The Wagners

by Wagner, Nike; Osers, Ewald; Downes, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780691088112
• ISBN10: 069108811X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Dept of Art &

Summary

In this virtuoso piece of cultural history, the great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner narrates the Wagner family's turbulent history. In the process, she shares her considerable insights into the operas and gives an inside account of the internecine struggles that have surrounded the Wagner family jewel: the Bayreuth Festival.Nike Wagner draws on history, biography, and psychoanalysis to interpret both her family's history and her great-grandfather's operas. She focuses on Bayreuth, revealing how this showcase for Wagner's sublime art so readily served the Third Reich. With clear, often ironic eyes, she examines her family's extraordinary role in German culture--and its connections to right-wing ideology.Particularly fascinating is the tug-of-war between Nike's visionary but enigmatic father, Wieland, and her astute but aesthetically stodgy uncle, Wolfgang. It was Wieland Wagner who inaugurated a daring new style of Wagner production--characterized by absence of scenery, spare acting, and dramatic lighting--that led to a wider revolution in how operas are produced. But Wolfgang Wagner, now entering his eighties, has controlled the Festival and quarreled with family members since Wieland's premature death in 1966. The author concludes with a look at the current contenders for this family throne, herself among them, and presents her vision for the Festival's future.Wagnerites will need this book on their shelves. As an example of cultural journalism at its finest, it will also appeal to readers interested in German cultural history or those simply drawn to the melodrama that is the Wagner family story.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
Foreword	xi
Preface	xv
Family Tree	xviii
Introduction: Bayreuth and the Wagners	1	(16)
PART ONE: WAGNER'S THEATRE
Wandering Jew or Exploiter? - thoughts on the Dutchman	17	(6)
`Without any comfortable intermediate stage' - Tannhauser	23	(15)
The universal poetry of Lohengrin	38	(19)
Incest in The Ring	57	(14)
The `Blissful Union': Wotan and Brunnhilde	71	(8)
The Twice-Solitary Death in Tristan	79	(7)
Folly and Wit in Die Meistersinger	86	(16)
`No change will come to our Western art': New Bayreuth as waste disposal plant	102	(15)
A Tragedy of Understanding: Parsifal and anti-Semitism in fin de siecle Vienna	117	(12)
Disquiet about Parsifal	129	(16)
PART TWO: THE THEATRE OF THE WAGNERS
Wieland Wagner: a `negative' life	145	(6)
`To us, he wasn't the Fuhrer at all' - the enigma of Winifred Wagner	151	(14)
The Wagner Family and its Home	165	(14)
1874-1930: the first generation at wahnfried	179	(29)
1930-51: the deaths of Cosima and Siegfried to the post-war festival	208	(24)
1951-66: the reign of the brothers	232	(25)
1966-80: Wolfgang and the next generation	257	(23)
1980-90: after the death of Winifred	280	(16)
1990-2000: the battle for the succession	296	(13)
Index	309