Consists of 10 essays by various writers, including material on performance
practice, reception of Wagner in Vienna, conducting Wagner, Bayreuth,
“America’s Wagner cult,” and Wagner on record. Backnotes, expansive index,
no bibliography.- Jung, Ute. Die Rezeption der Kunst Richard Wagners in Italien.Regensburg:
Bosse, 1974. 524p. ISBN 3-7649-2076-9. ML410 .W1 J95.
A thorough description of productions at Bologna, La Scala, and elsewhere in
Italy, with critical reception and other contemporary writing about the music.
Extends from early performances to the 1960s. Excellent footnotes lead into
the entire relevant literature, which is enumerated in a 700-item bibliography
(marred by incomplete information). Partly expansive index of names, titles,
and topics. - Bauer, Oswald Georg. Richard Wagner: Die Bühnenwerke von der Urauf-
führung bis heute.Frankfurt: Propyläen, 1982. 288p. ISBN 3-549-06658-9.
ML410 .W19 B38.
Presents illustrated production histories for all the music dramas, emphasizing
German theaters. Bibliography of about 75 entries on production matters,
index of names and places. An English translation was issued: Richard Wag-
ner: The Stage Designs and Productions from the Premieres to the Present
(New York: Rizzoli, 1983).
Material on the Bayreuth Festival is entered at #2370ff.
Analysis
- Lorenz, Alfred Ottokar. Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner. Berlin:
Hesse, 1924–1933. 4v. Reprint, Tutzing: Schneider, 1966. ML410 .W22 L86.
V.1, Der Ring des Nibelungen;v.2, Tristan und Isolde;v.3, Die Meistersinger;
v.4, Parsifal.The seminal work on macroanalysis of the operas. Lorenz pio-
neered the concept that large-scale works are built from the same formal pat-
terns as small works: that the simple ABA and AAB forms are found, extended
over long time spans, in operatic structures. His ideas and his imaginative
application of them to the Wagner music dramas continue to arouse contro-
versy. Modern scholarship is turning away from Lorenzian analytic technique,
while leaving open the question of some kind of structure in large works. A
fairly positive position has been taken by Donald J. Grout: “One may not
choose to follow Lorenz in every detail, and it would certainly be in order to
question some of his interpretations of the basic formal schemes; but taken as
a whole, it is impossible in the face of his demonstration not to be convinced of
the essential orderliness, at once minute and all-embracing, of the musical cos-
mos of the Ring,as well as of Tristan, Die Meistersinger,and Parsifal.It is
an orderliness not derived at second hand from the text, but inhering in the
musical structure itself” (#78, p.474). One scholar who modeled his approach
on Lorenz is Siegmund Levarie (cf. #1322). Negative appraisals appear in
Dahlhaus (#2042) and Bailey (#2045). See also Abraham (#2055), Coren
(#2057), Parker and Brown (#1868), and the next entry.
Richard Wagner 373