Download or read book The Good Wagner Opera Guide written by Denis Forman and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'It is impossible to imagine a world in which Wagner never happened. - He was at the same time a horror, a phenomenon and a genius. But he was Wagner and he has left us some of the greatest work ever created by the human imagination.' So says Denis Forman, bestselling author of The Good Opera Guide who concentrates here on the greatest operatic composer of all - Richard Wagner. Wagner's operas erupted into the 19th-century musical world. Almost single-handedly he changed opera from being an evening of light entertainment to intense, sensuous, highly emotional musical drama. His work was passionate and psychologically complex (Wagner also wrote his own libretti) with musical motifs (leitmotivs) to illustrate mood and character. He wrote fourteen operas including Tristan and Isolde, The Flying Dutchman, Meistersinger, Parsifal, and the mighty tetralogy, The Ring. A meglomanic Jekyll and Hyde character he died adulated and vilified equally. The Good Wagner Opera Guide is an unpre tentious, jargon-free approach to his operas for those who are opera-prone yet opera-ignorant.
Download or read book Siegfried English National Opera Guide 28 written by Richard Wagner and published by Calder Publications Limited. This book was released on 1984 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. Wagner wanted Siegfried, the third music drama in The Ring of the Nibelung, to be the most popular of the cycle. Despite its many beautiful and dramatic scenes and its vital part in the drama, it has not fulfilled its composer's aspiration: Professor Ulrich Weisstein examines why. Professor Anthony Newcomb contributes a detailed analysis of Wagner's use of leitmotifs, identifying the different purposes they fulfill. Derrick Puffett takes up the extraordinary fact that Wagner composed Tristan and Isolde and The Mastersingers of Nuremberg in the eight-year hiatus between his beginning and completion of Siegfried's second act; Puffett explores the subsequent changes in Wagner's musical imagination that enabled the composer to complete his enormous task. The thematic guide compliments those found in the other Opera Guides to The Ring Cycle.
Download or read book The New Penguin Opera Guide written by Amanda Holden and published by Penguin USA. This book was released on 2001 with total page 1142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides biographical sketches for nearly 850 composers along with articles on approximately 2,000 works.
Download or read book Wagner s Tristan und Isolde written by Michael Steen and published by Icon Books Ltd. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the 'Tristan chord' at the start of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, the composer launched modern music. The political refugee, a former revolutionary, was living in Zurich when the lovely Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a rich businessman, inspired him to break off from working on Siegfried, part of his 'Ring cycle', and refocus his efforts on Tristan. Expelled from there, Wagner continued to work on the opera in the Palazzo Giustiniani in Venice, and finished it in Lucerne in 1859. The première, in Munich, was delayed until 1865, after the 'Mad' King Ludwig of Bavaria came to Wagner's financial rescue. Wagner blended Gottfried von Strasburg's medieval epic with Schopenhauer's philosophy and his own idiosyncratic views on the psychology and metaphysics of love. (As well, Wagner reflected his views on Greek drama and the integrated Gesamtkunstwerk, or 'art-work'.) The result is a torrent of sound which depicts almost indecent passion. The Liebestod, in which the sexual love of Tristan and Isolde is consummated through death, and which is often presented in concert performance, is some of the most glorious music ever written. Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, 'Short Guides to Great Operas' are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience. Other 'Short Guides to Great Operas' that you may enjoy include The Magic Flute, Eugene Onegin and Peter Grimes.
Download or read book Siegfried written by Burton D. Fisher and published by Opera Journeys Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive guide to Wagner's SIEGFRIED, featuring Principal Characters in the opera, Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with Music Highlight Examples, and an insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis by Burton D. Fisher, noted opera author and lecturer.
Download or read book Die Meistersinger Von Nu rnberg the Mastersingers of Nuremberg written by Richard Wagner and published by Oneworld Classics. This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. This opera has been described as "the longest single smile in the German language." But Roland Matthews indicates that violence is not far beneath the surface of this portrait of medieval Nuremberg. Arnold Whittall s analysis gives a bird s-eye view of the complexity of the score. Timothy McFarland explores the significance of the choice of subject: that nostalgia for a pre-industrial community, which was a symptom of the German nationalist movement. The long text has many subtleties which opera audiences can hardly appreciate without reading it, and the musical themes are numbered to indicate where they occur."
Download or read book Wagner s The Valkyrie Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series written by Fisher Staff and published by Opera Journeys Publishing. This book was released on 2001-08-15 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive guide to Wagner's THE VALKYRIE (Die Walkre), featuring Principal Characters in the opera, Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with Music Highlight Examples, and an insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis by Burton D. Fisher, noted opera author and lecturer.
Download or read book Tannhauser written by Richard Wagner and published by Oneworld Classics. This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. What can explain Wagner s obsession with "Tannhauser," which he first conceived in 1845 and still considered unfinished at his death in 1883? Describing of the struggle of a man torn between erotic love and spiritual fulfilment, the opera contains the kernels of all his later works: man s need for love and artistic satisfaction, his desire for an existence beyond death, the operation of memory, and the nature of madness. The essays in this volume examine the legends which Wagner chose to weave into his text, while Carolyn Abbate also considers the effect of his many revisions upon the score, pointing out that the initial idea already involved a contrast of musical language to focus the conflict."
Download or read book The Wagner Operas written by Ernest Newman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1991-10-13 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this classic guide, the foremost Wagner expert of our century discusses ten of Wagner's most beloved operas, illuminates their key themes and the myths and literary sources behind the librettos, and demonstrates how the composer's style changed from work to work. Acclaimed as the most complete and intellectually satisfying analysis of the Wagner operas, the book has met with unreserved enthusiasm from specialist and casual music lover alike. Here, available for the first time in a single paperback volume, is the perfect companion for listening to, or attending, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, Die Meistersinger, the four operas of the Ring Cycle, and Parsifal. Newman enriches his treatment of the stories, texts, and music of the operas with biographical and historical materials from the store of knowledge that he acquired while completing his numerous books on Wagner, including the magisterial Life of Richard Wagner. The text of The Wagner Operas is filled with hundreds of musical examples from the scores, and all the important leitmotifs and their interrelationships are made clear in Newman's lucid prose. "This is as fine an introduction as any ever written about a major composer's masterpieces. Newman outlines with unfailing clarity and astuteness each opera's dramatic sources, and he takes the student through the completed opera, step by step, with all manner of incidental insight along the way."--Robert Bailey, New York University
Download or read book Opera Guide for Beginners written by Jasmin Solfaghari and published by SCHOTT MUSIC GmbH & Company KG / Schott Campus. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Opera director Jasmin Solfaghari has written a very special kind of opera guide. Three milestones of the opera literature are explained by the narrator "LUNA of the moon" in a most skillful way: "The Marriage of Figaro", "The Freeshooter", and "The Ring of the Nibelung". In the second chapter, LUNA takes the reader backstage and spreads a little light on many secrets of the theater. Finally in chapter three, in order to understand and enjoy the operas more fully, LUNA explains many of the German words from "The Freeshooter" and "The Ring of the Nibelung" not always found in a normal dictionary. The "Opera Guide for Beginners" is available in hardcover, paperback, or as an e-book. Let yourself be carried off to a world of dragons, weddings, chaos, tears and unbridled passion!
Download or read book Lohengrin English National Opera Guide 47 written by Richard Wagner and published by Calder Publications Limited. This book was released on 1993 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The English National Opera Guides were originally conceived in partnership with the English National Opera and edited by Nicholas John, the ENO's dramaturg, who died tragically in an accident in the Alps. Most of the guides are devoted to a single opera, which is described in detail—with many articles that cover its history and information about the composer and his times. The complete libretto is included in both the original language and in a modern singing translation—except where the opera was written in English. Each has a thematic guide to the most important musical themes in musical notation and each guide is lavishly illustrated. They also contain a bibliography and a discography which is updated at each reprint. The ENO guides are widely regarded as the best series of their kind and excellent value.
Download or read book The Good Opera Guide written by Sir Denis Forman and published by Bsb Llp. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 904 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The first guide to take a sensible decision of separating comments on the music (serious and helpful) from descriptions of the plot (invariably flippant and often funny) -- Bamber Gasgoigne, Sunday Telegraph.
Download or read book The New Grove Guide to Wagner and His Operas written by Barry Millington and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-08-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most controversial figures in the history of ideas as well as music, Richard Wagner continues to stimulate debate whenever his works are performed. Drawing upon the scholarship of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, the most comprehensive dictionary of opera in the world, Barry Millington offers a concise, portable survey and guide, which will make a welcome addition to the shelf of anyone who loves opera. Millington has completely updated the original pieces and contributed four new chapters on Wagner, including a summary of Wagner productions from 1876 to the present day, a suggested listening and viewing gyide, complete chronology of Wagner's operas, and a glossary of terms that will delight any opera-goer. In addition, there are detailed entries on each of Wagner's operas, a main biographical section, and a group of separate articles on such topics as Leitmotif and Gesamtkunstwerk, as well as a newly revised updated article on Bayreuth. Complete with a new preface, updated bibliography, glossary, and discography--including first release dates of each recording--The New Grove Guide to Wagner and his Operas furnishes both seasoned Wagner-lovers and neophytes with all they require for an in-depth appreciation of this unique historical figure.
Download or read book Lohengrin written by Richard Wagner and published by Oneworld Classics. This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. The legend of the Swan Knight who rescues a princess from the forces of pagan evil is one Christian Europe s foundation myths." Lohengrin" transformed Wagner into an international figure almost overnight, and it remained his most popular work throughout the nineteenth century. Thomas Grey proposes that this was because it offered a "cautious taste" of his later works, while preserving some of the familiar traditions of French grand opera. John Deathridge asks why Wagner denied its Christian symbolism, and Janet Nelson argues that his vision of the Christian Middle Ages prefigured a modern historical approach. This English translation is by Amanda Holden."
Download or read book The Complete Operas of Wagner written by Charles Osborne and published by London : Grange Books. This book was released on 1995 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Siegfried written by Richard Wagner and published by Oneworld Classics. This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wagner wanted Siegfried, the third music drama in The Ring of the Nibelung, to be the most popular of the cycle. Despite its many beautiful and dramatic scenes, it has not fulfilled its composer's aspiration: Professor Ulrich Weisstein examines why. Professor Anthony Newcomb contributes a detailed analysis of Wagner's leitmotifs and the different purposes they fulfil. Derrick Puffett discusses how Wagner composed Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the eight-year hiatus between his beginning and completion of Siegfried's second act. The thematic guide complements those found in the other Opera Guides to The Ring Cycle.
Download or read book Wagner s the Ring of the Nibelung written by J. Cuthbert Hadden and published by Blurb. This book was released on 2019-01-09 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise and easily-readable summary of the plot of the epic four-cycle Richard Wagner Opera, collectively known as the Ring of the Nibelung. Designed to make the plots of the four "cycles" (or dramatic operas) as easy to follow as possible, the author deals with each opera in its chronological order: The Rhine Gold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and The Twilight of the Gods. These four operas are based on stories in the Nibelungenlied, an epic poem in Middle High German drawn from ancient Germanic heroic motifs. The Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he forged from the Rhine Gold, a hoard held in trust by the Rhine Maidens. The storyline is centred on the fate that the ring-which possesses magical powers-has over its owners' destinies. The ring is stolen from Alberich by the chief of the gods, Wotan, with the assistance of the god Loge, but Wotan is in turn forced to hand it over to the giants Fafner and Fasolt as payment for the building of Valhalla. It is Wotan's scheming and efforts to regain the ring which make up much of the rest of the storyline. His grandson, the mortal Siegfried, eventually takes the ring after killing Fafner (who first killed Fasolt for possession of the ring), but the hero Siegfried is himself killed as a result of treachery by Alberich's son Hagen. In the dramatic final opera, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, who is also Siegfried's lover and Wotan's daughter, returns the ring to the Rhine maidens as she commits suicide on Siegfried's funeral pyre-and Hagen is drowned in an attempt to recover the ring. At the same time, the gods and Valhalla are destroyed in a mighty final scene, the Götterdämmerung. Highly recommended for anyone wishing to gain a primary understanding of the storyline and meaning of the various operas of the Ring, and perfect as an introduction to the Wagnerian culture. About the author: J. Cuthbert Hadden (1861-1914) was a Scottish author, journalist, biographer and musician of note.
