Wagner's Ring Cycle and the Greeks

Foster explores how Wagner's political stance and his theories on Greek poetry and politics were combined to create the Ring.

Daniel H. Foster (Author)

9780521517393, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 February 2010

398 pages, 14 music examples
23.5 x 16 x 2.4 cm, 0.77 kg

'This is a book full of stimulus for classicists, historians and musicologists alike.' Teresa Morgan, The Times Literary Supplement

Through his reading of primary and secondary classical sources, as well as his theoretical writings, Richard Wagner developed a Hegelian-inspired theory linking the evolution of classical Greek politics and poetry. This book demonstrates how, by turning theory into practice, Wagner used this evolutionary paradigm to shape the music and the libretto of the Ring cycle. Foster describes how each of the Ring's operas represents a particular phase of Greek poetic and political development: Das Rheingold and Die Walküre create epic national identity in its earlier and later stages respectively; Siegfried expresses lyric personal identity; and Götterdämmerung destructively culminates with a tragi-comedy about civic identity. This study sees the Greeks through the lens of those scholars whose work influenced Wagner most, focusing on epic, lyric, and comedy, as well as Greek tragedy. Most significantly, the book interrogates the ways in which Wagner uses Greek aesthetics to further his own ideological goals.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. Epic: 1. Introduction: what is epic?
2. Retrospective narrative and the epic process
3. The orchestral narrator and elementary epic
4. Spiritual and factual realities in epic
Part II. Lyric: 5. Introduction: what is lyric?
6. Orpheus and lyric liberation
7. First-person opera and lyric identity
8. Lyric and the rebirth of tragedy
Part III. Drama: 9. Introduction: what is drama?
10. Opera and tragedy
11. Opera and comedy
12. Resolution and ambiguity in comedy and tragedy
Epilogue: Time, the Ring, and performance studies
Appendices: Wagner's primary and secondary sources: Introduction
Appendix A. Wagner's primary sources
Appendix B. secondary scholarship by authors Wagner knew personally
Appendix C. Secondary scholarship by authors Wagner knew by reputation or by reading
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], Opera [AVGC9], Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4], Music [AV]