Richard wagner mini biography of stalin

His body was shipped by gondola and train back to Bayreuth, where he was buried. In the 20th century, Hitler was a fan of Wagner's music and writings, only making Wagner's legacy more controversial. New York Times writer Anthony Tommasini wrote of Wagner in "How did such sublime music come from such a warped man? Maybe art really does have the power to ferret out the best in us.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Maria Callas. Ludwig van Beethoven. Yo-Yo Ma. Leonard Bernstein. Wolfgang Mozart. Johann Sebastian Bach. Richard Rodgers. Franz Joseph Haydn. You feel with other composers—even ones who are dealing with love and so forth—that there are quite long passages where there is no sense of an underlying erotic surge in the music.

With Wagner, there constantly is. There he is, lying on the floor in a state of extreme weakness because she has explained how his mother Herzeleide died because he deserted her, and she pined and waited and he never turned up again. Parsifal goes in for this orgy of self-reproach and then collapses. Why does it set a watershed for musical history?

The main thing about Tristan is that you are waiting for it to reach some kind of conclusion which is endlessly postponed. The very opening phrase — the famous yearning opening phrase — is then repeated with long silences and repeated again, which gives the basis for the whole. That creates an extreme feeling of unease and ecstasy combined, at least in the sympathetic listener.

Wagner had to work with these extremely elaborate and confusing and confused medieval sources and he just got right in there, stripped them all down, and got to the barebones. For me, Wagner is the most perfect dramatist there is — even greater than Shakespeare in sheer construction. For example, after the shattering power of the Tristan prelude which never quite resolves, you have the very beautiful unaccompanied song of the sailor singing in the rigging.

A lot of people have said — and I think I probably agree — that you need to know Tristan in order to enjoy Meistersinger to the full, to see what an astonishing contrast there is between the two. When the character of Hans Sachs references the legend of Tristan in Meistersinger , you hear associated Tristan music by Wagner. Is that kind of self-referentiality mirrored anywhere else in his work?

Not like that, no. Parsifal itself breaks entirely new harmonic ground, especially the third act which is the object of universal devotion among musicians. Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount. It is just radiant and amazing, having a luminous quality with trumpet piercing through it in that strange and unease-making way.

Can you say a bit about what this means and whether Wagner was equally committed to this totalising principle throughout his career? The concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk is a bit of a bore actually, as Thomas Mann points out in his great essay. He needed to work himself through this kind of cumulative view that the more arts you could get into one package, the more exciting it would be.

The main thing comes down to action, music, and words being as integrated as possible. But this is what Monteverdi wanted, what Gluck wanted, and what Mozart certainly wanted. This is what all the people one most values in opera wanted. He had a desperately overactive mind. Is there not the idea that up until Wagner began composing his later works, music was subservient in some way to just showing off the vocal prowess of the singers?

Yes, he certainly wanted to react against the prioritisation of the voice just idly doing things to show off. My feelings about Handel , for example, is that a great deal of it is someone standing still and emoting with floods of coloratura. And coloratura drives me mad, except if sung in certain Italian operas and if sung by Maria Callas.

The whole thing about vocal gymnastics, which is really what it comes down to, in Rossini or Donizetti, makes me feel that this should really be in the Olympics, not in the opera house. Wagner went back to the old line of dramma per musica , the original thing: drama through the music, opera as drama. That is the only idea that matters.

Wagner, up to a point, I think was confused about that. I think the arguments in Rheingold are so interesting and compelling. You have this hammer and tongs quality that is unlike any opera by anybody. You have giants complaining about keeping contracts. But it keeps the music down a lot of the time. Quite a lot of Rheingold is something near the recitative.

As far as most opera composers are concerned, Wagner was unusual in that he wrote the libretti and the music. Does he give equal weight to the text as he does to the music? Would you say that Wagner is the most philosophical composer? Can you give another example of how this is reflected in his work? The Ring is the opera of his with the most evident argumentation.

Parsifal carries you into some pretty abstract areas too, such as the nature of the relationship between sin, redemption, chastity, sensuality, and conquering base impulses in the interest of higher ones. Wagner is interested in myth in general and Christianity has been the central myth of the western world. For example, a lot of his characters tend to not know who their mother or their father was — sometimes both, sometimes one or the other.

It might have been his official father but it could have been Ludwig Geyer whom his mother went on to marry. There are various other themes such as redemption through or by or from love, in a broad sense, which pervades the works. Wagner was a huge reader and very enthusiastic and impatient. So, there is this permeability between his life and his work.

Yes, of course. We just have the good fortune or bad fortune of knowing a lot about Wagner. This was partly because of his copious letter writing and partly because he made such an enormous impression on anybody who ever met him. They all wrote about him.

Richard wagner mini biography of stalin

The title of this book emphasizes drama rather than music. How hands-on was Wagner with the production history of the operas? He was a man of the theatre, through and through and through. What would a Wagner related awards ceremony be without a significant prelude? This year will see the first of what will be an annual We recently had the opportunity to spend some time with one of Britain's — and perhaps the English speaking worlds - most well known W We have had many guest authors here over the years but surely none can be as special as that of Dame Gwyneth Jones.

In this review, Dam Two productions: Bayreuth and the MET. Not picked specifically because they were "traditional" stagings but because they Wagner on Beethoven. Brought about by listening to Wagner's piano transcript of Beethoven's 9th below should you have access to Spotify. I think it WNO Tristan und Isolde a photo preview. Two rings to rule them all: a comparative study of Tolkien and Wagner.

The following excellent and highly accessible paper acts as a comparative analysis with a thesis we think highly original of both Wagner a Bloggers to keep an eye on. Murnau's century-old horror film a modern, 21st-century u Your email. Send Cancel. Toggle navigation Menu Help Need help? Chat with us limited to Stanford community Email a reference question Using SearchWorks Connection Connect to e-resources Report a connection problem If we don't have it Interlibrary borrowing System status.

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