In his 2010 book Wagner and the Erotic Impulse, Oxford Professor Laurence Dreyfus discusses a topic dear to many a Wagnerian, but seldom discussed — Wagner’s overt treatment of sexual longing and the sexual act. The book is aimed at those who, in college, played the Act II duet in Tristan to their roommates as a depiction of […]
For the 15th time in my life I’m about to attend a performance of the complete Ring Cycle. Since first seeing the complete Ring at the English National Opera in 1975, I’ve attended full productions in New York, Bayreuth, Berlin, Boston, and San Francisco. Every time has been a thrill and a privilege. Each production has prompted […]
It being Karfreitag, I’m about to settle in to a sweet four hours or so of Parsifal. This time I’m going audio-only, dipping back into the recording from which I learned the piece in 1968, the Knappertsbusch 1951 Bayreuth. Listening to Parsifal on Good Friday is a tradition upon which many — including Wagner, I […]
The re-entry of a particular theme at the end of Götterdämmerung — heard only once before, in Act III of Die Walküre — has moved listeners and puzzled analysts since 1876. The entire Ring Cycle closes with this theme, in D-flat (the same key as Wotan’s greeting Vahalla in Das Rheingold). Early commentators labeled it […]
A subscriber advises as follows: Fellow Wagnerians I’ve just discovered and ordered a new title on Wagner & Verdi, entitled ‘1813 Wagner and Verdi’ by an australian author, Peter Bassett. The author has a website which is worth checking out www.peterbassett.com.au Pat
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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