Download or read book Wagner s Ring Cycle and the Greeks written by Daniel H. Foster and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through his reading of primary and secondary classical sources, as well as his theoretical writings, Richard Wagner developed a Hegelian-inspired theory linking the evolution of classical Greek politics and poetry. This book demonstrates how, by turning theory into practice, Wagner used this evolutionary paradigm to shape the music and the libretto of the Ring cycle. Foster describes how each of the Ring's operas represents a particular phase of Greek poetic and political development: Das Rheingold and Die Walküre create epic national identity in its earlier and later stages respectively; Siegfried expresses lyric personal identity; and Götterdämmerung destructively culminates with a tragi-comedy about civic identity. This study sees the Greeks through the lens of those scholars whose work influenced Wagner most, focusing on epic, lyric, and comedy, as well as Greek tragedy. Most significantly, the book interrogates the ways in which Wagner uses Greek aesthetics to further his own ideological goals.
Download or read book Wagner s Ring Cycle and the Greeks written by Daniel H. Foster and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-04 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through his reading of primary and secondary classical sources, as well as his theoretical writings, Richard Wagner developed a Hegelian-inspired theory linking the evolution of classical Greek politics and poetry. This book demonstrates how, by turning theory into practice, Wagner used this evolutionary paradigm to shape the music and the libretto of the Ring cycle. Foster describes how each of the Ring's operas represents a particular phase of Greek poetic and political development: Das Rheingold and Die Walküre create epic national identity in its earlier and later stages respectively; Siegfried expresses lyric personal identity; and Götterdämmerung destructively culminates with a tragi-comedy about civic identity. This study sees the Greeks through the lens of those scholars whose work influenced Wagner most, focusing on epic, lyric, and comedy, as well as Greek tragedy. Most significantly, the book interrogates the ways in which Wagner uses Greek aesthetics to further his own ideological goals.
Download or read book The Hellenization of Politics written by Daniel Harmon Foster and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Athena Sings written by M. Owen Lee and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Wagner's knowledge of and passion for Greek drama was so profound that for Friedrich Nietzsche, Wagner was Aeschylus come alive again. Surprisingly little has been written about the pervasive influence of classical Greece on the quintessentially German master. In this elegant and masterfully argued book, renowned opera critic Father Owen Lee describes for the contemporary reader what it might have been like to witness a dramatic performance of Aeschylus in the theatre of Dionysus in Athens in the fifth century B.C. something that Wagner himself undertook to do on several occasions, imagining a performance of The Oresteia in his mind, reading it aloud to his friends, providing his own commentary, and relating the Greek classic drama to his own romantic view. Father Lee also uses Wagner's writings on Greece and entries from his wife's diaries to cast new light on Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, Parsifal, and especially the mighty Ring cycle, where Wagner made extensive use of Greek elements to give structural unity and dramatic credibility to his Nordic and Germanic myths. No opera fan, argues Father Lee, can really understand Wagner saving Brünhilde without knowing the Athena who, in Greek drama, first brought justice to Athens. Written with a clarity and depth of knowledge that have characterized all Father Lee's books on the classics of Greece and Rome and made his six other volumes of opera bestsellers, Athena Sings traces the profound influence an influence few music lovers are aware of that Greek theatre and culture had on the most German of composers and his revolutionary musical dramas.
Download or read book Penetrating Wagner s Ring written by John Louis Digaetani and published by Da Capo Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 1991-03-21 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wagner's Ring cycle - The Ring of the Niebelung - has been described as one of the most enduring of operatic spectacles. This collection has brought together writings on the Ring and includes articles by George Bernard Shaw, Georg Solti and Andrew Porter, excerpts from Wagner's own letters and works and discourses by over 30 other writers.
Download or read book The Ring of the Nibelung written by Richard Wagner and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A superb new translation of one of the greatest nineteenth century poems: the libretto to Wagner's Ring cycle The scale and grandeur of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung has no precedent and no successor. It preoccupied Wagner for much of his adult life and revolutionized the nature of opera, the orchestra, the demands on singers and on the audience itself. The four operas-The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods - are complete worlds, conjuring up extraordinary mythological landscapes through sound as much as staging. Wagner wrote the entire libretto before embarking on the music. Discarding the grand choruses and bravura duets central to most operas, he used the largest musical forces in the context often of only a handful of singers on stage. The words were essential: he was telling a story and making an argument in a way that required absolute attention to what was said. The libretto for The Ring lies at the heart of nineteenth century culture. It is in itself a work of power and grandeur and it had an incalculable effect on European and specifically German culture. John Deathridge's superb new translation, with notes and a fascinating introduction, is essential for anyone who wishes to get to grips with one of the great musical experiences.
Download or read book Nibelung s Ring The written by Peter Bassett and published by Wakefield Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This accessible text guides novice and seasoned opera listeners alike through Richard Wagner's renowned Ring cycle. To aid in understanding this complex and often contradictory work, a modern-day prose translation of its four component operas is provided, as is an explanation of "The Nibelung's Ring's mythological background, Wagner's creative process, and the ideas conveyed throughout each component. A section reviewing its numerous musical themes and how they bind the cycle together musically is also included. Rarely seen lithographs by artist Hugo Braune illustrate the story.
Download or read book Song of the Nibelungs written by and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-01-08 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It portrays the existential struggles and downfall of an entire people, the Burgundians, in a military conflict with the Huns and their king."--Jacket.
Download or read book Understanding the Leitmotif written by Matthew Bribitzer-Stull and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-14 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through analysis, Matthew Bribitzer-Stull explores the legacy of the leitmotif, from Wagner's Ring cycle to present-day Hollywood film music.
Download or read book Classically Romantic written by Jeffrey L Buller and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-12 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did Richard Wagner know about ancient Greece? More importantly, what did he think he knew? How did Wagner's attitudes about classical tragedy shape the Ring cycle? In this book, internationally acclaimed scholar Jeffrey L. Buller explores how Wagner's views about ancient tragedy helped him structure the Ring. Moreover, in a major contribution to the field, Buller reveals that leitmotivs don't exist in Wagner's music alone but that the composer also used certain patterns of alliteration, colors, and types of characters in ways similar that closely parallel his musical leitmotivs. Now in an updated and beautifully formatted second edition, Classically Romantic encourages viewers of the Ring to see the cycle in an entirely new light.
Download or read book Wagner s Ring in 1848 written by Richard Wagner and published by Camden House. This book was released on 2010 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1848 Richard Wagner began what would become the largest stage work of his career, the Ring of the Nibelung. In preparation for the task he composed an overview of the Nibelung myth designed to lead to a drama; he then composed the verse "libretto" Siegfried's Death. Although he abandoned the idea of a single opera on Siegfried in favor of the huge project that developed out of it in the succeeding years -- the Ring cycle -- he did consider the two early documents important enough to include them in his collected works. The present volume seeks to inform the English-speaking reader in three ways: by providing modern, reliable translations of the two Wagner texts, which are otherwise not available (the German original is provided on facing pages); by furnishing an overview of German scholarship available to Wagner and others working on the Nibelung legend in the first half of the nineteenth century; and by making available a bibliography of further reading. The volume will be useful to students of musicology, to students and historians of myth and legend, and to all Wagnerians interested in the genesis of the Ring cycle. Accessible to the general reader, it maintains scholarly rigor and provides information about materials not available in English. Edward R. Haymes is Professor in the Department of Modern Languages at Cleveland State University.
Download or read book Wagner s Ring written by M. Owen Lee and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1994 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Limelight). Commentary on and a concise, lucid interpretation of the opera world's most complex masterwork, expanded from the author's popular intermission talks during Met Opera broadcasts. "Anyone, whether knowledgeable or not, will profit by reading it..." Opera Quarterly
Download or read book Theology of Wagner s Ring Cycle I written by Richard H. Bell and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wagner’s Ring is one of the greatest of all artworks of Western civilization, but what is it all about? The power and mystery of Wagner’s creation was such that even he felt he stood before his work ‘as though before some puzzle’. A clue to the Ring’s greatness lies in its multiple avenues of self-disclosure and the corresponding plethora of interpretations that over the years has granted ample scope for directors, and will no doubt do so well into the distant future. One possible interpretation, which Richard Bell argues should be taken seriously, is the Ring as Christian theology. In this first of two volumes, Bell considers, among other things, how the composer’s Christian interests may be detected in the ‘forging’ of his Ring, in his appropriation of sources (whether they be myths and sagas, writers, poets, or philosophers), and in works composed around the same time, especially his Jesus of Nazareth.
Download or read book Inside the Ring written by John Louis DiGaetani and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-14 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once tainted by association with Hitler and Nazism, Richard Wagner's work has experienced an international cultural renaissance in the last 25 years. His magnum opus, Der Ring des Nibelungen, which took him over 20 years to finish, is a complex tale with themes of greed, corruption and loss, spun out in more than 16 hours of powerfully moving opera. This book, with provocative essays for both the uninitiated and the seasoned fan, examines Wagner's Ring cycle from a wide array of modern perspectives. Divided into six parts, this anthology first offers a foundation for the Ring, with a chronology and an introduction, along with a look at Wagner as an enterprising marketer. Part Two explores different interpretations of the Ring, with reference to politics, romanticism and international inspirations. Part Three studies the complex relationship between Wagner's Ring and Germany, with a summary of the opera's influence on German culture and a discussion of its Munich premiere. Part Four offers a production history, including studies of the Ring's effects in America and its influence on world literature. Part Five provides a technical examination of language in the Ring, as well as an interview with the famous Wagnerian soprano Jane Eaglen. The book concludes with an essay on the trouble with Wagnerian opera and an overview of the recorded Ring on disc, video and print.
Download or read book The Odyssey of Homer written by Andrew Lang and published by Biblo & Tannen Publishers. This book was released on 2000 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Nibelung s Ring written by Peter Bassett and published by . This book was released on 2012-08-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wagner's Ring Cycle is one of the great works of art of all time. The Nibelung's Ring explains the mythological background to the work, the process of composition, and the meaning of the four component operas. The expanded new edition also features two entirely new sections, a prose translation of the entire cycle in contemporary language, and a section identifying and commenting on many of the musical 'themes' that pervade the cycle and bind it together musically. The Nibelung's Ring also contains forty full - page reproductions of a complete set of magnificent and rarely seen lithographs by Hugo Braune which alone make the book a collector's item.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Wagner s Der Ring des Nibelungen written by Mark Berry and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-24 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Companion is an essential, interdisciplinary tool for those both familiar and unfamiliar with Wagner's Ring. It opens with a concise introduction to both the composer and the Ring, introducing Wagner as a cultural figure, and giving a comprehensive overview of the work. Subsequent chapters, written by leading Wagner experts, focus on musical topics such as 'leitmotif', and structure, and provide a comprehensive set of character portraits, including leading players like Wotan, Brünnhilde, and Siegfried. Further chapters look to the mythological background of the work and the idea of the Bayreuth Festival, as well as critical reception of the Ring, its relationship to Nazism, and its impact on literature and popular culture, in turn offering new approaches to interpretation including gender, race and environmentalism. The volume ends with a history of notable stage productions from the world premiere in 1876 to the most recent stagings in Bayreuth and elsewhere.
