The Faber Pocket Guide To Wagner

Richard Wagner remains, almost 130 years after his death, the most controversial composer in the history of music. Creator of huge and hugely ambitious operas, which have an immense immediate impact, as well as providing food for endless thought and discussion, Wagner has had an influence on many fields outside music. In this lively pocket guide, Michael Tanner gives concise accounts of all his operas - the likes of Parsifal, Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde - showing how important it is to grasp the dramatic situations at every point, and indicating some of the key musical features. He also provides an outline of Wagner's astonishing life, and shows that he has often been unfairly criticised and made a scapegoat, especially for political events which took place long after his death. Key features include: - Wagner: his life year by year - Wagner: his music work by work - Things people said about Wagner - Essential Wagner: ten great moments - Wagner on CD and DVD - Wagner bibliography This indispensable Faber Pocket Guide provides a wealth of insights into Wagner and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in both and the man and his music. '[P]robably the best introduction ever written to this most complex of composers.' Simon Heffer, Telegraph

The music of J.S.Bach has a unique power and attraction some 300 years after it was written. From annual performances of the great Passions and BBC Radio 3's hugely successful Bach Christmas, to its use in adverts, films and popular arrangements, the imaginative strength of Bach's music continues to draw listeners to explore its mysteries. This new Pocket Guide looks at all Bach's music, sacred and secular, and explores why he speaks so profoundly to our age about both the spiritual and the sensual in life. Among the features of this easy-to-use book: The Bach Top Ten Bach: The music work by work Performing Bach today Bach: The life year by year What people said about Bach Accessible and easy to use, Nicholas Kenyon provides for the first time an up-to-date survey of all Bach's major works in the light of the latest research, from Masses to Cantatas, Concertos to Suites, and recommends the best CDs and further reading.

John Bridcut, author of the acclaimed 'Britten's Children', will include significant fresh material which will make the book indispensable for Britten aficionados as well as for those who are discovering the composer's music for the first time. This guide is all about finding a way into Britten's music. An outline of planned chapters: - The Top Ten Britten pieces - Critics' First Impressions - Britten's Life - Britten and Pears - The things they said - The Music (stage works, choral works, songs, chamber music, orchestral works) - The Interpreters of Britten's work - Britten as Performer - The Impresario (English Opera Group and Aldeburgh Festival) - Britten's Homes - Trivial Pursuits

This new edition of leading opera critic Rupert Christiansen's perennially popular Pocket Guide has between extensively revised, and incorporates many more operas from all periods, including recent works by Philip Glass, Mark Anthony Turnage, Thomas Adès and George Benjamin. Whether you are a first-timer at La Boheme or a seasoned Wagnerian, every opera-goer can benefit from a little background information, and this book aims to provide just that. Accessible and easy-to-use, it contains entries for over a hundred works, both familiar and unfamiliar.

Why is Mozart the best known and most popular of all the great Western classical composers? As the 250th anniversary of his birth approaches, his reputation stands higher than ever before. This lively new Pocket Guide assesses what Mozart means to us today, and explores why his music is so enduringly valued by listeners. The Guide aims to tell the general reader and listener in concise form all they need to know in order to listen to and enjoy Mozart's music - it will introduce a new generation of concert-goers and record-listeners to all his key works in forms from opera to symphony, concerto to song. In a crisp, sharp style, with extensive recommendations of good performances and recordings, Nicholas Kenyon shows how Mozart has turned a different face to every age that has performed his music and has communicated with unique. Separating the Mozart myth and the Mozart industry from the realities of his superb music, the book also asks key questions: How did Mozart compose? What did he look like? What did he think? How should we perform his music today? There will also be a brief calendar of Mozart's life, a musical glossary and a who's who of key figures in his life.

Since its premiere in 1868, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg has defied repeated upheavals in the cultural-political landscape of German statehood to retain its unofficial status as the German national opera. The work’s significance as a touchstone of national culture survived even such troubling episodes as its public endorsement in 1933 as ‘the most German of all German operas’ by Joseph Goebbels or the rendition in previous years by audiences at Bayreuth of both national and Nazi-party anthems at the work’s culmination. This chequered reception history and apparent propensity for reinterpretation or reclamation has long fuelled debates over the socio-political meanings of Wagner’s musical narrative. On the question of Beckmesser, for instance, heated arguments have surrounded the existence of antisemitic stereotypes in the work as well as their possible indication of a racial-political dimension to Sachs’s restoration of Nuremberg society. Through a combination of musical-textual analysis with critical theory, this book interrogates the ideological underpinnings of Die Meistersinger’s narrative. In four interconnected studies of the characters of Walther, Sachs, Beckmesser, and Eva, the book traces a critical potential within the opera’s construction of provincial and national identities and problematizes existing discourse around its depiction of race and gender.

From its conception in 1857 to its first performances in 1882, Parsifal represented the culmination of the themes that preoccupied Wagner during the latter part of his life. This guide includes a series of articles on Wagner's profound and complex opera, which the composer preferred to call a Buehnenweihfestspiel - a "e;Stage Consecration Festival Play"e;. Dieter Borchmeyer discusses the mythological foundations of Parsifal and its relation to Wagner's earlier works. Barry Emslie's thought-provoking piece explores the "e;virtues of sin"e; in Wagner's last opera. Robin Holloway provides a study of Parsifal's musical motifs, followed by Carolyn Abbate's article, which examines the relation between music and drama in the opera. Gerd Rienaecker contributes an essay on the dramaturgy, and analyses some of the major scenes. Finally, Mike Ashman writes about Parsifal on the stage.The present edition contains a literal translation of the libretto opposite the original German text, a number of photographs covering a wide chronology to the present day, a comprehensive thematic guide, a bibliography and discography, as well as DVD and website guides. It will prove an essential companion for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Wagner's final masterpiece.Contains:Recapitulation of a Lifetime, Dieter BorchmeyerParsifal: The Profanity of the Sacred, Barry EmslieExperiencing Music and Imagery in Parsifal, Robin HollowayParsifal: Words and Music, Carolyn AbbateDiscursions into the Dramaturgy of Parsifal, Gerd RienaeckerParsifal on the Stage, Mike AshmanParsifal: Poem by Richard WagnerParsifal: English Translation by Lionel Salter

Der fliegende Hollaender is the first of Wagner's operas that the author considered to be representative of his mature style. The Dutchman embodies one of the major themes that recur throughout Wagner's work: that of a central character seeking redemption from a loving woman. Originally taken from a story by Heinrich Heine, Wagner extended and enriched his musical and dramaturgical language to produce an opera of extraordinary power.An essay in the guide places the opera in the context of emerging German Romanticism, and another highlights the musical riches of the score. A further article explores the emerging importance of myth to Wagner and his contemporaries. As well as a detailed description of the work's performance history, the volume contains Wagner's own instructions to his performers and his programme note about the overture. Illustrations, a thematic guide, the full libretto with English translation and reference sections are also included.Contains:Behind Der fliegende Hollaender, John WarrackAn Introduction to Der fliegende Hollaender, John DeathridgeLoneliness, Love and Death, William VaughanHow Wagner Found the Flying Dutchman, Mike AshmanOf Storms and Dreams: Reflections on the Stage History of Der fliegende Hollaender, Katherine SyerThe Overture to Der fliegende Hollaender, Richard WagnerRemarks on Performing the Opera Der fliegende Hollaender, Richard WagnerDer fliegende Hollaender: Poem by Richard WagnerThe Flying Dutchman: English translation by Lionel Salter