Overview

Richard Wagner has come to be seen as the quintessential artist of the nineteenth century, whose work embraces all the arts of the period. Dieter Borchmeyer here provides the first systematic and comprehensive account of Wagner's aesthetic theory, examining his hitherto neglected prose writings and his ideas on music drama from the various standpoints of literature, the linking of ideas, and the sociology of art. The pre-eminent importance for Wagner of classical Greek art and mythology emerges with particular clarity, while his links with the great figures and forms of world theatre - Shakespeare, the commedia dell'arte, the popular theatre, and the puppet theatre - are traced in detail. The influence on Wagner of the historical and social novel is also discussed. The author provides the first comprehensive analysis of Cosima Wagner's Diaries, and throws unexpected sidelights on Wagner's relationship with Nietzsche, in particular his important contribution to Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. Central to the present study are Wagner's music dramas from Die Feen to Parsifal. These are examined in their literary, ideological, and socio-political contexts (including the problem of anti-Semitism). First published in German in 1982, this book has become established as a standard work of Wagner scholarship, and now appears for the first time in English in a completely revised edition incorporating a number of new chapters on the music dramas.

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9780193153226

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Reviews

Unparalleled in the literature and is obligatory reading for anyone wishing to come to grips with the literary, philosophical and socio-political background to the composer's works....One could read this book several times without exhausting its riches....The pleasure is enhanced by the elegant and marvellously lucid translation. --Musical Times<br> There can be little doubt...that this erudite and passionate explication of Wagner's 'theory and theatre' will turn out to be a landmark in Wagner studies. --The Germanic Review<br> The most ambitious attempt in recent years to revive interest in Wagner's ideas. --Times Literary Supplement<br> Borchmeyer does a fine job of illuminating a vast array of thematic parallels, allusions, and transformations between classical, Biblical, medievil, Romantic, and occasionally modern sources and Wagner's dramatic texts....[Borchmeyer] demonstrates an impressive command of Wagner's legacy as a writer and thinker. --Notes<br>

<br> Unparalleled in the literature and is obligatory reading for anyone wishing to come to grips with the literary, philosophical and socio-political background to the composer's works....One could read this book several times without exhausting its riches....The pleasure is enhanced by the elegant and marvellously lucid translation. --Musical Times<p><br> There can be little doubt...that this erudite and passionate explication of Wagner's 'theory and theatre' will turn out to be a landmark in Wagner studies. --The Germanic Review<p><br> The most ambitious attempt in recent years to revive interest in Wagner's ideas. --Times Literary Supplement<p><br> Borchmeyer does a fine job of illuminating a vast array of thematic parallels, allusions, and transformations between classical, Biblical, medievil, Romantic, and occasionally modern sources and Wagner's dramatic texts....[Borchmeyer] demonstrates an impressive command of Wagner's legacy as a writer and thinker. --Notes<p><br>

Author Information

Spencer is editor of the journal of the English Wagner Society and co-author with B. Millington of Selected Letters of Richard Wagner

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