John Louis DiGaetani Ordre des livres

This is a new biography of the German composer Richard Wagner, 200 years after his birth, re-examining his life in light of new documents and new sensibilities. Since World War II Wagner has often been wrongly associated with Adolf Hitler because Hitler liked Wagner's music and used it in Nazi propaganda. But Wagner died in 1883--fifty years before Hitler's regime. It is time to have a fresh look at Wagner's life without the Nazi associations. His life was a series of abandonments and traumas for the self-destructive but creative genius, as he tried to survive as a freelance composer in the hostile environments of 19th century Germany.

Composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) likely suffered from a manic-depressive disorder but in his time very little was known about mental illness, and suicide was not a topic for general discussion. Wagner was often plagued by extreme mood swings; he used his operas, especially the librettos, to express himself and his personal difficulties. This investigation of the suicidal themes in Wagner's life and operas-- Die Fliegender Hollander, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, the Ring cycle, and Parsifal --shows how manic-depressive illness, particularly the depressive part of it, affected Wagner's life and art. It also analyzes the influence of Giambattista Vico's theories of cycles (and how these theories appeared in Wagner's work), suicide as a theatrical and operatic phenomenon, and the way in which the theme of suicide has appeared in other works of the literary and performing arts.

"Puccini the Thinker traces Puccini's development as an opera composer and thinker, focusing on the composer's ideas as they appear in his operas. This book, written for the operagoer and the admirer of Puccini's operas in addition to the musicologist, has chapters on all of Puccini's operas and divides them into three general categories: myth and vision; God, religion, and the Roman Catholic Church; and economics, politics, and society. Within these three subdivisions, this book explores the growth of Puccini's thought, dramatic skills, and ideas. Puccini the Thinker also includes a short biography of the composer, descriptions of notable productions of his operas, and discussions of major Puccinian singers and conductors."--BOOK JACKET.