Siegfried - Softcover

Sabor, Rudolph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714836532 ISBN 13: 9780714836539

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 1997

Synopsis

In the third of Wagner's four Ring operas, we meet the loutish young hero, Siegfried, a muscular boor who knows no fear, and Mime, the dwarf who has reared him since the boy's mother, Sieglinde, died in childbirth. Mime is the brother of Alberich (the evil dwarf who set the events of the Ring in motion by stealing the gold of the Rhinemaidens and forging the eponymous ring of power), and extreme unpleasantness seems to be a family trait. Mime wants Siegfried to kill Fafner--the former giant turned dragon--to get his hoard, which includes the ring, after which he plans to poison the youth. Siegfried kills the dragon, but by inadvertently licking some of the beast's blood from his hand, finds he can discover the language of birds. An avian promptly advises him to watch out for Mime--and Siegfried discovers he can hear Mime's evil thoughts. Siegfried kills the dwarf, pockets the ring and the shape-shifting Tarnhelm, and goes off to Brunnhilde's mountaintop. There he breaks his grandfather Wotan's spear, marches through the flames, and wins himself a bride fit for a hero.This translation beautifully captures Wagner's sometimes impenetrable poetry. The intent, says Rudolph Sabor, is "to provide the reader and singer with a libretto which does not sound like a translation, but rather like the text Wagner might have written had he been born not in Leipzig but in London." Sabor succeeds, and also provides the reader with other useful information, including suggested recordings, side notes on the action, and a key to the leitmotifs that are so essential to understanding the Ring operas.

About this title

About the Author:

Rudolph Sabor is a writer and lecturer whose books include The Real Wagner. He frequently gives lectures on Wagner and reviews the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth for the major broadsheets and music periodicals.

Review:

'Best of the music books was Rudolph Sabor's idiosyncratic, cheeky and incisive Translation and Commentaries on Wagner's Ring.' (Observer) 'This is Sabor at his best. An indispensable part of the Wagner lover's library. And for those new to the Ring cycle - what better place to start!' (Opera Now) 'It has been brilliantly done by Rudolph Sabor, whose achievement is magnificent. The clarity, detail, comprehensiveness and sheer usefulness of the volumes cannot be praised too highly. I sincerely hope this will be a model for further companions to other opera composers and their work.' (Financial Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0714836532
• ISBN 13: 9780714836539
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200