Opera and Drama

In general the translation is what we call more attention and faithful.Pages, printed material lacking.Good material at all.

While this is a great book which we are fortunate to have, it comes down to us from 1893 so it will present challenges to any reader who is not familiar with English (and to some extent German) as it was spoken/written in the early 1800's through the 1890's. Also, the typeset is (I believe) from a photocopy of the 1893 book so the font isn't always sharp, clear and easy to read although it still is readable.Before even considering buying this book the reader should first ask themselves if they know how to pronounce Richard Wagner's last name. So if you don't know that in German the letter W is pronounced V and that the letter A is pronounced Ah then this is possibly not the book for you. This is the simplest way I can think of to quickly sort how who will get the most from this book.This book is a second edition by Wagner which he wrote in response to questions and criticism of the first edition of Opera and Drama. Therefore this book is a combination of the first edition and Wagner's responses to the questions and criticism of the first edition.Another thing the reader will see is based on a convention of the written German language, which is that the first letter of all nouns are in upper-case (capitalized). In the forward to the book the translator/editor stated that he concluded that some nouns are so important that he sometimes renders the German into an English word with the first letter of the English word in upper-case which may be confusing if one doesn't know the root German word. Another thing the reader will see are words for which there is no easy translation to an English word, therefore the German word is used (this occurs every few pages) . Therefore, when the reader sees words such as glück (basically luck or fortune) and then they see von Gluck; if they don't know this is a reference to Christoph von Gluck -- who was an 18th century composer of Italian and French opera -- they may be confused. And this is but one example of what the general reader will find.As an example of the problems encountered when translating a foreign language I will use the title for one of Wagner's compositions in Der Ring des Nibelungen, which is the title for Act 2. Scene 1: Nichts lerntest du? Which is rendered into English as: Why won't you learn? or: When will you learn? However, the literal German translation is: Nothing won't learn you? (Obviously German syntax [the order in which words are arranged] is very different from English.) And this stark difference in syntax makes the translator's job that much more difficult and subjective.I now want to state that it is not my intent to push people away from such a great book; but that to get the full meaning of the book it is important for the reader have completed or be familiar with the following:1. Three quarters of Western Civilization or have spent years studying it.2. Two quarters of Philosophy.3. A working familiarity with the German language.4. Be familiar with the other composers of the Romantic Era.5. Be familiar with the history of opera and drama going back to Ancient Greece, thus if the reader does not know what words such as Mendelssohn, Oedipus, Schauspiel, Thebes & Volk mean this book will be a tough read. (If you think Volk simply means people then you don't completely understand the word.)[On a side note, I'm reminded of a comic I once saw who spoke about higher education and then said he could always tell which members of the audience had taken Philosophy because, when he asked which member of the audience had taken philosophy these were the people, he said, who have to stop and think before answering if they took philosophy.]Manifestly Wagner had the genius to compose works of great beauty but the reader should know that he was very anti-Semitic. It should probably be noted that this was very common in this era so Wagner can be seen as reflecting a common belief of his era or as someone incapable of transcending a terrible moral evil.Also, Wagner takes the approach in his writing that the description of a given subject is like writing music which is based on variations of a melody so he can take pages to say what could be said in a paragraph.And in arriving at this point, the reader will find a great and deep insight into one of the world's greatest composers as well as opera and drama. IMHO I rank him second only to Beethoven. I love the book and freely admit that I have to do some research also -- and it is all well worth it for those seeking to better understand opera, drama and Wagner.Finally, and at least for me, this is the kind of book that I can sit down and read over the course of a few nights of concentrated reading; over the months I've picked it up and put it down again so it has taken awhile for me to get through it.PS: Wagner's German title for the Ride of the Walküre is: Hojotoho! Hojotoho! Heiaha! Heiaha! From Act 3. Scene 1. Prelude.

This book is Wagner's seminal essay where he fully explains his principles and opinions regarding opera and music. If you like his operas, this is the one book that is a must have on your reading shelf.In 1893, the London Wagner Society published an English translation of Wagner's 8 volume collected works. This is volume 2 of that series. It contains the full text of "Oper und Drama", translated as "Opera and Drama". Our old friend, William Ashton Ellis, did the stilted but essential English translations.Much of what Wagner wrote has nothing to do with music, and quite a large portion is pretty forgettable. However, this book is important, and goes a long way toward helping you understand his music.

Cet ouvrage de Wagner, qui critique vigoureusement l'opéra traditionnel en considérant que l'on avait inversé les priorités entre musique et drame, dans sa vision d'un "art totale', est probablement l'écrit le plus important et le mieux articulé de Wagner. C'est donc une étape important de la muscologie, voire de l'histoire des arts du spectacle. Le style en est cependant assez lourd, assez caricatural des défaauts littéraires que l'on prête à la dialectique germanique, z et q

It was an interesting experience to read some of Wagner's prose. I shall not try it again. The book is however beautifully pinted with plenty of space between the paragraphs and Dodo press have done a great job. If your curious don't let this put you off but for me writers like Brian Maghee make more sense of Wagner's prose than Wagner himself. Caveat emptor