The Wagner Operas [Paperback]

Ernest Newman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 1991

In this classic guide, the foremost Wagner expert of our century discusses ten of Wagner's most beloved operas, illuminates their key themes and the myths and literary sources behind the librettos, and demonstrates how the composer's style changed from work to work. Acclaimed as the most complete and intellectually satisfying analysis of the Wagner operas, the book has met with unreserved enthusiasm from specialist and casual music lover alike. Here, available for the first time in a single paperback volume, is the perfect companion for listening to, or attending, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, Die Meistersinger, the four operas of the Ring Cycle, and Parsifal. Newman enriches his treatment of the stories, texts, and music of the operas with biographical and historical materials from the store of knowledge that he acquired while completing his numerous books on Wagner, including the magisterial Life of Richard Wagner. The text of The Wagner Operas is filled with hundreds of musical examples from the scores, and all the important leitmotifs and their interrelationships are made clear in Newman's lucid prose. "This is as fine an introduction as any ever written about a major composer's masterpieces. Newman outlines with unfailing clarity and astuteness each opera's dramatic sources, and he takes the student through the completed opera, step by step, with all manner of incidental insight along the way."--Robert Bailey, New York University

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ernest Newman's study of the major Wagner operas (from Der fliegende Holländer onwards) was originally published in 1949 and rapidly achieved the status of a classic opera text, which it retains to this day. There are plenty of other, differing treatments of the stories of the operas, but none as detailed or as dramatically aware as Newman's magisterial volume. Of course, the reprint does not contain information about the composer and his works that would later come to light, nor does it traffic in current modes of thought about the operas (in some cases, thankfully). What Newman does is begin with a history of the myth or the tales on which each opera is based, widening that out to a discussion of Wagner's interest in the story, his involvement with its genesis, and an account of how the work in question was created and first produced. Since in some cases this gestation took years, Newman's clear explication does much to lift the mists surrounding even the simplest of Wagner's operas. He then discusses each opera in detail. The plethora of musical examples and Newman's understanding of Wagner's use of the leitmotif ensure that his readings are responsive both to the histrionic and musical aspects of the stories.

Reading the details of the often complex backgrounds of the operas, as well as what goes on in the opera itself (the discussion of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg alone runs to more than 110 pages of text), should immeasurably enrich the listener's opera-going experience, even in this age of the surtitle. And an appreciation of the range and cogency of Wagner's musical and dramatic genius, which this book offers, will serve to balance the unflattering portrait of Wagner the human being that dominates today's thinking about the Master. --Patrick J. Smith

Review

Newman is one of the preeminent authorities on the German composer. This title analyzes ten of Wagner's greatest operas. -- Library Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 746 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (September 23, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691027161
• ISBN-13: 978-0691027166
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #518,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( W ) > Wagner, Richard

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best reference I have on the subject., September 24, 2000

By 

Timothy P. Scanlon (Hyattsville, MDUSA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wagner Operas (Paperback)

Scholars and critics say that Herr Wagner's talent was in synthesis. The negative critics, e.g., specialists in a field from which they feel Wagner has stolen, tend to discredit Wagner for that. The grail was not, alas, the cup used at the last supper, prior to the opera "Parsifal" anyway. What's more the Grail theme was plagiarized from Mendelssohn. The plot of the Ring was not, alas, the same plot as the German novel "The Nibelungenlied." Wagnerians like myself, rather, see that synthesis as a symptom of Wagner's genius. He was able to take a series of sources, stories, novels, epics, songs, and cement them into a supreme art form, Gesamptkunstwerk, better than the sum of all the parts.

Newman comments intellegently on all aspects of the operas. He includes musical themes--surely a necessity in the work of that expert user of the leitmotif!--and even the psychological dimensions of the music. (Before I saw "Tristan und Isolde," I attended a presentation of a musicologist who nearly broke into tears as to the depth of the music in that opera. His comments reminded me of those of Newman regarding the same piece, which reminds me of Jung, one, whom you might say, was a product of some of the same Germanic trends of the late 19th century. But, enough on that...)

I read each review before I see the opera to which it applies. I read them again periodically. They are magnificent, allow for reasonable criticism. But they also give the devil his due.

I cannot recommend the book more strongly for anyone interested in Wagner, especially if you plan to hear or see the operas. Then leave the volume next to your bed. It's well worth re-reading, learning all dimensions of the music of perhaps the best composer who ever lived.

Is that extreme? Perhaps. Was Wagner's genius extreme? Off the scale.

Read and enjoy it.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the place to start, the one you can count on, July 11, 1999

By 

Stephen McLeod (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wagner Operas (Paperback)

Nobody ever wrote more insighfully, brilliantly and accessibly about the titanic contribution of Richard Wagner to western culture than did E. Newman. This is a classic that should be read by all and anyone interested in what all the fuss is about. It's an old book but it's not dated. Take his translations seriously. Even though there are a lot of anachronisms (thou sayest...etc), they were anachronisms that RW intended when he wrote the poem. May I also recommend the Solti Recording of the Ring; the Furtwangler studio recording of Tristan; the Jochum Meistersinger and (gasp) the Levine Parsifal (the Knappertsbusch is sublime in so many special ways you may have to buy both. May I also recommend the Ring Interactive CD Rom. It is a blast.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb book:astonishing learning, sensible interpretations, July 18, 1999

By 

Laon (moon-lit Surry Hills) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wagner Operas (Paperback)

Ernest Newman's book remains the best introduction to Wagner's operas. He is astonishingly good on Wagner's sources, and on the draft processes Wagner went through as he transformed source material into his final forms. Other books deal with different aspects of individual operas in more depth, but this is still one of the books to start with. Everybody interested in Wagner should - well, the first thing to do might be to listen to excerpts from "Die Walku:re", "Tristan" or "Parsifal", say, and be awed by the music - but once you've heard the music, if you're still interested, you should get this book.

Laon