Wagner and the Romantic Hero

by Simon Williams

• ISBN13: 9780521153447
• ISBN10: 0521153441
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Few major artists have aroused the ire and adulation of successive generations as persistently as Richard Wagner. Simon Williams explores the reasons for this adulation and antipathy by analyzing heroism in Wagner's work. Beginning with a definition of the concept of the heroic, Williams then examines it as a function of Wagner's theater and music. He also analyzes all thirteen stage works by Wagner as well as his adaptation of the Romantic hero figure.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Names on abbreviations of sources

Introduction

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-drama: towards the Messiah

Wagner's heroism on stage

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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