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Wagner Without Fear: Learning to Love--and Even Enjoy--Opera's Most Demanding Genius - Softcover

Berger, William

 
9780375700545: Wagner Without Fear: Learning to Love--and Even Enjoy--Opera's Most Demanding Genius
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0375700544 ISBN 13: 9780375700545
Verlag: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

Do you cringe when your opera-loving friends start raving about the latest production of Tristan? Do you feel faint just thinking about the six-hour performance of Parsifal you were given tickets to? Does your mate accuse you of having a Tannhäuser complex? If you're baffled by the behavior of Wagner worshipers, if you've longed to fathom the mysteries of Wagner's ever-increasing popularity, or if you just want to better understand and enjoy the performances you're attending, you'll find this delightful book indispensable.

William Berger is the most helpful guide one could hope to find for navigating the strange and beautiful world of the most controversial artist who ever lived. He tells you all you need to know to become a true Wagnerite--from story lines to historical background; from when to visit the rest room to how to sound smart during intermission; from the Jewish legend that possibly inspired Lohengrin to the tragic death of the first Tristan. Funny, informative, and always a pleasure to read, Wagner Without Fear proves that the art of Wagner can be accessible to everyone.

Includes:
- The strange life of Richard Wagner--German patriot (and exile), friend (and enemy) of Liszt and Nietzsche
- Essential opera lore and "lobby talk"
- A scene-by-scene analysis of each opera
- What to listen for to get the most from the music
- Recommended recordings, films, and sound tracks

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

William Berger was born in California and studied Romance languages and music at the University of California at Santa Cruz.  He worked for five years at the San Francisco Opera Company, where he acquired for the comapny's recorded music collection and translated for visiting performers.  He has taught language at Baruch College in New York City.  He contributed to James Skofield's libretto for The Dracula Diaries, an opera with music by Robert Moran, and has just completed the libretto for The Wolf of Gubbio, with the composer Patrick Barnes.  Mr Berger currently lives in New York and is at work on a performance piece, Karajan's Wake

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e when your opera-loving friends start raving about the latest production of Tristan? Do you feel faint just thinking about the six-hour performance of Parsifal you were given tickets to? Does your mate accuse you of having a Tannhäuser complex? If you're baffled by the behavior of Wagner worshipers, if you've longed to fathom the mysteries of Wagner's ever-increasing popularity, or if you just want to better understand and enjoy the performances you're attending, you'll find this delightful book indispensable.

William Berger is the most helpful guide one could hope to find for navigating the strange and beautiful world of the most controversial artist who ever lived. He tells you all you need to know to become a true Wagnerite--from story lines to historical background; from when to visit the rest room to how to sound smart during intermission; from the Jewish legend that possibly inspired Lohengrin to the tragic death of the first Tristan. Funny, informative, and always a pleasure

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PARSIFAL

Premiere: Bayreuth, 1882.

THE NAME AND HOW TO PRONOUNCE IT

Parsifal is named for its lead character, and it's pretty much pronounced as it's written. If
you want to show off your German, hit the r with a slight glottal fricative. British people, perhaps to
emphasize their distinctness from Continentals, tend to mispronounce it "Parsi-full."

WHAT IS PARSIFAL?

Parsifal is Wagner's final masterpiece, a depiction of a corrupted society renewed by an innocent
young man who becomes wise through compassion. The story of the individual, that is, the "coming of age"
of the hero, is as old as storytelling itself. The interesting thing about this example of the genre is the
community where the hero becomes himself, for Parsifal stumbles (literally) upon the knights of
the Holy Grail. These worthy men live in a castle in northern Spain, sustained by and devoted to the Grail
itself.

The legends of the Holy Grail are complicated, numerous, and extremely far-reaching, embedded in the
Euro-American consciousness by such diverse sources as the troubadours, Sir Walter Scott, and even
Monty Python and Indiana Jones. The definition of the Grail changes in each of these manifestations. For the
purposes of Parsifal, the Grail is the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper, and that was used to
catch his blood when he was pierced on the cross by the Spear. The Grail and the Spear were both
transferred by angels to Monsalvat in northern Spain where, in the Middle Ages, the Christian and Muslim
worlds were slugging it out for the domination of Europe. A king, named Titurel, was chosen by God to head
a brotherhood of knights, and a castle was built that none can find but those called by the Grail. At the
castle, the knights are sustained spiritually and physically by the Grail, which is uncovered by the king in a
ritual very closely resembling Holy Communion. Thus renewed, the knights embark on adventures for the
greater glory of their faith, carrying the Holy Spear with them to battle the heathen and other enemies.

If all this strikes you as a bit much for the opera house, you are not alone. Many people object to the
Christian particularism of the work (Nietzsche, for one, threw a world-class fit), while others find the
liturgical language and enactments truly blasphemous. Wagner himself could not bear to call it a music
drama, much less an opera, and called it, instead, a Bühnenweihfestspiel, or "stage-consecrating
festival play." From the start, it was intended to be performed only at Bayreuth. Parsifal has
always had a certain aura surrounding it, a sort of uniqueness perpetuated by fans and detractors alike.

Yet for all its rituals and otherworldliness, Parsifal has a powerful story to tell. All is not well in
the kingdom of the Grail. The Holy Spear has been lost to an evil magician, the king lies incapacitated with a
wound that won't heal, and the land itself is enveloped in gloom. Wagner used a dark palette in his scoring to
depict this, which is part of the reason many people find this work heavy and dull.

Such people are not merely being obtuse. In a word, Parsifal is slow. There is very little external
action. The score even includes directions for periods of complete silence. Parsifal is not for the
impatient, nor for those who need to be hit over the head with loud sound bites every few minutes to stay
awake. In a way, the experience of Parsifal is akin to that of a no-hitter in baseball. It is the very
pinnacle for the devoted fan, who writhes in ecstasies of tension and delayed gratification, while the casual
spectator languishes in boredom waiting in vain for "action" (hit tunes or home runs).

For all its static nature and its otherworldliness, there is little that is obscure in the score, and it can be
appreciated by any open-minded operagoer with the ability to sit still for a few hours. There is no need to
sweat out details of the score beforehand. As Cosima put it well in her Diaries, "It is all so direct!"

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Parsifal (tenor) A "guileless fool," which is the literary way to say a young man who has
done nothing and knows less. Parsifal has lived on his own since running away from home as a young
child. He does not even know his own name. In many ways, he is similar to the all-free and unsocialized
Siegfried, although, being somewhat more surreal and somehow less human, he is considerably less
obnoxious. Parsifal actually does very little throughout this work in the usual sense of heroic
action, beyond the admittedly impressive feat of catching a spear in midair. His growth is largely internal.

Kundry (soprano or mezzo-soprano) The "wandering Jew" of medieval legend. Kundry is
generally cited as Wagner's most enigmatic, and most interesting, female character. As a young woman,
she laughed at Christ suffering on the cross, and was condemned to wander the earth until saved, seeking
but never finding rest or death. In Acts I and III, she is a wild unruly penitent performing service to the
knights of the Grail, while in Act II she is a beautiful seductress and slave to the evil magician Klingsor.
Divas, therefore, love to take on the role of Kundry, since they get to assume three of the best poses in the
soprano arsenal: madness, seduction, and piety. She has a foot, so to speak, in each world, and is really the
most human character, philosophically speaking, in this drama.

Titurel (bass) The original king of the knights, he is burdened by his years and has made his
son Amfortas king. Titurel is kept alive only by the annual uncovering of the Grail (a sort of celestial life
support), a duty he is too weak to perform himself. He has a grand total of ten lines to sing in
Parsifal, and they are sung offstage. In fact, his only stage appearance is as a corpse. The role,
however, is important in terms of the story, and his brief vocal appearances must be impressive.

Amfortas (bass-baritone) Titurel's son, the current king of the knights, languishing because
of his sin. He was seduced by Kundry several years before, and, while he lay with her, Klingsor stole the
Holy Spear and stabbed Amfortas in the side. The wound bleeds yet. The loss of the Spear and the "wound
that won't heal," beyond psychological implications, are the signs of decay in the knights' community and
the kingdom of the Grail.

Gurnemanz (bass) The "nice guy" of the story, Gurnemanz is the first to see the possibility
of a savior in Parsifal. He is something of the mentor figure familiar from coming-of-age literature.
This role is demanding in terms of the sheer amount of music to be sung, for Gurnemanz does all the
explaining (and there is plenty to be done) in this tale.

Klingsor (bass) The bad guy. Klingsor had once aspired to be a knight of the Grail himself.
Titurel refused him, and Klingsor, in desperation to prove his aptness for service to the Grail, castrated
himself. This act guaranteed his exclusion from the brotherhood, but also (somehow) gave him power in the
arts of black magic. He lives in a magic castle with a garden he has conjured out of the desert on the
southern slope of the same mountain range as the Grail Castle at Monsalvat (in other words, he faces
Moorish Spain, while the knights face Christendom).

Flower Maidens (sopranos and mezzos) These are Klingsor's most effective weapons, lovely
maidens (although the term...

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Verlag
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
1998
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0375700544
ISBN 13 
9780375700545
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
464
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

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