Pages

Monday, 17 December 2018

New Wagner Book: The Trouble With Wagner

There is a long line of Wagner books to be reviewed. We have this and will attempt to do so. In the meantime, this is from the publisher. Although, we have to point out that nearly £30 for such a slim volume seems "extravagant". Sample below 

In this unique and hybrid book, cultural and music historian Michael P. Steinberg combines a close analysis of Wagnerian music drama with a personal account of his work as a dramaturg on the bicentennial production of The Ring of the Nibelung for the Teatro alla Scala Milan and the Berlin State Opera. Steinberg shows how Wagner uses the power of a modern mythology to heighten music’s claims to knowledge, thereby fusing not only art and politics, but truth and lies as well. Rather than attempting to separate value and violence, or “the good from the bad,” as much Wagner scholarship as well as popular writing have tended to do, Steinberg proposes that we confront this paradox and look to the capacity of the stage to explore its depths and implications.

Drawing on decades of engagement with Wagner and of experience teaching opera across disciplines, The Trouble with Wagner is packed with novel insights for experts and interested readers alike.

The Trouble with Wagner
MICHAEL P. STEINBERG
160 pages | 8 color plates, 12 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 2018

Preface

Introduction: Wagnerian Songlines
One: History and the Stage
Two: Siegmund’s Death
Three: Bad Education
Four: Les passions humaines

Afterword: On Purity, Danger, and the Postsecular Moment
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index