anti-Jewish subtexts
in the dramas, then, despite Wagner's anti-Semitic attitude, perhaps
race and Jewry were not such key threads in his thinking as Stein and
others have believed.
%O Based on a doctoral dissertation.

%T The Ring of Myths : Israelis, Wagner and the Nazis
%T Taba`at ha-mitosim : ha-YiŽsre'elim, Vagner veha-Natsizm
%M Hebrew *
%A Na'ama Sheffi
%F Martha Grenzeback
%D 2000 (hbk), 2003 (pbk)
%C Brighton UK and Portland OR
%I Sussex Academic Press
%G ISBN 1 9022 1052 2 ; ML410.W19 S4513 2001
%X Laon writes: "Na'ama Sheffi's account of the Israeli 'ban' on Wagner's
music ranges through 60-odd years of Israeli cultural and political
history, and is considerably more subtle and nuanced than this brief
outline can reveal. Israeli politics are both labyrinth and minefield,
and the clarity of Sheffi's guidance through the twists and turns is
something the reader can both admire and be grateful for.
Sheffi reveals that the Israeli ban was a historical accident: in 1938
the Palestine Orchestra (principally made up of Jews from Eastern
Europe) protested against Kristallnacht by dropping the 'Meistersinger'
overture from their next concert. The gesture was hurried but not
unreasonable: the Nazis used 'Die Meistersinger' for propaganda
purposes, as they misappropriated other German music and art: Beethoven,
Bruckner, Goethe and Rembrandt in particular. Since then Wagner has been
made into a symbol of the holocaust and shorthand for Nazism, a symbol
with little relationship to the actual historical personage, who, she
observes, "did not devote his life to denigrating Jews and certainly not
to annihilating them." Sheffi argues that using Wagner in this way not
only perpetuates a falsehood but also directs attention away from the
individuals, political groups and social forces that really created and
operated the Holocaust. The Israeli ban endorses the Nazis' malicious
misreadings of Wagner; thus it remains a homage to rather than a
repudiation of Nazi cultural thought. A genuine rejection of Nazi ideas
necessarily involves dismissing their claim to Wagner.
Sheffi does not know her Wagner quite as well as she knows Israel,
however. For example she is too credulous in relation to the various
readings of anti-Semitic meanings into Wagner's works. She also commits
occasional solecisms like, 'Wagner had been on close terms with his
son-in-law'. Namely, H.S. Chamberlain, a man who once saw Richard Wagner
from a distance but who never met him. Here Sheffi has fallen into the
trap of trusting some of the makers of the 'Ring of Myths' of her title,
who tend to fudge the distance between Wagner and Chamberlain, a writer
who really did contribute to Nazi ideology.
This is a thoughtful, generally well-researched and referenced book,
clearly written, and showing alertness to nuances of meaning in a field
where attention to nuance is a rare commodity."

------------------------------

Subject: D. Religion

%T Richard Wagner : A Mystic in the Making
%A Alan Aberbach
%D 1991
%C Wakefield NH
%I Longwood Academic
%G ISBN 0 8934 1662 2 ; ML410.W19 A23 1991
%X

%T Richard Wagner's Religious Ideas : A Spiritual Journey hbk
%T Richard Wagner's Spiritual Pilgrimage pbk
%A Alan Aberbach
%D 1998

%C New York, Queenstown Ontario and Lampeter Wales
%I Edwin Mellen Press

%G ISBN 0 7734 8783 2 hbk, 0 7734 8348 9 pbk ; ML410.W19 A24 1996
%X An in-depth examination of Richard Wagner's religious, spiritual and
mystical thoughts, intended to provide the reader with a better under-
standing of his works. The author presents Richard Wagner as a seeker
and a pilgrim, whose thoughts about God, man's place in the universe,
and the individual and collective destinies of mankind can be traced
both in his writings and in his dramas. In this account particular
attention is given to two influences who have been largely overlooked by
Wagner biographers: the Sufi poet Hafiz, and the Domenican mystic,
Meister Eckhart.

%T Women and the Changing Concept of Salvation in the Operas of Richard
Wagner
%A Jeffrey Peter Bauer
%D 1994
%C Anif, Salzburg
%I Verlag Ursula Müller-Speiser
%G ISBN 3 8514 5020 5
%X

%T Richard Wagner och den indiska tankevärlden
%T Richard Wagner und die Indische Geisteswelt (German translation)
%M Swedish
%A Carl Suneson
%F Gert Kreutzer (German translation)
%D 1985
%C Stockholm; Leiden and New York
%I Almqvist and Wiksell International, Brill Academic Publishers Inc.
%G ISBN 9 1220 0775 X (S), 9 0040 8859 8 (DE); ML410.W19 S95 1985,
ML410.W19 S9514 1989
%S Stockholm Oriental Studies
%V No.13
%X The only extended study of Richard Wagner's interest in Indian
literature and religions, and their influence on his works, this book is
in three parts: 1. Wagner's Impressions of India, 2. Wagnerian
Aesthetics and Indian Metaphysics, 3. India in the Music Dramas. The
growth of Indian studies in the early nineteenth century was followed
with interest by Schopenhauer, who passed on this interest to his
disciple Richard Wagner. The Buddhist idea of renunciation in particular
appealed to Wagner during his relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck. His
use of Indian symbols and motifs in some of his later works reflects, in
Suneson's view, the conflict between ascetic and aesthetic strivings. In
this respect the unfinished music drama 'Die Sieger' (The Victors)
stands alone as a work entirely based on an Indian source. Suneson
argues that the Indian elements in these later dramas were introduced by
Wagner not as exotic elements but as congenial to his own personality
and with his deepest felt artistic needs.
%O The original is in Swedish, but it has been translated into German.

%T The Buddhist Nirvana and its Western Interpreters
%A Guy Richard Welbon
%D 1968
%C Chicago and London
%I Univ. of Chicago Press
%G BL1456.66 .W42
%X This book traces the history of Western Europe's contact with and
evaluation of Buddhism from the first references by Christian writers
to the beginning of the 20th century. It concentrates on the reception
of the alien concepts of Buddhism (and other religions of Indian origin)
after the first translations of Buddhist scriptures into European
languages appeared in the middle of the 19th century, with particular
reference to the concept of 'Nirvana'. Western scholars had difficulties
in interpreting this concept and in reconciling the different meanings
with which it appeared in Mahayana scriptures, as well as those found
in Theravada scriptures. The author devotes a chapter to three non-
specialists who followed the scholarly dispute about the meaning of
'Nirvana' with particular interest, and to their responses to this
concept: Arthur Schopenhauer, Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche.

------------------------------

Subject: E. Sex and Gender

%T The Prodigious Lover : New Aspects in the Life of Richard Wagner
%T La vie amoureuse de Richard Wagner
%M French *
%A Louis Barthou
%F Henry Irving Brock
%D 1927
%C New York
%I Duffield and Company
%G ML410.W19 B181
%X

%T The Loves of Richard Wagner (UK title)
%T The Women in Wagner's Life (US title)
%T Richard Wagner und die Frauen
%M German *
%A Julius Kapp
%F Hannah Waller
%D 1951
%C London
%I W.H. Allen
%G ML410.W19 K292
%X
%O German original published in 1929. English translation first
published in 1932.

%T Wagner's Operas and Desire
%A James M. McGlathery
%D 1998

%C New York
%I Peter Lang Publishing

%G ISBN 0 8204 3693 3 ; ML410.W13 M3 1998
%X The ten canonical works are examined with special attention to the role
of erotic passion. An hmcw participant summed up this book in a single
word: "worthless".

%T Wagner Androgyne : A Study in Interpretation
%T Wagner Androgyne : Essai sur l'interpretation
%M French *
%A Jean-Jacques Nattiez
%F Stewart Spencer
%D 1993
%C Princeton NJ
%I Princeton University Press
%G ISBN 0 6910 4832 0 ; ML410.W13 N3513 1993
%X The author's theme is that of androgyny in Wagner and his works. The
word androgyne is used here in a broader sense than "hermaphrodite",
however. Indeed, it might be argued that he was not writing about
androgyny at all but about the complementary polarities of male and
female, or of the eternal masculine and the eternal feminine. It is
beyond doubt that Wagner regarded the union of these polarities as
necessary for the psychic health and wholeness both of individuals and
of society and that this need is a recurring theme in Wagner's dramas.
It also provides a sexual metaphor that dominates his most important
theoretical treatise 'Opera and Drama'. From this treatise together with
'The Art-Work of the Future' and other writings, Nattiez develops and
presents an interpretation of the 'Ring' cycle as the history of music
and related arts, divided by the decline of classical tragedy and reborn
united in the total work of art, the art-work of the future. He then
returns to the theme of androgyny, attempts to psychoanalyse Wagner and
discusses a host of more or less related subjects. Although there is not
much in the book that is entirely original, in it Nattiez has drawn
together many disparate threads of analysis and interpretation which he
examines from a new angle, that of androgyny and gender.
Some readers have made the mistake of taking Nattiez literally and
seriously. The author of this entertaining book is not always, I think,
entirely serious. Especially in chapter three he has his tongue firmly
planted in cheek. In this interpretation of the 'Ring', Nattiez confuses
Wagner's means with his ends but in the process illuminates the
relationship between the tetralogy and Wagner's theoretical writings, in
a way that is both witty and thought-provoking.
%O Originally published in 1990 in French. The French edition contained,
in an appendix, a translation of the first prose version of 'Wayland the
Smith'. This was omitted from the American edition. The original German
text of the draft, together with an English translation by Spencer, can
be found in 'Wagner', 1994, vol.10 no.1, pp.3-23. Table of contents:
< http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/prin031/92023250.html >

------------------------------

Subject: F. Theatre and Drama

%T Richard Wagner : Theory and Theatre
%T Das Theater Richard Wagners
%M German *
%A Dieter Borchmeyer
%F Stewart Spencer
%D 1991
%C Oxford UK
%I Oxford University Press
%G ISBN 0 1931 5322 X ; ML410.W13 B6913 1991
%X Discusses Richard Wagner's aesthetic theory, examining his prose
writings and his ideas on music drawn from various standpoints of
literature, the linking of ideas and the sociology of art. Also examines
the importance for Wagner of Greek art, drama and mythology, and his links
with major figures in world theatre. Borchmeyer communicates his many
insights with lucidity and directness.
The twenty essays in this collection are arranged under three headings:
"the artist and his public", "opera -- spoken theatre -- musical drama",
and "Wagner's dramatic poetry". The first of these sections deals with
Wagner's ideas about audiences and performances, the second with his
ideas about opera and drama, and the third with his poems or libretti
and their literary resonances. There is a short appendix addressing the
subject of Wagner's anti-Semitism and those who have become obsessed
with it. Borchmeyer is adamant that there is no anti-Semitism in the
dramas and that there cannot be any, given Wagner's intention that they
should have a redemptive function for all mankind.
The English edition is not simply a translation of the German edition;
Borchmeyer's ideas on some of the subjects discussed had developed in the
decade since it appeared, so that some of the essays were substantially
rewritten for the English edition.
Dieter Borchmeyer is Professor of German and Theatre Studies at the
University of Heidelberg.
%O German original was published in 1982.

%T Drama and the World of Richard Wagner
%T Richard Wagner: Ahasvers Wandlungen
%M German *
%A Dieter Borchmeyer
%F Daphne Ellis
%D 2003
%C Princeton
%I Princeton University Press
%G ISBN 0 6911 1497 8
%X The reader of this collection of articles and essays might experience
feelings of "déjà vu" since most of the material has appeared elsewhere.
It has been reworked, however, and in some cases corrected for this book.
Some of the chapters have been assembled from several pre-existing
essays or articles. Most of them could be described as reviews of the
latest scholarship on specific aspects of Wagner's life or works. Two of
the chapters -- "The Transformations of Ahasuerus", mainly about
'Dutchman', and "Venus in Exile", a fascinating study of the literary
manifestations of the Tannhäuser legend both before, contemporary with
and after Wagner's opera -- are substantially rewritten and improved
versions of essays that appeared in "Theory and Theatre" (see above).
The chapter on 'Parsifal' revisits aspects of that work which Borchmeyer
discussed in that earlier collection of essays.
The well-read Wagnerian might find the first two chapters in this book
the most interesting, since they concern Wagner's early stage works,
which have been relatively little discussed elsewhere. First 'Die
Hochzeit', 'Die Feen' and 'Das Liebesverbot'; then the grand opera
projects, 'Die hohe Braut' and 'Rienzi'. Borchmeyer has compiled some
interesting and mostly new material concerning these operas and their
literary background. There follow seven essays, one for each of the
canonical dramas. The latter part of the book contains essays on
Wagner's relationships with Ludwig, Bismarck and Nietzsche respectively,
on Thomas Mann's response to Wagner, and on Wagner's grandson Franz
Biedler.
%O With extensive notes but without bibliography. German original was
published in 2002. It is regrettable that some of the essays in the German
edition have not been included in the English translation. These
include an important essay on Wagner and Heine, which appears on pages
371-91 of 'Ahasvers Wandlungen'. Fortunately an English translation by
Daphne Ellis has been published in the journal 'Wagner', vol.24, no.2,
2003, p.55-72.

%T Leitmotiv and Drama : Wagner, Brecht and the Limits of Epic Theatre
%A Hilda Meldrum Brown
%D 1991

%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press

%G ISBN 0 1981 6227 8 hbk ; PT2603.R397 Z58113 1991
%X

%T Athena Sings : Wagner and the Greeks
%A M Owen Lee
%D 2003
%C Toronto and Buffalo
%I Univ. of Toronto Press
%G ISBN 0 8020 8580 6 pbk, 0 8020 8795 7 hbk ; ML410.W19 L4 2003
%X The author gives us the benefit of his informed perspective, as an
Emeritus Professor of Classics, on Richard Wagner and the Greeks. In
doing so he draws on three classicists who had already written about
this subject: Sir Hugh Lloyd Jones, Wolfgang Schadewaldt and Michael
Ewans (see above). Lee takes into account that his readers might not be
familiar with Greek literature; so he begins not with Wagnerian drama
but with Athenian tragedy. About one third of his book is devoted to an
account of a performance of Aeschylus' 'Oresteia', as it might have been
experienced by one of the playwright's contemporaries. In the remainder
of the book, Father Lee considers Wagner's relationship with classical
Greece and the traces of Greek influence in Wagner's dramas. Lee draws
attention to an Homeric allusion, one that is not mentioned by Lloyd
Jones or Schadewaldt: the dream-like apparitions respectively of Nestor
to Agamemnon, of Patroclus to Achilles and of Athena, in the likeness of
Iphthime, to Penelope. The apparition always begins by asking: "Are you
sleeping ...?" Hence, "Schläfts du, Hagen mein Sohn?"
It has been said that the best books about Wagner are the shortest.
Father Lee's book has one hundred pages, including bibliography and
notes, and provides an excellent introduction to the subject.
%O In addition to the books by Michael Ewans and Pearl Wilson mentioned
in this FAQ, further information can be found in: 'Wagner and the
Greeks' by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, in the 'Times Literary Supplement', 9 Jan
1976, pp. 37-9; reprinted in 'Wagner', vol. 11 no.2, pp. 62-74, 1990;
'Wagner und die Griechen' by Wolfgang Schadewaldt, originally published
in the program book for the Bayreuth Festival, 1963 (?); revised and
republished in 'Hellas und Hesperien', vol. 2 pp. 341-405, Zürich:
Artemis Verlag, 1970.

%T Richard Wagner and Festival Theater
%A Simon Williams
%D 1994
%C Westport CT and London
%I Praeger
%G ISBN 0 2759 3608 2 pbk, 0 3132 7435 5 hbk ; ML410.W13 W43 1994
%X This biographical study focuses primarily on Wagner as an important
figure in the development of European theatre, in particular through his
founding of the Bayreuth Festival.

%T Wagner's Dramas and Greek Tragedy
%A Pearl Cleveland Wilson
%D 1919
%C New York
%I Columbia University Press
%G ML410.W13 W43
%X On the basis of Wagner's theoretical writings, Wilson explored the
parallels between the 'Ring' and Greek tragedy, especially with reference
to the 'Oresteia' of Aeschylus. See the later study by Michael Ewans
(above).
%O Originally a dissertation.

------------------------------

Subject: G. Other

%T Wagner and Suicide
%A John Louis DiGaetani
%D 2003
%C New York
%I McFarland and Company
%G ISBN 0 7864 1477 4 ; ML410.W13 D45 2003
%X According to diGaetani, Wagner suffered from a manic-depressive
disorder, which found expression in his work.

%T Richard Wagner: A Guide to Research
%A Michael Saffle
%D 2001
%C London
%I Routledge
%G ISBN 0 8240 5695 7 ; ML134.W1 S24 2002
%X It must be assumed that the enormity of the task, and his lack of
qualifications to execute it, had not dawned on the author before he was
too far into this project to abandon it. Despite his best intentions,
the result is simply a mess: some of the 1175 items cited in this Guide
are derivative or trivial contributions to the vast literature, while
seminal contributions to it have been overlooked. Most of the entries
contain errors, suggesting that the book or article cited has received
no more than a cursory examination. In many cases Saffle's description
of the book or article bears no resemblence to its contents.
For example, Saffle tells us that Nietzsche's 'Richard Wagner in
Bayreuth' contains "impressions of the 1876 Bayreuth Festival", despite
the fact that it was published before that Festival was held. In other
cases the book or article is correctly described but information that
might be needed by a scholar is omitted. For example, Saffle describes
the study by Max Unger, 'The Cradle of the Parsifal Legend' (1932),
which was based on research by Suhtscheck-Hauschka, but fails to tell
the reader that this research was misguided. Saffle is no better at
informing his reader of the quality of translations: although Saffle
does not mention this fact (the kind of information that would be
helpful to a researcher), items 257, 279, 280 and 286 are notoriously
inaccurate.
It is hard to understand how the publishers could leave the preparation
of this book in the hands of an author who knew so little about Wagner
that he could not even get the titles of the composer's major works right,
either in the original language or in translation -- he believes for
example that Wagner wrote 'Die Liebesverbot', 'Le hollandaise Volant'
and 'The Valkyries' -- or why an individual who believes that the
libretto of 'Die Zauberflöte' was written by Da Ponte and that the
'Altenberg Lieder' are the work of Anton von Webern, is writing about
opera and music. The author's evident confusion about the Wagner family
is hard to excuse, when several of the books cited (such as Wolfgang
Wagner's autobiography) contain a diagram of the family tree.
The scholar will find little guidance here. The book in its present
form and with its present quality is worthless, except perhaps as a
source of unintended humour.

%T Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination
%A Marc A. Weiner
%D 1995, 1997
%C Lincoln NE

%I University of Nebraska Press

%G ISBN 0 8032 4775 3 ; ML410.W19 W23 1997
%X Weiner tries very hard to find anti-Semitism in Wagner's operas. In
the process he reads much between the lines of Wagner's text (especially
into his stage directions) that more objective readers might not find
there, and Weiner cites many other writers in support of his theories
which, if the reader cares to examine the books cited, do not support --
and more often contradict -- those theories. Although Weiner clearly
knows nothing about music, he advances arguments supposedly based on
analysis of Wagner's music, and succeeds only in exposing his own
ignorance and stupidity.
Weiner's claim that the characterisation of Beckmesser draws on "a
common stock of anti-Semitic stereotypes", which he alleges would have
been obvious to a late 19th century or early 20th century audience
although not to a modern one, has been discussed at length by David B.
Dennis in his article, 'Most German of all German Operas: Die
Meistersinger through the Lens of the Third Reich', in 'Wagner's
Meistersinger: Performance, History, Representation' (see above), pages
98-119. Like Millington, Weiner fails to realise that no 19th century
audience could have conceived the notion that the Town Clerk of
Nuremberg could be Jewish; since this was not only impossible in the
16th century but still a legal impossibility at the time of the opera's
first performance.
This book is beautifully produced and it is a pity that the contents
do not achieve the same level of quality as the binding. The real tragedy
of the book is that, inside this long rant about Wagner's anti-Semitism
and its supposed manifestations in the operas, there is a readable book
about Wagner and the body, struggling to get out.
%O Reprinted in 1997 with a new postscript.

%T Richard Wagners Dresdener Bibliothek 1842-1849 : Neue Dokumente zur
Geschichte seines Schaffens. Mit 6 Abbildungen und Kundstdrucktafeln.
%M German
%A Curt von Westernhagen
%D 1966
%C Wiesbaden
%I Brockhaus
%G ML410.W19 W35
%X For a long time it was believed that the books which Richard Wagner
had abandoned in Dresden when he escaped into exile had been dispersed
after they fell into the hands of his creditors. In fact they had been
bought from them by his brother-in-law, Hermann Brockhaus, but for
reasons which are not entirely clear they were never returned to Wagner.
It was not until early in the 1960s that (most of) these books were
discovered in a storeroom of the Brockhaus publishing company. The books
can now be seen in a display cabinet at Haus Wahnfried. This is the
catalogue of Wagner's "Dresden library", compiled by von Westernhagen
soon after the books were rediscovered. An appendix lists books that
Wagner is believed to have owned while in Dresden but which are not in
the surviving collection.

------------------------------

Subject: VI. Wagner's Own Writings and Correspondence

For a general overview of Wagner's prose and poetry, or for an overview
of editions of his correspondence, please see the relevant sections of
the general Wagner FAQ. Unless otherwise stated, each of the following
books is in one volume.

------------------------------

Subject: A. Correspondence

%T Letters of Richard Wagner
%T Richard Wagners Briefe
%M German *
%A Wilhelm Altmann (ed)
%F Mildred Mary Bozman
%D 1927
%C London and Toronto
%I J. M. Dent & Co.
%V 2 vols.
%G ML410.W1 A3105
%X Translations of 738 letters written by Wagner.
%O German original published in 1925, Leipzig.

%T Letters of Hans von Bülow to Richard Wagner, Cosima Wagner, his
Daughter Daniela, Luise von Bülow, Karl Klindworth, and Carl Bechstein
%M German *
%A Richard Maria Ferdinand Graf Du Moulin-Eckart (ed)
%F Hannah Walter

%D 1979
%C New York

%I Da Capo Press
%G ISBN 0 8443 0051 9, 0 3067 9539 6 ; ML422.B9 B963 (1931)
%X Later editions with a preface and notes by Scott Goddard.
%O See also: 'Richard Wagners Briefe an Hans von Bülow', ed. Daniela
Thode, Jena, 1916.

%T Letters of Richard Wagner : The Burrell Collection
%T Richard Wagner Briefe : Die Sammlung Burrell
%A John Naglee Burk (ed)
%D 1950, 1951

%C New York and London

%I Macmillan, Victor Gollancz Ltd
%G ISBN 0 8443 0031 4 ; ML410.W1 A3125 1972
%X Translations of 435 letters written by Wagner and collected by Mary
Banks Burrell. This collection contains many documents that Minna's
illegitimate daughter Natalie inherited after her mother's death in
1866 and which were bought from her by Mrs Burrell.
%O Originally published in English, this book later appeared in German.

%T Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Briefe: Kritische Studienausgabe
%M German
%A Giorgio Colli, Mazzino Montinari
%D 1977-1986 (hbk), 1992 (pbk)

%C Munich
%I Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag

%V 8 vols.

%G ISBN 3 4235 9063 7

%X Six years after their critical edition of Nietzsche's collected
writings, Colli and Montinari completed this edition of his letters in
which they corrected many of the errors and distortions introduced by
Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche (see below), and restored her deletions.
This edition also included recently discovered letters, some of which,
following on the revelations of the 'Sämtliche Werke', have radically
changed our understanding of the relationships between Nietzsche and
the Wagners. In particular the accounts of those relationships by von
Westernhagen and Gutman respectively now appear, as Nietzsche himself
might have said, to be no more than misunderstandings.
%O Originally published by de Gruyter, Berlin.

%T Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Briefe: Kritische Gesamtausgabe
%M German
%A Giorgio Colli, Mazzino Montinari, Norbert Miller, Annemarie Piper
%D 1975-

%C Berlin
%I Walter de Gruyter

%V 20 vols. (projected)
%G ISBN 3 1100 2400 4 ; B3316 .A4 1975
%X This annotated, critical, complete edition of Nietzsche's correspondence
(including postcards and telegrams) extends and completes the 'Kritische
Studienausgabe'. It aims to make obsolete all previous editions, correcting
their errors, omissions and distortions.

%T Family Letters of Richard Wagner
%T Familienbriefe von Richard Wagner (1832-1874)
%F William Ashton Ellis
%A John Deathridge (ed)
%D 1991
%C Ann Arbor, Basingstoke
%I Univ of Michigan Press, Macmillan Reference
%G ISBN 0 4721 0292 3, 0 3334 4438 8 ; ML410.W1 A31285 1991
%X A collection of letters from Richard Wagner to his family, containing
material on his early years. This edition includes notes which comment on
this historical translation in the light of modern scholarship.
%O First published in English translation 1911, based on Glasenapp's
German edition of 1907, Berlin. For the electronic edition of the German

text, see section XII below.

%T Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel : With a brief account of the
Bayreuth Festivals
%T Richard Wagner an Emil Heckel
%F William Ashton Ellis
%A Carl Heckel (ed)
%D 1899
%C London
%I Grant Richards
%G ML410.W1 A342
%X Also includes reminiscences of Wagner by Emil Heckel. He was a music
dealer in Mannheim, where he founded a Wagner Society. Heckel conceived
the idea of a network of Wagner Societies to raise funds for the Bayreuth
Festival.

%O For the electronic edition of the German text, see section XII below.

%T Richard to Minna Wagner : Letters to his First Wife
%T Richard Wagner an Minna Wagner
%M German *
%A Baron Hans von Wolzogen (ed)
%F William Ashton Ellis
%D 2001 reprint

%C
%I Best Books
%V 2 vols.

%G ISBN 0 7222 5560 8 ; ML410.W1 A387 1972
%X See also the Burrell Collection, above. Minna's letters to Richard
were destroyed by Cosima.
%O First published in German in 1908. English translation was published
by H. Grevel & Co., London, in 1909.

%T Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck
%T Richard Wagner an Mathilde Wesendonk : Tagebuchblätter und Briefe
1853-1871
%M German *
%A ed. Wolfgang Golther
%F William Ashton Ellis
%D 1972
%C London
%I Vienna House Inc, Milford House
%G ISBN 0 8443 0010 1, 0 8782 1020 2 ; ML410.W1 A392 (1905)
%X Essential background on 'Tristan', 'Parsifal' and 'Die Sieger'.
Unfortunately Golther chose to use the spelling Wesendonk, although
Mathilde herself had spelled the name Wesendonck.
%O Originally published by Grant Richards, London, and by C. Scribner's
Sons, NY, in 1905, based on Wolfgang Golther's German edition of 1904.

For the electronic edition of the German text, see section XII below.

%T Richard Wagner to Otto Wesendonck
%T Briefe Richard Wagners an Otto Wesendonk
%M German *
%A ed. Wolfgang Golther (2nd German edn.)
%F William Ashton Ellis

%D 1899
%C London
%I

%X Wolfgang Golther's German edition of 1905, Berlin, is more complete
than Ellis' translation, which was based on an earlier edition by Albert
Heintz. For the electronic edition of the German text, see section XII
below.

%T Richard et Cosima Wagner - Arthur Gobineau Correspondance
%M French
%A Eric Eugène (ed)
%D 2000
%C Saint-Genouph
%I Librairie Nizet
%G ISBN 2 7078 1258 7 ; ML410.W1 A339 2000
%X Correspondence between the Wagners and the self-styled 'Count' Arthur
Gobineau, in 1880-82, the last years of the lives of Richard Wagner
(d.1883) and Gobineau (d.1882). The correspondence consists of 79
letters, of which 49 are by Gobineau (43 to Cosima, 4 to Richard and 2
to Eva Wagner), 28 are by Cosima and only 2 by Richard Wagner. These
letters, taken together with entries in Cosima's Diaries, present a very
different picture of the relationship between Gobineau and the Wagners
from that described by Gutman and Rose. It puts the supposed 'influence'
of Gobineau upon Wagner (who began to read Gobineau's books in November
1880, when he took up 'La Renaissance') in its proper perspective.
"By publishing a critical edition of these new letters, I present for
my readers Gobineau's response to Wagner. Deferent but without conceding
an inch, Gobineau rejected Wagner's accusations and stood his ground.
This correspondence is essential to an understanding of how these two men
could have maintained rather friendly relations while they were in total
opposition on the intellectual level. It also confirms the determination
of Wagner to see 'the unity of mankind'." (From the editor's introduction)
%O See also below.

%T Wagner et Gobineau : Existe-t-il un racisme wagnérien?
%M French
%A Eric Eugène and Serge Karlsfeld
%D 1998
%C Paris
%I Le Cherche midi
%G ISBN 2 8627 4556 1 ; ML410.W1 E86 1998
%X
%O See also above.

%T The Nietzsche-Wagner Correspondence
%T Wagner und Nietzsche der Zeit ihrer Freundschaft : Erinnerungsgabe zu
Friedrich Nietzsches 70. Geburtstag den 15. Oktober 1914
%M German *
%A Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche (ed)
%F Caroline V. Kerr
%D 1921, reprinted 1949
%C London
%I
%G B3316 .A35 (1921), B3316 .A47 1970
%X Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth partly suppressed and altered some of
these letters, apparently in order to support her claims that her brother
had broken with Richard Wagner as a result of the latter's 'betrayal'.
With an introduction by H.L. Mencken. For a more complete picture of this
correspondence, see the edition by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari:
'Sämtliche Briefe', above.
%O German original published 1915, Munich.

%T Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt
%T Briefwechsel zwischen Wagner und Liszt
%M German *
%A Erich Kloss (ed. 2nd German edition)
%F Francis Hueffer
%D 1969, 1973
%C New York; Westport, Conn.; McLean, Virginia
%I Haskell Houser; Greenwood Press; IndyPublish
%G ISBN 0 8383 0316 1, 0 8371 2743 2, 1 5882 7295 8 hbk, 1 58827 296 6 pbk ;
ML410.W1 A365 1969
%V 2 vols.
%X This modern edition contains a very brief, anonymous and ill-informed
biographical sketch. The translator's preface is rather better written
and, most important of all, the letters are translated into readable
English. They leave a more favourable impression of Franz Liszt, as a
tolerant and forgiving friend, than the picture they paint of Richard
Wagner.
%O Hueffer first published, in 1887, an incomplete German edition. His
English translation was published by H. Grevel & Co., London, in 1897,
indexed and revised by William Ashton Ellis. Complete German edition
1910, Leipzig.

%T The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner
%T Bayreuther Briefe von Richard Wagner (1871-1883)
%M German *
%A Carl Friedrich Glasenapp (ed)
%F Caroline V. Kerr
%D 2001 reprint
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5559 4 ; ML410.W1 A325 (1912)
%X The first of two volumes of Bayreuth Letters. The other one was given
the title, 'Richard Wagner an seine Künstler', ed. Erich Kloss, 1910.
%O German original published by Breitkopf and Härtel, Berlin/Leipzig 1907.
The translation was first published by Small, Maynard & Co. in Boston and
by James Nisbet & Co. in London, 1912. For the electronic edition of the

German text, see section XII below.

%T The Letters of Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli
%F Elbert Lenrow

%D 1983
%C New York

%I Horizon Press
%G ISBN 0 8443 0104 3 ; ML410.W1 A4 1972
%X Also includes letters from Pusinelli to Wagner. Pusinelli had been
the family doctor of Richard and Minna while they lived in Dresden, and
later acted as an intermediary.
%O Originally published in 1932, Knopf.

%T Richard Wagner's Letters to August Roeckel
%T Richard Wagners Briefe an August Röckel
%A Marie Lipsius (ed)
%F Eleanor C. Sellar
%D 2001 reprint
%C
%I Best Books
%G ML410.W1 A376
%X With an introduction by Houston Stewart Chamberlain. August Röckel
was Wagner's assistant conductor in Dresden and the editor of the
revolutionary newspaper 'Volksblätter'. Röckel did not, like Wagner,
escape from Dresden after the failure of the revolution. He was
imprisoned for thirteen years. Wagner's letters written to Röckel
during these years are important background material concerning the
development of the 'Ring'.
%O German original published Leipzig, in 1894. Translation first
published by J.W. Arrowsmith, Bristol, in 1897. For the electronic

edition of the German text, see section XII below.

%T Richard Wagner's Letters to his Dresden Friends : Theodor Uhlig,
Wilhelm Fischer and Ferdinand Heine
%T Richard Wagner's Briefe an Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, Ferdinand
Heine

%M German *
%A Baron Hans von Wolzogen

%F J.S. Shedlock
%D 2001 reprint
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5556 X ; ML410.W1 A38 (1890)
%X Theodor Uhlig was a violinist and composer, and the illegitimate son
of Friedrich August II of Saxony. He became a friend of Wagner when he
played in the Dresden Court Orchestra. They shared a common political
outlook, which is revealed in these letters.
Ferdinand Heine was costume designer and wardrobe manager at the Dresden
Court Theatre from 1819 to 1850. Earlier he had been an actor and he had
known Wagner's stepfather Geyer. Heine became an enthusiastic advocate
of Wagner's works.
%O German original published in 1888, Leipzig. Translation first
published by H. Grevel and Co., London, in 1890.

%T Selected Letters of Richard Wagner

%F Stewart Spencer
%A Barry Millington (ed)

%D 1987, 1988
%C London, New York

%I J.M.Dent and Sons Ltd

%G ISBN 0 4600 4643 8 ; ML410.W1 A317 1988
%X A critical edition of 500 of Wagner's letters in English translation.
Michael Tanner writes: "Many thousands of Wagner's letters survive, but
many of the most significant for an understanding of his dramas are to
be found in this large, compulsively readable volume". Appendices give
translations of important letters from Minna Wagner, Franz Liszt and
King Ludwig respectively, and the original texts of passages omitted
from earlier printed editions of letters. With a select bibliography and
an informative biographical glossary.

%T Richard Wagner and the Seamstress : First Publication in the English
Language of a Collection of Letters by Richard Wagner
%T Zu den Briefen Richard Wagners an eine Putzmacherin
%T Richard Wagner und die Putzmacherin : oder Die Macht der Verleumdung
%M German *
%A ed. Daniel Spitzer
%A Leonard Liebling (intro. and epilogue)
%F Sophie Prombaum
%D 1941
%C New York
%I F. Ungar
%G ML410.W1 A3992
%X Revelations about Wagner's soft furnishings and those silk dressing
gowns. These letters were first published in 1877, after Wagner had,
allegedly, refused to be blackmailed into paying for them to be
suppressed.
%O Later German edition ed. Ludwig Kusche, Wilhelmshaven, 1967.

%T Richard Wagner : Sämtliche Briefe
%A Werner Breig
%A Andreas Mielke
%A Gertrud Strobel
%A Werner Wolf
%A Hans-Joachim Bauer
%A Johannes Forner
%A Isabel Kraft
%D 1967-
%C Leipzig, Wiesbaden and Paris
%I Originally VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, now Breitkopf und Härtel
%V Fourteen volumes have been published in an edition that might eventually
contain thirty volumes.
%G ML410.W1 A3016 1967
%X All of Wagner's surviving letters in their original languages. The
letters so far published were all written before the end of 1862.
%O For the electronic edition of the text, see section XII below.

------------------------------

Subject: B. Diaries of Richard and Cosima Wagner

For an overview of the diaries, see the main FAQ, section IV-A-iv. The
little that survives of the 'Red Pocketbook' was published in volume I
of the 'Sämtliche Briefe', pages 81-84.

%T The Diary of Richard Wagner 1865-1882 : The Brown Book
%T Das Braune Buch : Tagebuchaufzeichningen 1865-1882
%M German *
%A Richard Wagner
%A Joachim Bergfeld (ed)
%F George Bird
%D 1980
%C London
%I Victor Gollancz Ltd
%G ISBN 0 5750 2628 6 ; ML410.W11 W122
%X Wagner's occasional diary and notebook.
%O German original published by Atlantis Verlag, Zürich, in 1975.

For the electronic edition of the German text, see section XII below.

%T Cosima Wagner's Diaries
%T Cosima Wagner : Die Tagebücher 1869-1883
%M German *
%A Cosima Wagner
%A Martin Gregor-Dellin (ed)
%A Dietrich Mack (ed)
%F Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1978-1980

%C London and New York

%I William Collins Sons and Co Ltd, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
%G ISBN 0 0021 6130 3 (vol. 1) and 0 0021 6189 3 (vol. 2) ; ML429.W133
A373 1978
%V 2 vols.
%X After being suppressed for many years, the surviving text of the
Diaries was published in German in 1976-77 and in English from 1978.
There is a widespread belief that these Diaries contain an objective
record of the last 14 years of Richard Wagner's life. This is far from
being the case: what the Diaries actually contain is a subjective record
of those years, written by Cosima for her children. When reading or
quoting from the Diaries, you should take into account Cosima's own
interests, concerns and prejudices.

%O For the electronic edition of the German text, see section XII below.

%T Cosima Wagner's Diaries : An Abridgement
%M German *
%A Cosima Wagner
%F Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1994

%C London and New York

%I Pimlico Press, Yale Univ Press, Rider and Co.
%G ISBN 0 3000 6904 9, 0 7126 5952 8 ; ML429.W133 A3 1997
%X Selected entries from Cosima's diaries in English translation.

------------------------------

Subject: C. Prose Writings

This section lists the various editions of the Collected Works followed
by translations of Wagner's prose and poetry.

%T Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen
%T Richard Wagner's Schriften und Dichtungen
%M German
%A Richard Wagner
%D Original (vols.1-9) 1871-3, vol.10 1883, reprint 1976
%C Leipzig
%I E.W. Fritzsch
%V 10 vols.
%G ML410.W1 A1 1871
%X Wagner's own edition of his prose and poetry. In some cases the items
were revised for the nine volumes that were prepared under his direct
supervision. According to the publisher's preface to the posthumous
volume, it fulfils a wish expressed by Wagner shortly before his death,
that the writings of his last years should be published in chronological
order. An exception was made for the poem of 'Parsifal', which was
placed at the end of the volume, although it had been completed in April
1877. The preface also notes that the (relatively few and mostly
insignificant) changes made to the poem during the composition of the
music were not incorporated.

%T Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen
%M German
%A Richard Wagner
%A Baron Hans von Wolzogen (ed), Richard Sternfeld (ed)
%D 1911-1916
%C Leipzig
%I
%V 16 vols.
%G ML410.W1 A1 1912
%X Volumes 1-10 are the same as the edition listed above. The remaining
six volumes contain the public edition of 'Mein Leben' and other writings
by Wagner (although in some cases the authorship is uncertain and in others
the text is not as Wagner left it, e.g. the libretto for 'Die Hohe Braut').
Currently the most complete edition of Wagner's writings available.
%O Selected items from volumes 11-16 were translated by Ashton Ellis and
included in volume 8 of the 'Prose Works' (see below). For the electronic

edition of the German text, see section XII below.

%T Richard Wagner: Dichtungen und Schriften : Jubiläumsausgaben
%M German
%A Richard Wagner
%A Dieter Borchmeyer (ed)
%D 1983
%C Frankfurt a.M.
%I Insel Verlag
%V 10 vols.
%G ML410.W1 A1 1983
%X It should be noted that this selection from Wagner's prose and poetry
omits all of his anti-Semitic writings. Those who believe that Wagner
wrote nothing but anti-Semitic tracts will be surprised to find that,
with these removed, there remained enough material to fill ten thick
volumes.

%T Wagner's Aesthetics
%A Carl Dahlhaus (ed)
%F Derek Fogg and Jim Ford
%D 1972
%C Bayreuth
%I Edition Musica
%G ML410.W1 A1373
%X A selection of eight items from Wagner's writings, which had appeared
in Bayreuth Festival programme books during the 1970's.
%O Also published in German and in French.

%T Beethoven
%M German *
%A Richard Wagner
%F Edward Dannreuther
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books, Messageries du Livre
%G ISBN 0 7222 5350 8 hbk, 2 0702 6595 1 pbk
%X

%T On Conducting : A Treatise on Style in the Execution of Classical Music
%M German *
%A Richard Wagner
%F Edward Dannreuther
%D 1989 (reprint)
%C New York
%I Dover Publications, Inc.
%G ISBN 0 4862 5932 3 ; MT85.W13 D3 (1897)
%X Almost continually in print since it was written, Dannreuther's
translation is available as an alternative to those by Ellis and Jacobs.
%O Originally published by W. Reeves, London, in 1897.

%T Richard Wagner's Prose Works
%M German and French *
%A Richard Wagner
%F William Ashton Ellis
%D 1993-96 (paperback reprint)
%C Lincoln and London
%I Bison Books, Univ. of Nebraska
%V 8 vols.
%G ISBN 0 8032 9763 N ; ML410.W1 A127 (1899)
%X Ellis' translation is not always easy to read, but then neither is the
German original. Nor is the translation always accurate. Michael Tanner
writes: "This translation, made by the bizarre William Ashton Ellis, is
into a language only remotely related to English as anyone else knows it."
At least some of the widespread misunderstandings about Wagner's ideas
originated in Ellis' translations.
%O Originally published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., London, between
1892 and 1899.

%T Wagner on Music and Drama : A Compendium of Richard Wagner's Prose Works
%A Richard Wagner
%A Albert Harry Goldman (ed)
%A Evert Sprinchorn (ed)
%F William Ashton Ellis
%D 1988

%C New York
%I Da Capo Press

%G ISBN 0 3068 0319 4 ; ML410.W1 A134
%X Selections from Wagner's prose writings, grouped under the following
headings: Cultural Decadence of the Nineteenth Century; The Greek Ideal;
The Origins of Modern Opera, Drama, and Music; The Artwork of the Future;
Wagner's Development; Bayreuth; Politics. J.K. Holman writes: "This
book, recently reissued, is a necessary reference tool for those who
wish to read Wagner as well as hear him".
%O Previously published by E.P. Dutton in 1964.

%T Three Wagner Essays
%A Richard Wagner
%F Robert Jacobs
%D 1979
%C London
%I St Martins Press
%G ISBN 0 3122 2696 9 ; ML410.W1 A1277
%X 'Music of the Future'; 'On Conducting' (slightly abridged) and 'On
Performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony'.

%T Wagner Writes from Paris : Stories, Essays and Articles by the Young
Composer Richard Wagner
%F Robert Jacobs
%F Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1973

%C London and New York

%I John Day and Co.
%G ISBN 0 0478 0022 4 ; ML410.W1 A1283 1973b
%X

%T Richard Wagner : Stories and Essays
%A Richard Wagner
%F Charles Osborne
%D 1991
%C La Salle IL
%I Open Court
%G ISBN 0 9120 5043 8 hbk ; ML410.W1 A135 1973b
%X Paperback reissue. Includes 'The Wibelungen' and 'Judaism in Music'
(in its 1869 version).
%O Previously published by The Library Press, NY, 1973, and Peter Owen,
London, 1973.

%T Reading Wagner : A Study in the History of Ideas
%A Lelland Joseph Rather
%D 1990

%C Baton Rouge and London
%I Louisiana University State Press

%G ISBN 0 8071 1557 6 ; ML410.W19 R25 1990
%X Consists mostly of extracts from Wagner's writings.

------------------------------

Subject: VII. Wagner Family and Bayreuth

The following books are, wholly or partly, concerned with topics such as
the Festival Theatre, the Bayreuth Festival after 1883, and the "royal
family of Bayreuth".

------------------------------

Subject: A. Family

%T Winifred Wagner, oder, Hitlers Bayreuth
%M German
%A Brigitte Hamann
%D 2002
%C Munich
%I Piper Verlag
%G ISBN 3 4920 4300 3 ; ML429.W136 H36 2002
%X In a review of this book, Holger Stunz wrote: "Hamann's book happily
avoids simplistic parallels such as we find in, for example, Joachim
Köhler's 'Wagners Hitler: Der Prophet und sein Vollstrecker', Munich
1997".

%T Wieland Wagner : The Positive Sceptic
%A Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1971
%C London
%I Victor Gollancz Ltd
%G ISBN 0 5750 0709 5 ; ML429.W135 S6 1971b
%X When the Bayreuth Festival re-opened in 1951, Wieland Wagner, then
34, sprang "like Pallas Athene fully formed and fully armed" on a
surprised world with a radically new style of production. Before he
died only fifteen years later Wieland had revolutionised production
approaches to his grandfather's stage works, not only in Bayreuth but
throughout the world. In this book the author surveys Wieland's life
and achievement, his theory and practise.

%T Heritage of Fire : The Story of Richard Wagner's Granddaughter (US title)
%T The Royal Family of Bayreuth (UK title)
%T Nacht über Bayreuth: die Geschichte der Enkelin Richard Wagners
%M German? *
%A Friedelind Wagner
%A Eva Weissweiler (introduction)
%A Page Cooper
%D 1945 and 1948

%C New York and London

%I Harper and brothers, Eyre and Spottiswoode
%G DD247.W3 A3
%X The story of Friedelind Wagner's growing opposition to her family's Nazi
sympathies and her emigration to the United States in 1941 through the
patronage of Arturo Toscanini. With 8 illustrations and a diagram of the
family tree.

%T He who does not howl with the wolf : the Wagner legacy, an autobiography
%T Twilight of the Wagners : the unveiling of a family's legacy (pbk title)
%T Wer nicht mit dem Wolf heult : autobiographische Aufzeichnungen eines
Wagner-Urenkels
%M German *
%A Gottfried Wagner
%F Della Couling
%D 1997, 1998
%C London
%I Picador, Sanctuary
%G ISBN 1 8607 4228 9 hbk, 1 8607 4251 3 pbk, 0 3122 6404 6 pbk ; ML429.W134
A3 1999
%X Gottfried explains at great length how his family have prevented him from
achieving anything with his life.

%T The Wagners : The Dramas of a Musical Dynasty
%T Wagner Theatre
%M German *
%A Nike Wagner
%F Ewald Osers
%F Michael Downes
%D 2000 and 2001
%C London
%I Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Phoenix
%G ISBN 0 2976 4315 0 hbk, 0 7538 1280 0 pbk ; ML410.W13 W11213 2000
%X Nike Wagner draws on history, biography, and psychoanalysis to
interpret both her family's history and her great-grandfather's operas.
Her comments on the latter are not particularly insightful, and in the
case of 'Parsifal' she is particularly confused. Nike Wagner claims that
'Parsifal', or at least that part of the drama concerning Kundry, is
explained by the ultimate study in misogyny, Otto Weininger's 'Sex and
Character' ('Geschlecht und Charakter', Vienna, 1903). In Weininger's
view of women, their existence was only meaningful while men wanted to
have sex with them. Thus he attempted to correct Wagner with the
suggestion that Kundry should die in the second act, after her rejection
by Parsifal. That Nike Wagner takes this nonsense seriously, says more
about her than it does about 'Parsifal'.
%O The German original was published in 1998.

%T The Wagner Family Albums : Bayreuth 1876-1976
%T Die Geschichte unserer Familie in Bildern : Bayreuth 1876-1976
%M German *
%A Wolf Siegfried Wagner
%D 1976
%C London
%I Thames and Hudson
%G ML410.W196 G473
%X With contributions by Winifred Wagner, Gertrud Wagner and Nike Wagner.

%T Richard Wagner und das neue Bayreuth : Zur Diskussion um den neuen
Führungsstil.
%M German
%A Wieland Wagner
%D 1962
%C Munich
%I P. List
%G ML410.W2 W23
%X

%T Acts : The Autobiography of Wolfgang Wagner
%T Lebens-Akte
%M German *
%A Wolfgang Wagner
%F John Brownjohn
%D 1994
%C London
%I Weidenfeld and Nicolson
%G ISBN 0 2978 1349 8 ; ML429.W137 A3 1994
%X Wolfgang tells his version of the history of the Wagner family.

------------------------------

Subject: B. Festival

%T Richard Wagner : Life, Work, Festspielhaus
%A Herbert Barth
%D 1952
%C Bayreuth
%I Verlag der Festspielleitung Bayreuth
%G ML410.W2 B25
%X
%Q Festspielleitung Bayreuth

%T Wagner, Bayreuth, and the Festival Plays
%A Frances Gerard
%D 1901
%C London
%I Jarrold & sons
%G ML410.W2 G3
%X With illustrations and specially engraved portrait of Wagner.

%T Bayreuth : The Early Years : an account of the Early Decades of the
Wagner Festival as seen by the Celebrated Visitors & Participants.
%A Robert Hartford (ed)
%D 1980
%C Cambridge and New York
%I Cambridge Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 5750 2865 3 ; ML410.W2 B265 1980
%X The most important and interesting eye-witness accounts of the early
Bayreuth festivals, by such musical luminaries as Tchaikovsky and Grieg,
and a host of other interested observers.

%T Studien zur Geschichte der Bayreuther Festspiele
%M German
%A Michael Karbaum
%D 1976
%C Regensburg
%I Bosse Verlag
%G ISBN 3 7649 2060 2
%S 100 Jahre Bayreuther Festspiele
%V Vol.3
%X

%T The Music Dramas of Richard Wagner and his Festival Theatre in Bayreuth
%T Le voyage artistique à Bayreuth
%M French *
%A Albert Lavignac
%F Esther Singleton
%D 1969 (reprint)

%C New York and London

%I Haskell House Publishers
%G MT100.W2 L4 1904
%X Lavignac's book was written for French-speaking visitors to Bayreuth.
It contains an introduction to the town of Bayreuth, the Festival and its
theatre; a brief and rather inaccurate biography of Wagner (which is of
interest, however, as a document of the "official version" promoted by
Wahnfried some 25 years after Wagner's death); an analysis of the poems;
a separate analysis of the music (drawing on Wolzogen) and finally some
notes on performances of the music-dramas at the Bayreuth Festival from
1876 to 1896. An appendix provides the motives that are played before
the commencement of each act in Bayreuth performances.
%O Originally published in 1898, reprinted 1904, 1917, 1921 and 1924.

%T Bayreuth in 1912
%A Algernon Bertram Freeman Mitford, Lord Redesdale
%D 1912
%C London
%I Ballantyne Press
%X

%T Wagner at Bayreuth : Experiment and Tradition
%A Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1976
%C London, New York
%I Barrie & Rockliff, White Lion Publishers
%G ISBN 0 8561 7068 2 ; ML410.W2 S55 1976
%X Foreword by Wieland Wagner.
%O Originally published in 1965.

%T Das Bayreuther Festspielorchester : Geschichte und Gegenwart
%M German
%A Alfred Sous
%D 1988
%C Hof
%I Ansporn Verlag
%G
%X A history of the Festival Orchestra. Appendices give full details of
players and conductors from 1876.

%T Bayreuth : A History of the Wagner Festival
%A Frederic Spotts
%D 1994

%C New Haven and London

%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3000 5777 6 ; ML410.W2 S6 1994
%X A history of the festival and a chronicle of the Wagner family, those
"eccentric, feuding, scandalous descendants" of Richard and Cosima Wagner.

%T New Bayreuth
%A Penelope Turing
%D 1969
%C St. Martin, Jersey, C.I.
%I Jersey Artists (distributed by Spearman)
%G ML410.W2 T9
%X Turing first attended the Bayreuth Festival in 1952. This book contains
her reminiscences of that Festival and each subsequent Festival up to and
including that of 1968. Although her advice on travel arrangements is of
limited value today, Turing's suggestions for excursions on "spielfrei" days
during the Festival are worthy of consideration by modern pilgrims.

------------------------------

Subject: C. Theatre

%T Theater Design : with two essays on the room acoustics of multiple-use
%A George C. Izenour
%A Vern O. Knudsen
%A Robert B. Newman
%D 1977
%C New York
%I McGraw-Hill
%G ISBN 0 0703 2086 1 ; NA6821 .I94
%X Contains a chapter about the design of the Festspielhaus.

%T Theatre and Playhouse : An Illustrated History of Theatre Building from
Ancient Greece to the Present Day
%A Richard Leacroft and Helen Leacroft
%D 1984
%C London
%I Methuen
%G ISBN 0 4135 2940 1 pbk, 0 4135 2930 4 hbk ; NA6821 .L43 1984
%X

------------------------------

Subject: VIII. Wagnerism and Wagnerites

Wagnerism was a phenomenon of the decades following Wagner's death. It
took significantly different forms in different countries.

%T Wagner and Russia
%A Rosamund Bartlett

%D 1994
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press

%G ISBN 0 5214 4071 8 ; ML410.W13 B195 1995
%S Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature
%X Describes influence of Wagner on nineteenth- and twentieth-century
Russian writers, musicians and artists. It contains a history of the
production of Wagner's works in Russia and the Soviet Union (by
directors including Meyerhold and Eisenstein), an account of Wagner's
visit to Russia in 1863, and a detailed investigation of the impact of
his music and ideas on the Russian Modernist movement. The last two
chapters explore the fate of Wagner's works after the 1917 Revolution,
when he was first hailed but then reviled, and finally rehabilitated
during the years of glasnost.
%O Table of contents: < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam024/94007607.html >

%T Wagnerism : A Protest
%A H.W.L. Hime
%D 1882
%C London
%I Kegan, Paul, Trench and Co.
%G ML410.W13 H36
%X A protest against Wagner, his works and the Wagner phenomenon, in the
wake of the Bayreuth Festivals of 1876 and 1882.

%T Wagner Nights : An American History
%A Joseph Horowitz
%D 1994 and 1998
%C
%I Univ. of California Press
%G ISBN 0 5200 8394 6 hbk, 0 5202 1375 0 pbk ; ML410.W13 H7 1994
%X A fascinating and entertaining study of early American Wagnerism. The
central character in the book is Anton Seidl (1850-1898), who arrived in
the USA with experience from Bayreuth. Enthusiastic New York ladies
formed a Seidl Society, which supported his Wagner concerts. These
included a concert performance of substantial extracts from 'Parsifal',
although Seidl would not defy the Bayreuth monopoly by participating
in a staged performance.
%O Not to be confused with Newman's book of similar title. A shorter
account of American Wagnerism can be found in the compilation 'Wagner
in Performance', under the title, 'Anton Seidl and America's Wagner
Cult'.

%T Wagnerism in European Culture and Politics
%A David C. Large (ed)
%A William Weber (ed)
%A Anne Dzamba Sessa (ed)
%D 1984
%C Ithaca
%I Cornell University Press
%G ISBN 0 8014 9283 1 ; ML410.W1 W18 1984
%X Wagner's influence on European and American culture, in such areas as
aesthetics, politics, theology and literature.

%T A Descriptive Study of the Periodical 'Revue wagnérienne' Concerning
Richard Wagner
%A Drewry Hampton Morris
%D 2002
%C Lewiston, NY
%I The Edwin Mellen Press
%G ISBN 0 7734 7082 4 ; ML410.W13 M72 2002
%X An exhaustive listing of the features, columns, special articles,
authors, and topics that appeared in the Revue, followed with a short
description of each. In addition, Morris includes lists (with the issue
and page where they appeared) of everyone named in the Revue, Wagnerian
singers, principal works by or about Wagner, and premiere performances
of his works.

%T Der Bayreuther Kreis : Wagnerkult und Kulturreform im Geiste
völkischer Weltanschauung
%A Winfried Schüler
%D 1971
%C Munster
%I Aschendorff
%G ISBN
%X A study of the Bayreuth Circle.

%T Richard Wagner and the English
%A Anne Dzamba Sessa
%D 1979
%C Madison and London
%I Associated Univ Press, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ.
%G ISBN 0 8386 2055 8 ; ML410.W12 E57
%X Examines 19th century English Wagnerism, isolating specific elements of
Wagner's appeal in the period.

%T Aubrey Beardsley and British Wagnerism in the 1890s
%A Emma Sutton
%D 2002

%C Oxford
%I Oxford Univ. Press

%G ISBN 0 1981 8732 7
%X An interdisciplinary study of the influence of Richard Wagner on the
work of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898). The study considers Beardsley's
pictorial and literary versions -- or perversions -- of Wagner's operas.
It explores the role of Wagnerism within British culture of the 1890s,
in particular the relations between Wagnerism and the decadent movement.

------------------------------

Subject: IX. Staging Wagnerian Drama

%T Adolphe Appia : Oevres complètes
%M French
%A Adolphe Appia
%A Marie L. Bablet-Hahn (ed)
%D 1983-1992
%C Lausanne
%I L'Age d'Homme
%V 4 vols.
%G PN2808.A6 A2 1983
%X With an introduction by Denis Bablet.

%T Adolphe Appia : Essays, Scenarios and Designs
%M French *
%A Adolphe Appia
%F Richard C. Beacham (ed)
%F Walther R. Volbach
%D 1989
%C Ann Arbor, Michigan
%I UMI Research Press
%G ISBN 0 8357 1945 6 ; PN2096.A6 A25 1989
%X

%T Adolphe Appia : Texts on Theatre
%M French *
%A Adolphe Appia
%F Richard C. Beacham
%D 1983-1992

%C London and New York

%I Routledge
%G PN2039 .A5913 1993
%X Selections from Appia's writings on theatre.

%T 'The Work of Living Art' and 'Man is the Measure of all Things'
%M French *
%A Adolphe Appia
%F Barnard Hewitt (ed)
%F H.D.Albright
%D 1960
%C Coral Gables, FL
%I Univ. of Miami Press
%G PN2039 .A613
%X

%T Staging Wagnerian drama
%T Mise en scène du drame Wagnérien
%M French *
%A Adolphe Appia
%F Peter Loeffler
%D 1982
%C Basel and Boston
%I Birkhäuser
%G ML3862 .A6613 1982
%X

%T Adolphe Appia's 'Music and the Art of the Theatre'
%T Die Musik und die Inscenierung
%T La Musique et la Mise en Scène
%M Written in French but first published in German. *
%A Adolphe Appia
%F Barnard Hewitt (ed)
%F Robert W. Corrigan
%F Mary Douglas Dirks
%D 1962
%C Coral Gables, FL
%I Univ. of Miami Press
%G ISBN 0 8702 4306 3 ; ML3862 .A673
%X The book in which Appia (1862-1928) presented his theories about the
staging of Wagner's "word-tone dramas". Appia dared to criticise Wagner:
while recognising his genius as musician and poet, Appia thought Wagner
to have been limited in his concepts of staging. Appia proposed an
hierarchy of scenic elements, with the actor at the top of this
hierarchy. All inessentials were to be removed from the staging and,
since the actor was a three-dimensional creature, also the elements of
the staging should be three-dimensional with the possible exception of
the backdrop (although his ideal stage would have no back wall, just
extend away into the landscape). Appia was one of the first designers to
understand the potential of stage lighting to do more than merely
illuminate actors and painted scenery. At the end of the book are
appendices in which Appia showed how his techniques could be applied to
'Tristan und Isolde' and to the 'Ring' respectively. Appia's text is
often obscure and in the earlier chapters he deals mostly in
abstractions, which only in the later chapters become more concrete as
he supplies examples of present and future stage techniques. It can
sometimes appear that he contradicts himself. There are many
digressions, including comparisons between the German and "Latin"
spectators, artists and theatres.
%O Originally published (in German) in 1899.

%T Richard Wagner : The Stage Designs and Productions from the Premieres
to the Present
%T Richard Wagner : Die Bühnenwerke von der Uraufführing bis heute
%M German *
%A Oswald Georg Bauer

%D 1983
%C New York

%I Rizzoli
%G ISBN 0 8478 0478 X ; ML410.W13 B223 1983
%X An illustrated survey of productions of Wagner's stage works.
J.K. Holman writes: "Bauer provides a pictorial history of all Wagner's
operas, even 'Die Feen' and 'Das Liebesverbot', and he includes a large
number of striking color and black-and-white photos and sketches of sets
and costumes. Bauer also provides an extensive background on the
staging of each opera, paying particular attention to the problems posed
by the original productions and the solutions favored by Wagner
himself."
%O With a foreword by Wolfgang Wagner. German original published in 1982.

%T Svoboda, Wagner : Josef Svoboda's Scenography for Richard Wagner's Operas
%A Jarka Burian
%D 1983
%C CT
%I Wesleyan Univ. Press
%G ML410.W19 B9 1983
%X Scene designs and lighting designs for Wagner's operas focusing on the
work of Joseph Svoboda.

%T Wagner in Performance
%A Barry Millington (ed)
%A Stewart Spencer (ed)
%D 1992
%C Yale and London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3000 5718 0 ; ML410.W19 W12 1992
%X A collection of essays by ten different authors. This book, addressed
to both specialists and the opera-going public, brings together a team
of acknowledged authorities from round the world to examine the
performance history and reception of Wagner's works in Europe and
America. A connected sequence of essays on conducting, singing,
production and stage design explores the nature of Wagner's demands on
his interpreters. The book raises questions about the realization of
opera on the stage: about the authority of the composer vis-a-vis the
director and the audience: about the sanctity of the text, score and
stage directions; and about the role of art itself in society. The
volume also considers the explosion in popularity of Wagner's music
dramas and their ability to assume new meanings, on stage and in
recordings, for successive generations. It looks at the debate over
vocal and conducting styles, at the origins of Bayreuth, and at the
impact of Wagner on the musical life of New York and Vienna.
The contributors are: Christopher Fifield ("Conducting Wagner"),
Desmond Shawe-Taylor ("Wagner and his Singers"), Mike Ashman
("Producing Wagner"), Patrick Carnegy ("Designing Wagner"), Jean-
Jacques Nattiez ("'Fidelity' to Wagner"), Clive Brown ("Performance
Practice"), Amanda Glauert ("The Reception of Wagner in Vienna, 1860-
1900"), Mattias T. Vogt ("Taking the Waters at Bayreuth"), David
Breckhill ("Wagner on Record"), and Joseph Horowitz ("Anton Seidl and
America's Wagner Cult").

%T The World Theatre of Wagner : A Celebration of 150 Years of Wagner
Productions
%A Charles Osborne
%D 1982
%C Oxford, New York
%I Phaidon, Macmillan
%G ISBN 0 7148 2258 2; 0 0259 4050 3 hbk, 0 9439 5533 5 pbk;
MT100.W2 O8 1982
%X A profusely illustrated (in b&w and colour) history of productions
(from the 1830s to 1980s) of Wagner's stage works with a commentary and
biographical dictionary of the main performers, conductors, designers
and producers.
%O With a preface by Sir Colin Davis.

%T The Ring at Bayreuth : And Some Thoughts on Operatic Production
%A Victor Gollancz
%D 1966

%C London and New York

%I Victor Gollancz Ltd., E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
%G ML410.W15 G67
%X Gollancz was less than enthusiastic about some aspects of New Bayreuth.
Replying to these criticisms in his "afterword", Wieland Wagner states that
Richard Wagner's stage directions are now only of historical interest and
therefore do not constrain the modern stage director.

------------------------------

Subject: X. Discographies

%T Tristan and Isolde on Record : A Comprehensive Discography of Wagner's
Music Drama With a Critical Introduction to the Recordings
%A Jonathan Brown
%D 2000
%C Westport, CT, and London
%I Greenwood Publishing Group
%G ISBN 0 3133 1489 6
%X Lists recordings of complete performances, major selections, and
excerpts, both vocal and instrumental, with excerpts identified by
musical incipits. Precise information is given on date and place of
recording, record numbers, performers, and performing groups.
%O See: < http://www.tip.net.au/~jgbrown/Tristan/discography/index.htm >

%T Parsifal on Record : A Discography of Complete Recordings, Selections,
and Excerpts of Wagner's Music Drama
%A Jonathan Brown
%D 1992
%C Westport, CT, and London
%I Greenwood Publishing Group
%G ISBN 0 3132 8541 1
%X Lists recordings of complete performances, major selections, and
excerpts, both vocal and instrumental, with excerpts identified by
musical incipits. Precise information is given on date and place of
recording, record numbers, performers, and performing groups.

------------------------------

Subject: XI. Comics and Wagnerian Humour

Wagnerians do not have to be serious all the time.

------------------------------

Subject: A. Comics

%T The Ring of the Nibelung

%A Roy Thomas (ed)
%A Gil Kane (art)
%A Jim Woodring (art)
%A John Costanza (art)
%D 1997
%C New York
%I Express Press
%G ISBN 0 9329 5620 3
%V 4 vols.
%X Suggested for mature readers.
%O Originally published by DC Comics.

%T Parsifal : Part 1, His Journey
%A P. Craig Russell (art)
%A Orzechowski & Kawecki (lettering)
%A Patrick C. Mason (text)
%D 1977-78
%C
%I Eclipse Books
%G ISBN 0 9130 3556 4 (with 'Salome' and 'Pelleas')
%X
%O 3 parts. Originally published by Star*Reach Publications.

------------------------------

Subject: B. Novels

%T Expecting Someone Taller
%A Tom Holt
%D 1987
%C London
%I Orbit
%G ISBN 1 8572 3218 3 ; PR6058.O474 E9 1987
%X All he did was run over a badger - sad, but hardly catastrophic.
It wasn't Malcolm Fisher's day, for the badger turned out to be
none other than Ingolf, last of the giants. With his dying breath,
Ingolf reluctantly handed to Malcolm the ring and the tarnhelm.
%O Also found in an edition with the 'Beowulf' novel, as 'Expecting
Beowulf'.

%T Flying Dutch
%A Tom Holt
%D 1991
%C London
%I Orbit
%G ISBN 0 3562 0111 2 hbk, 1 8572 3017 5 pbk ; PR6058.O474 F58 1992
%X It's amazing the problems drinking can get you into. One little
swig from the wrong bottle and you go from being an ordinary Dutch
sea-captain to an unhappy immortal, drifting around the world with
your similarly immortal crew, suffering from peculiarly whiffy side
effects. Worst of all, Richard Wagner writes an opera about you.

%T Grailblazers
%A Tom Holt
%D 1994
%C London
%I Orbit
%G ISBN 1 8572 3191 0 pbk, 1 8572 3192 9 hbk
%X The Grail knights have fallen to the level of pizza delivery.
One of the principal female characters from Wagner's 'Parsifal'
is central to this tale of the Holy Grail and the wholly inept.

------------------------------

Subject: XII. Publications on Digital Media

%T Richard Wagner: Werke, Schriften und Briefe
%M German
%A Sven Friedrich (ed.)
%D 2004
%C Berlin
%I Direct Media Publishing Gmbh
%G ISBN 3 8985 3507 X
%S Digitale Bibliothek
%V 107
%X Not only scholars but also all Wagner fans should be grateful to Dr.
Sven Friedrich for making available this electronic edition of key
documents about Wagner's life and works. Not least those of us who have
spent many hours searching for half-remembered passages in Cosima's
Diaries; since now we can use the search function of this well-designed
electronic edition. All of these texts are in German, except for a few
letters written in other languages:

1. Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen, volumes 1-12 and 16
2. Sämtliche Briefe, volumes 1-14 (1842-62)
3. Briefe in Originalausgaben:
a. Familienbriefe von Richard Wagner
b. Richard Wagner an Mathilde Wesendonk
c. Briefe Richard Wagners an Otto Wesendonk
d. Richard Wagners Briefwechsel mit Breitkopf & Härtel
e. Richard Wagners Briefwechsel mit B. Schott's Söhne
f. Richard Wagner an Theodor Apel
g. Richard Wagner an August Röckel
h. Richard Wagner an Ferdinand Praeger
i. Richard Wagner an Eliza Wille
j. Richard Wagner an seine Künstler
k. Richard Wagner: Bayreuther Briefe
l. Richard Wagner an Emil Heckel
m. Richard Wagner an Freunde und Zeitgenossen
4. Briefe und Briefwechsel in Einzelausgaben:
a. König Ludwig II und Richard Wagner: Briefwechsel
b. Richard Wagner: Briefe an Hans v. Bülow
c. Franz Liszt - Richard Wagner Briefwechsel
d. Nietzsche und Wagner: Stationen einer epochalen Begegnung
5. Mein Leben (ed. Martin Gregor-Dellin, 1963)
6. Richard Wagner: Das Braune Buch
7. Cosima Wagner: Die Tagebücher 1869-1883
8. Carl Friedrich Glasenapp: Das Leben Richard Wagners
9. Martin Gregor-Dellin: Richard Wagner: Sein Leben, sein Werk, sein
Jahrhundert
10. Martin Gregor-Dellin: Richard Wagner: Eine Biographie in Bildern

------------------------------

Subject: XIII. Acknowledgements and Copyright

This FAQ was created by and is maintained by Derrick Everett (mimirswell
@hotmail.com). The editor would like to thank the following individuals
who have helped and contributed to this document: Joao Pedro Baptista,
Laon. The editor welcomes comments and contributions, especially in the
form of abstracts or brief reviews either of any of the books listed
above or of other books on related topics.

This bibliography was compiled with the assistance of the following online
databases, whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged:

Libris: Det nationella biblioteksdatasystemet (Royal Library, Sweden)
< http://www.libris.kb.se/english/ >
Library of Congress Online Catalog (Washington DC, USA)
< http://catalog.loc.gov/ >
OPAC-97, British Library (London, UK)
< http://www.bl.uk/services/bsds/nbs/opac97.html >