Richard Wagner; Der Ring des Nibelungen: a companion

Description

Richard Wagner's vast "Der Ring des Nibelungen" cycle comprises four full-length operas ("Das Rheingold", "Die Walkure", "Siegfried" and "Gotterdammerung") and is arguably the most extraordinary achievement in the history of opera. His own libretto to the operas is an intricate system of metric patterns, imaginative metaphors and alliteration, combining to produce the music in text. This companion volume to Sabor's translations of Wagner's librettos offers essays on the meaning of the Ring, on Wagner's turbulent and fascinating life, his varied literary sources from the world of myth, the genesis of the cycle and its performance history over the last 120 years. Sabor's texts provide a line-by-line translation of the final of the opera librettos, a running commentary on the action and signals as to when each leitmotif appears. Each leitmotif is a musical theme or motif which denotes a character, emotion, object or event, and these musical themes were used by Wagner as a unifying force within his dramas. The listener following the opera with the libretto is able to pinpoint the various themes (in the Ring cycle there are 81 leitmotifs) and so increase understanding of the drama. Sabor's translation seeks to preserve the original metre and elucidate the complexities of Wagner's intricate libretto. The volumes are supplemented with scene-by-scene synopses, short discussions of each leitmotif, a discography, videography and bibliography. Translations of the four operas are available, both separately and in a boxed set with this companion volume.

Rudolph Sabor is a writer and lecturer whose books include The Real Wagner. He frequently gives lectures on Wagner and reviews the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth for the major broadsheets and music periodicals.

'Best of the music books was Rudolph Sabor's idiosyncratic, cheeky and incisive Translation and Commentaries on Wagner's Ring.' (Observer) 'This is Sabor at his best. An indispensable part of the Wagner lover's library. And for those new to the Ring cycle - what better place to start!' (Opera Now) 'It has been brilliantly done by Rudolph Sabor, whose achievement is magnificent. The clarity, detail, comprehensiveness and sheer usefulness of the volumes cannot be praised too highly. I sincerely hope this will be a model for further companions to other opera composers and their work.' (Financial Times)