Wagner and His Operas (New Grove Composers Series) - Hardcover

9780312244323: Wagner and His Operas (New Grove Composers Series)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312244320 ISBN 13: 9780312244323

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1999

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Cover Wagner's life and career, and provides descriptions and appreciations of his operas

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Review:

Although the material in this useful new volume is culled from the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, there is no sense of dry, academic detachment. The "Interpreters" section, for example, concentrates on singers and conductors who created the canonical operas, and the juxtapositions of repertory are fascinating.

Arnold Whittal contributes a trenchant, clear, and concise discussion of leitmotif, yet he still manages to make an important connection to Stockhausen and Schoenberg. Many readers will first be drawn to the excellent synopses of the operas (including the early, unfamiliar works). In many cases, such as Barry Millington's nine-page guide to Tristan und Isolde, it is difficult to imagine how this could be better handled.

The book includes a glossary, an index to names of roles, and a few musical examples. Readers will want much more discussion of the performance histories of the works--a crucial issue with regard to Wagner--but will not otherwise be disappointed. The series also includes volumes on Mozart, Puccini, and Verdi. --William R. Braun

About the Author:

STANLEY SADIE edited The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980) and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), both of which are the standard international reference works. From 1967 to 1987 he was editor of The Musical Times, the most senior musical journal of its kind, and for seventeen years was a music critic for the London Times. He was President of the International Musicological Society from 1972 to 1997.

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