Axel Englund, Professor of Literature at Stockholm University, suggests that the core of our fascination with opera is its deviance. In his book Deviant Opera: Sex, Power & Perversion on Stage (Univ. Cal. Press 2020), Englund posits that this form of theatre is distinguishable by its deviance from expected norms: Its characters are overblown, its costumes and setting are extravagant, its...
I’ve wasted enough time mourning the performances I had planned to attend but that dissolved in pandemic mist. The Chicago Ring in April; the Paris Ring in November/December; the Dresden Ring in January/February; the Met Tristan; the Vienna Parsifal. No more looking in the rear view mirror! I’ve had it with converting airplane reservations into flight certificates! I’ve...
I took a Road Trip in August and brought along some Bach chamber music, the complete Bruckner Symphonies, and Reginald Goodall’s EMI recording of the Ring, from performances at the Coliseum in 1977. I first attended the Ring in late 1976 at the Coliseum and so these English language recordings claim a special place in my heart. I’ve dipped into them now and then, and when I did so...
The late philosopher Roger Scruton wrote two valuable studies of Wagner’s mature works: Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (2004) and The Ring of Truth: The Wisdom of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung (2016). At the time of his death on January 12, 2020, Scruton had completed but not published his third and final Wagner study, Wagner’s...
Most students of Wagner are aware of the work of Alfred Lorenz, who studiously (some might say tediously) argued that Wagner’s compositional techniques were recognizably in bar (AAB) or bogen (ABA) form, albeit on a mammoth scale. Many contemporary scholars consider Lorenz’ conclusions to be tortured. This conclusion is sometimes placed in context with Lorenz’ participation...
The Wagner Blog is a forum for discussion of contemporary themes arising from the works of Richard Wagner. Discussions relating to Wagner’s musical, literary, theatrical, philosophical, political and theoretic work are all appropriate for this forum.
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