Siegfried (Music Scores) [Paperback]

Richard Wagner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1998 | Series: Music Scores

German/English.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Konemann (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 963830359X
• ISBN-13: 978-9638303592
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,497,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great gift from Sabor, September 25, 2003

By 

Linda McDougall "lindamcdougall" (Guanajuato, Mexico) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Siegfried (Ring Cycle) (Paperback)

I've read much of Rudolph Sabor's Wagner material, and I want to be sure he knows, from and ardent student of the composer, just how much I love and appreciate all his work. But these four books from Phaidon on the Ring cycle are masterpieces. The extraordinarily elegant presentation not only invites you into another world, but Sabor's clarification and mythic understanding of Wagner goes far beyond anything that is available to the reader so far. In "The Real Wagner",which I have in both English and Spanish, Sabor's deadly sense of humour peeked through whenever irony was appropriate, and even in these translations and notes, he, as a writer and critic, never forgets the subtleties and contradictions Wagner offers to us. If possible, please extend both to the author and to the publishers, my profound appreciation of the symphony they have created together. Let's call these books "collectors items". And in paperback!
And thank you, Amazon, for getting them to me so quickly up here in the mountains of southern Mexico.

Linda

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fabulous Libretto!!!!, July 15, 2007

By 

Katelyn M. Houck (Memphis) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Siegfried (Ring Cycle) (Paperback)

I had searched for quite a while for a passing libretto of Wagner when I stumbled upon this gem. Sabors translation is sheer poetry and is a joy to follow along with during the operas. A must buy if you want a fantastic Wagner libretto!