Barry Millington Livres

Richard Wagner is one of the influential and also the polarizing composers in the history of music. Over the course of his long career, he produced a stream of spellbinding works that challenged musical convention through their experimentation, paving the way for modernism. This title offers an overview of Wagners life, work and times.

This book, addressed to both specialists and the opera-going public, brings together a team of acknowledged authorities from round the world to examine the performance history and reception of Wagner's works in Europe and America. A connected sequence of essays on conducting, singing, production and stage design explores the nature of Wagner's demands on his interpreters. The book raises questions about the realization of opera on the stage: about the authority of the composer vis-a-vis the director and the audience: about the sanctity of the text, score and stage directions; and about the role of art itself in society.

The enchanting power of Wagner's music evokes strong reactions, both positive and negative. Richard Wagner elicits fiercely divergent responses; for Baudelaire, his music induces intoxication, while Nietzsche likens it to a disease. In this engaging overview, Barry Millington, a leading authority on Wagner, explores the life and works of this influential and controversial composer. The richly illustrated book delves into various themes, including Wagner's sources of inspiration, his compositional process, his relationships with his wife Cosima and mistress Mathilde Wesendonck, and his complex ideology, including the troubling anti-Semitism in his operas. It also examines the proto-cinematic nature of his works and the tumultuous legacy of the Bayreuth Festival and Wagnerism. Millington presents these themes through elegantly designed chapters that combine text, illustrations, and documents, moving beyond conventional formats. By drawing on the latest biographical and musicological scholarship, much of it conducted by himself, Millington reassesses established views on Wagner's life and music, challenging clichés and promoting a deeper understanding. This reappraisal, marking Wagner's bicentenary, offers readers a fresh perspective on one of the most provocative composers and his unparalleled music.

These newly re-written editions of popular titles in the New Grove composer biography series, last published in the 1980s, offer fresh insights based on the latest scholarship. They focus on some of the most influential composers of recent centuries and are derived from the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Notably, these titles will be published before the dictionary, providing sneak previews of some of the most current entries in this landmark edition of the authoritative music encyclopedia. Alongside re-written editions of Mozart, Haydn, and Wagner, the series introduces Stravinsky for the first time, marking the beginning of a collection dedicated to the great masters of the twentieth century, previously unpublished as individual volumes. This German-born composer stands out as one of the most controversial musical figures of the nineteenth century. A multifaceted individual—literary, philosophical, and political—he pursued his artistic goals with relentless determination, both in his public and private life, as well as through his critical writings. His impact on German Romantic opera included training a more dramatically powerful type of singer and extending thematic development. His life and works evoke intense emotions, making him a fascinating subject for exploration.

Niniejsza książka powstała po to, aby służyć jako kompendium informacji dotyczących każdego ważnego aspektu osoby Wagnera oraz jego muzyki. Obejmuje ona szeroki zakres zagadnień: kontekst historyczny, intelektualny i muzyczny; znajomych kompozytora oraz innych jemu współczesnych; charakterystykę i osobowość Wagnera; opinie i światopogląd; źródła, z których można czerpać wiedzę na temat jego postaci i twórczości; styl muzyczny i literacki; instrumentację oraz wykonawstwo muzyki Wagnera; wpływ kompozytora na osoby żyjące w tamtych czasach, a także na kolejne pokolenia. W książce znajduje się również chronologicznie uporządkowane kalendarium jego życia, pełna lista dzieł napisanych prozą, wyczerpujący spis oraz omówienie dzieł Wagnera, słownik terminów wagnerowskich oraz rozdział poświęcony mitom otaczającym osobę kompozytora od momentu, w którym zaczął samodzielnie tworzyć zapiski do swojej przyszłej autobiografii. Barry Millington (wstęp)