The Sorcerer of Bayreuth: Richard Wagner, His Work and His World - Barry Millington - Books - Oxford University Press - 9780199933761 - October 29, 2012
In case cover and title do not match, the title is correct

The Sorcerer of Bayreuth: Richard Wagner, His Work and His World


Get an email once the item is available
Do you have a profile? Log in
Add to your iMusic wish list

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) is one of the most influential - and also one of the most controversial - composers in the history of music. Over the course of his long career, he produced a stream of spellbinding works that challenged musical convention through their richness and tonal experimentation, ultimately paving the way for modernism. This book presents an in-depth but easy-to-read overview of Wagner's life, work and times. It considers a wide range of themes, including the composer's original sources of inspiration; his fetish for exotic silks; his relationship with his wife, Cosima, and with his mistress, Mathilde Wesendonck; the anti-semitism that is undeniably present in the operas; their proto-cinematic nature; and the turbulent legacy both of the Bayreuth Festival and of Wagnerism itself.

Making use of the very latest scholarship - much of it undertaken by the author himself in connection with his editorship of The Wagner Journal - Millington reassesses received notions about Wagner and his work, demolishing ill-informed opinion in favour of proper critical understanding. It is a radical - and occasionally controversial - reappraisal of this most perplexing of composers. The volume's arrangement - unique among books on the composer -combines an accessible text, intriguing images and original documents, thus ensuring a consistently fresh approach. Bringing new insights to an endlessly fascinating subject, The Sorcerer of Bayreuth will charm anyone interested in music and in the wider cultural life of the 19th century and beyond.

Media Books     Hardcover Book   (Book with hard spine and cover)
Released October 29, 2012
ISBN13 9780199933761
Publishers Oxford University Press
Pages 320
Dimensions 175 × 241 × 38 mm   ·   1.04 kg
Language English  

More by Barry Millington

Show all

Mere med samme udgiver