The Wagner Companion

by Peter Burbidge, Richard Sutton (Editor)

The Wagner Companion

Genres: Music

462 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Foley Stocks]

An informative and often insightful collection of essays. Running throughout there’s to some degree a reliance on this very romantic conception of art viz-a-viz the artist which was probably already outdated by the collection’s time but in all fairness is probably relevant to Wagner’s own conception of art; also certain claims the reader is expected to take to be true (the writers often refer to the idea of Beckmesser representing a Jew as ‘ridiculous’ without ever proving why). But overall the collection is successful at explaining with scholarly depth the dominant elements of Wagner’s work.