Wagner wanted Siegfried, the third music drama in The Ring of the Nibelung, to be the most popular of the cycle. Despite its many beautiful and dramatic scenes and its vital part in the drama, it has not fulfilled the composer's aspiration, and Professor Ulrich Weisstein examines why. Professor Anthony Newcomb contributes a detailed analysis of Wagner's use of leitmotifs, identifying the different purposes they fulfil. Derrick Puffett takes up the extraordinary fact that Wagner composed Tristan and Isolde and The Mastersingers of Nuremberg in the eight-year hiatus between his beginning and completion of Siegfried's second act; Puffett explores the subsequent changes in Wagner's musical imagination that enabled the composer to complete his enormous task. The thematic guide complements those found in the other Opera Guides to The Ring Cycle.
Author Biography
Richard Georg Strauss (1864 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is best known for his operas, which include "Der Rosenkavalier" and "Salome." "
Reviews
"Wholehearted recommendation of this valuable new series." "TLS""
