Table of Contents

Preface part i. a few beginnings 1. Wagner Lives Issues in Autobiography 2. "Pale" Senta Female Sacrifice and the Desire for Heimat 3. Wagner the Progressive Another Look at Lohengrin part ii. der ring des nibelungen 4. Fairy Tale, Revolution, Prophecy Preliminary Evening: Das Rheingold 5. Symphonic Mastery or Moral Anarchy? First Day: Die Walkure 6. Siegfried Hero Second Day: Siegfried 7. Finishing the End Third Day: Gotterdammerung part iii. the elusiveness of tragedy 8. Don Carlos and Gotterdammerung Two Operatic Endings and Walter Benjamin's Trauerspiel 9. Wagner's Greeks, and Wieland's Too Contents part iv. tristan und isolde 10. Dangerous Fascinations 11. Public and Private Life Reflections on the Genesis of Tristan and Isolde and the Wesendonck Lieder 12. Postmortem on Isolde part v. mature polemics 13. Strange Love, Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Parsifal 14. Mendelssohn and the Strange Case of the (Lost) Symphony in C 15. Unfinished Symphonies part vi. Operatic Futures 16. Configurations of the New 17. Wagner and Beyond List of Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Index

About the Author

John Deathridge is King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London. He is the author, with Carl Dahlhaus, of The New Grove Wagner, co-editor of the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (WWV) and editor of, and contributor to, the English language edition of the Wagner Handbook.

Reviews

"Essential reading for all who take an intelligent, informed interest in Wagner." Wagner Journal "Engaging." Australian Book Rev "A solid and stimulating read." -- George Hall Opera "Wide-ranging and eclectic, this volume presents the latest Wagner scholarship and criticism." -- S. Edwards Choice "An engaging portrait" Music Educators Journal