Bibliographies and Guides to Resources
- Oesterlein, Nikolaus. Katalog einer Richard Wagner-Bibliothek.Leipzig: Breit-
kopf und Härtel, 1882. 4v. Reprint, Wiesbaden: Sändig, 1970. ISBN 2-500-
21920-9. ML134 .W134 O29.
Consists of 10,180 numbered entries: the writings of Wagner himself (includ-
ing letters and documents as well as prose works) and most of what was writ-
ten about him and his music during his lifetime. Covers translations, photos
and portraits, books, articles, reviews of performances, etc. Some of the book
entries are annotated, and periodical articles are summarized. Name index in
each volume.
1966.Internationale Wagner-Bibliographie, 1944-1945-. Ed. Herbert Barth. Bay-
reuth: Edition Musica, 1956–. 56p. ML134 .W134 I6.
Continuations, ed. Herbert Barth, or by his son Henrik: 1956–1960 (142p.);
1961–1966 (99p.); 1967–1978 (173p.). Publisher varies. These are selective
lists of writings in French, German, and English, grouped by language, with
name indexes. Special features appear in the various volumes; e.g., 1945–1955
has an international discography, performance statistics for the Wagner operas
by major opera companies, and descriptions of important collections; 1956–
1960 includes performance data for all the Bayreuth Festival performances
from 1876 to 1960 with names of all singers in each role. - Borchmeyer, Dieter. “Wagner Literature: New Light on the Case of Wagner.”
Wagner12–3 (Sept. 1991): 51–74.
Not seen. The abstract in RILMdescribes it as a “critical evaluation of the
state of Wagner literature in Germany in the 1980’s.” - Ziino, Agostino. “Rassegna della letteratura Wagneriana in Italia.” Analecta
musicologica11 (1972): 14–135.
A valuable, exhaustive survey of Italian writing about Wagner, which is
“povera non come quantità ma come qualità.” Most of the publications in
Italy have been polemics, listeners’ guides, and biographies; original research
and systematic analysis are rare. The earliest critical writing came after the
Lohengrinperformance in Bologna (1871), but there were anti-Wagnerian
authors in the 1850s. Support for Wagner developed in the 1870s; headed by
Filippo Filippi. He and others began to see the complexities of design in the
music and began to accept the role of the orchestra as carrier of melody. Luigi
Torchi, in the 1890s, was the first to treat Wagner objectively. Arnold Bona-
ventura distinguished between Wagner the theoretician (weak) and Wagner the
composer (great). After 1913 there was less interest in Wagner, with the turn
against “romantic decadence.” Long quotations and useful commentaries, 371
footnotes, and bibliography in date order from 1861 to 1970.
Dictionaries
- Bauer, Hans-Joachim. Richard Wagner-Lexikon. Bergisch Gladbach (Ger-
many): G. Lübbe, 1988. 608p. ISBN 3-7857-0495-X. ML410 .W2 B344.
366 Opera