A New Vorspiel: The Wagnerian Joins Substack

A note to all our readers and fellow pilgrims on the Wagnerian journey: The Wagnerian is now on Substack.

You can find us here: thewagnerian.substack.com.

This is a new venture for us, and we are still finding our feet with the platform. For the time being, we will be primarily reposting articles from this site. However, over time, we may add more content to it.

The Substack platform is an excellent way for us to reach a broader audience of Wagner enthusiasts and for you to stay up-to-date with our latest articles if you prefer using the Substack app.

Please note that our Substack will always be free. We believe that access to the world of Wagner should be open to all, and we have no plans to introduce a paid subscription.

We hope you will join us there. Please subscribe for free if you use Substack. It’s an exciting new chapter for The Wagnerian, and we are glad to have you with us

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Fred's Final Plea: Help Us Weave the Threads of Fate!

Hello again, dear readers,

Well, it seems I’ve had a rather sobering observation to share. It's come to my attention that our presence over on Threads is feeling a tad… unspun. You see, while in the Ring Cycle, the Norns weave the magnificent thread of fate, our digital thread is currently looking a bit thin and unravelling. It’s a thread without weavers, and its silence is a tragedy of Wagnerian proportions.

We’ve set up our digital abode there, hoping to share some quick thoughts, fascinating tidbits, and maybe a few cheeky memes about the master himself, Richard Wagner. But alas, it’s a bit like Wotan’s spear: a symbol of great potential, but currently lacking its faithful wielder.

So, I’m calling on you, the esteemed and enlightened followers of all things Wagnerian. Come join us! Help us populate this new space with lively discussions and shared passion. Help us spin this thread into a rich and colourful tapestry of conversation.

Let's make that space as vibrant and essential as our love for the great man's work.

Yours in music,

Fred Oswald

Find Us On Threads Here

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The Ring of the Nibelung in a New Frame: P. Craig Russell's Graphic Adaptation

In the vast and ever-expanding universe of Wagnerian scholarship and reception, a curious and compelling phenomenon has emerged: the graphic novel. A recent article in the Open Library of Humanities examines P. Craig Russell's 2000-2001 adaptation of The Ring of the Nibelung, a work that courageously translates the epic grandeur of Wagner's sixteen-hour-long operatic cycle into a silent, visual medium. The authors, Michaela Weiss and Miroslav Urbanec, frame Russell’s work not merely as a retelling, but as a sophisticated artistic endeavour that bridges the seemingly disparate worlds of opera, comics, and fantasy culture.

Russell, an illustrator with a history of adapting operatic classics, tackles this formidable task with a clear vision: to create a "graphic mythic grandiosity" that can reproduce the operatic effect without sound. The adaptation, published by Dark Horse Comics and later collected into a two-volume paperback and a hardback, won two Eisner Awards in 2001 for Best Finite Series/Limited Series and Best Artist/Penciller/Inker Team.

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