1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910457166703321

Autore

Williams Simon <1943->

Titolo

Wagner and the Romantic hero / / Simon Williams [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2004

ISBN

1-107-14534-1

1-280-51600-3

0-511-21419-7

0-511-21598-3

0-511-21061-2

0-511-31496-5

0-511-48174-8

0-511-21238-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 193 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

782.1/092

Soggetti

Operas - Characters

Heroes in opera

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-187) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Modes of heroism in the early nineteenth century -- Wagner and the early nineteenth-century theatre -- Early music drama : the isolated hero -- Heroism, tragedy, and the Ring -- The last music-dramas : toward the messiah -- Wagner's heroism on stage.

Sommario/riassunto

Few major artists have aroused the ire and adulation of successive generations as persistently as Richard Wagner. He was the centre of controversy during his lifetime and yet, when he died, he was the most idolized man in Germany. The situation has not changed much since then. Simon Williams explores the reasons for this adulation and antipathy by examining an aspect that may be a fundamental cause for this radical division in the reception of Wagner's work, the phenomenon of heroism. Williams analyses this heroism as a function of Wagner's theatre and music, beginning with a definition and examination of the concept of the heroic. The book also discusses all thirteen stage works



by Wagner and the phenomenon of heroism and Wagner's adaptation of the figure of the Romantic hero. Williams offers a theatrical, musical, and cultural re-evaluation of one of the most enduring figures in the arts.