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Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Arthur Groos, Cornell University, New York
May 2011
Available
Hardback
9780521431385
$101.00
USD
Hardback
USD
Paperback

    Wagner's Tristan und Isolde occupies a singular position in the history of Western culture. What Nietzsche called the 'sweet and terrible infinity' of its basic nexus of longing and death has fascinated audiences since its first performance in 1865. At the same time, its advanced harmonic language, immediately announced by the opening 'Tristan chord', marks a defining moment in the evolution of modern music. This accessible handbook brings together seven leading international writers to discuss the opera's genesis and the libretto's relationship to late Romantic literary concerns, present an analysis of the Prelude, the music of the drama itself, and Wagner's innovative use of instrumental timbre, and illustrate the production history and reception of the music-drama into the twenty-first century. The book includes the first English translation of Wagner's draft prose of the libretto, a detailed discussion of Wagner's orchestration, and rare pictures from important and influential productions.

    • Written in a lively and engaging style to appeal to scholars and students, performers and opera-going audiences alike
    • Contains the first English translation of Wagner's prose draft of the libretto, making the development of the libretto accessible to an English readership for the first time
    • Leading scholars present discussions on different aspects of the opera, providing a variety of different approaches

    Reviews & endorsements

    'How good it is to see the Cambridge Opera Handbooks series revived … Arthur Groos' edition of Wagner's prose draft of the libretto provides a fascinating insight into his working methods.' Classical Music

    'Each [essay] is a considered, thought-provoking exploration of one or more aspects of Tristan, carefully argued and generously annotated.' Opera

    See more reviews

    Product details

    May 2011
    Hardback
    9780521431385
    232 pages
    224 × 144 × 15 mm
    0.43kg
    14 b/w illus. 1 table 28 music examples
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction Arthur Groos
    • Synopsis: Wagner's prose draft (1857)
    • 1. Public and private life: on the genesis of Tristan und Isolde and the Wesendonck Lieder John Deathridge
    • 2. Between memory and desire: Wagner's libretto and late Romantic subjectivity Arthur Groos
    • 3. The Prelude and the play Joseph Kerman
    • 4. In the realm of the senses: sight, sound, and the music of desire in Tristan und Isolde Thomas Grey
    • 5. A mantle of sound for the night: timbre in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde Jürgen Maehder
    • 6. Staging Tristan Stewart Spencer
    • 7. Tristan's traces Steven Huebner
    • Select bilbiography.
      Contributors
    • Arthur Groos, John Deathridge, Joseph Kerman, Thomas Grey, Jürgen Maehder, Stewart Spencer, Steven Huebner

    • Editor
    • Arthur Groos , Cornell University, New York

      Arthur Groos is Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1973. A member of the departments of German Studies, Medieval Studies and Music, his musical interests focus on issues of music and culture, and opera, especially Wagner, Puccini and modern opera. His books include Giacomo Puccini: La bohème (with Roger Parker, 1986), Romancing the Grail: Genre, Science, and Quest in Wolfram's Parzival (1995), as well as the collections Reading Opera (1988), Madama Butterfly: Fonti e documenti (2005) and seven other edited volumes. Founding co-editor of the Cambridge Opera Journal, he has served on the editorial/advisory boards of JAMS and Opera Quarterly. He is also general editor of Cambridge Studies in Opera and co-editor of Transatlantische Studien.