Call for papers. Richard Wagner and Theatre

The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 1994

An extended article concerned with the beginnings of cinema with particular focus on 19th Century Wagnerian music drama. It’s a theory that seeks to rebalance the historical basis for the origins of the cinematic impulse.

The Historical Journal, 2004

This article outlines Richard Wagner's conception of music-drama during the period in which he formulated his intentions for composition of the epic Ring of the Nibelung. Attempting to renew rather than to restore the communal, political nature of Attic tragedy, he wished to transform that model from celebration of the Athenian political order into a savage critique of the contemporary political order, indeed into an incitement to and celebration of revolution. Wagner was determined to restore the dignity of art, a dignity he believed to have been lost in the pursuit of base, commercial considerations; but this determination should not be confused with the idea of art for art's sake. Instead, he wished to renew art in a socialist, even communist, sense as the paradigm of free, productive activity. The direct revolutionary experience of participation in the Dresden uprising of 1849 bolstered his conviction of the necessity of such a transformation. With his magnum opus, Wagne...

The music theatre historian consults the available sources in order to capture the ephemeral transition between the author’s vision and the stage realisation in certain social and theatrical conditions, as well as between the stage and the audience’s reception. Different documents give a picture of the spatial and visual realisation of the productions, of the typical placing of the characters on the stage and of the painted sets (as well as other objects on stage such as tables and chairs). One can imagine the orchestra sound and instrumentation that were modified to accommodate the small number of musicians, as well as the mannerisms of the singers. Director’s copies and the libretti used by the prompter and the stage manager give a picture of the stage machinery and its use.

The Fade Out: Metaphysics and Dialectics in Wagner, 2020

This article is a critique of the failure of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It considers this as a metaphysical problem rather than an aesthetic or formal one. The article, considering Wagner's inheritance from Haydn, claims him as the first composer of the culture industry. This will lead the author to conclusions regarding a gendered Das Unheimlich, the distinction between technology and technique, and the philosophy of aesthetics.

2016

EnglishIn spite of the witty saying that more books have been written about Richard Wagner than anyone else except Jesus Christ and Napoleon Bonaparte, I will venture to sail into the high seas. This essay is the first installment of a trilogy devoted to Wagner’s Tristan—a musical lament, indeed the cornerstone of modern(ist) art. Taking my cue from Eduardo Lourenco’s self-questioning remark on such powerful music, ‘By what mysterious means?’, I shall examine it anew, trying different tacks. The complete text— literary, theoretical and analytical—weaves through music and language. ‘Music in language’ is a preliminary attempt to explore sensual, artistic sound qualities in the word. ‘The language of music’, then, puts forward a grammar for tonal music as it may be sensed in a wider panorama of the evolving Western consciousness. ‘Music as language’, eventually, offers a novel approach to Wagner’s musicopoetic process: I thus seek to unravel that distinctive longing (Sehnen) of the so...

2018

Conference presentations Intermediality a storytelling and representation-Leitmotiv as a device for integrating media in wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk.

Leonardo, 2012