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This biography of Minna Planer, Richard Wagner's wife of 30 years,
reveals her as a self-assured woman and artist who was vital to her
husband's creative life. When Richard Wagner first met Minna Planer
in 1834, he was an unknown conductor, she a popular actress. His
hectic pursuit of her affections culminated in marriage in 1836.
Minna endured poverty with him, nursed him through chronic illness,
followed him across Europe as he fled from creditors and pursued
his artistic goals, and sought to provide him with the stable
domestic and erotic life that he craved. He played his works to her
as he wrote them, up to Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, and set store by
her opinions. But when he went on the run as a wanted
revolutionary, Minna only reluctantly followed him into Swiss
exile. Domestic peace tentatively prevailed, but was ultimately
destroyed by Wagner's passion for Mathilde Wesendonck. In 1858, he
and Minna separated, she returned home to Germany, and subsequent
efforts at reconciliation proved ultimately impossible. They
remained married, however, until Minna's death in 1866. Despite
having been at Richard's side as he matured into the composer of
the Ring and Tristan, Minna has been given short shrift by most
Wagner commentators. In Eva Rieger's acclaimed biography,
translated into English by Chris Walton, the author reveals Minna
as a self-assured woman and artist who played a crucial role in the
creative life of her husband.
The first-ever biography of Richard Wagner's artistically gifted
granddaughter who fought against Hitler's Germany but achieved no
personal success for her troubles. She was not the 'black sheep' of
her family, as often claimed, but a heroic rebel. Friedelind Wagner
(1918-1991), Richard Wagner's independent-minded granddaughter,
daughter of Siegfried and Winifred Wagner, despised her
mother'sclose liaison with Adolf Hitler and was the only member of
the Wagner clan who fled Germany in protest. Although Winifred
warned her that the Nazis would 'exterminate' her, should she
continue her open opposition, she travelled toLondon and published
articles pillorying the Nazi élite. All the same, her former
proximity to Hitler & Co. made her suspicious in the eyes of
the authorities, who promptly interned her. Even the British
Parliament debated her fate. Only with the help of the world-famous
conductor Arturo Toscanini was she able to gain an exit visa. Once
she arrived in New York she broadcast, lectured and published
against the Nazis, wrote an autobiography, and became friends with
many other emigrants including singers who had themselves abandoned
Bayreuth. After the war the Mayor of Bayreuth asked her to run the
Festival, but she declined in favour of her brothers. They showed
little gratitude, however, for after Friedelind returned to Germany
in 1953 she found herself manoeuvred out of any role in the
Festival management. She still made a remarkable effort to find a
niche in post-war German society and culture, and did her best to
cope with a family notorious for its intrigues past and present.
Friedelind Wagner remained a staunch friend of artists such as
Wilhelm Furtwängler, Frida Leider, Otto Klemperer, Erich Kleiber,
Leonard Bernstein, WalterFelsenstein, Michael Tilson Thomas and
many others. Drawing on archival research in many countries, Eva
Rieger has here written the first-ever biography of Richard
Wagner's talented, artistic granddaughter who fought
againstHitler's Germany, but achieved no personal success for her
troubles. Her book gives many new insights into wartime and postwar
musical life in Germany, Europe and the United States. EVA RIEGER
is a feminist musicologist and author of many books on music.
This biography of Minna Planer, Richard Wagner's wife of 30 years,
reveals her as a self-assured woman and artist who was vital to her
husband's creative life. When Richard Wagner first met Minna Planer
in 1834, he was an unknown conductor, she a popular actress. His
hectic pursuit of her affections culminated in marriage in 1836.
Minna endured poverty with him, nursed him through chronic illness,
followed him across Europe as he fled from creditors and pursued
his artistic goals, and sought to provide him with the stable
domestic and erotic life that he craved. He played his works to her
as he wrote them, up to Tannhauser and Lohengrin, and set store by
her opinions. But when he went on the run as a wanted
revolutionary, Minna only reluctantly followed him into Swiss
exile. Domestic peace tentatively prevailed, but was ultimately
destroyed by Wagner's passion for Mathilde Wesendonck. In 1858, he
and Minna separated, she returned home to Germany, and subsequent
efforts at reconciliation proved ultimately impossible. They
remained married, however, until Minna's death in 1866. Despite
having been at Richard's side as he matured into the composer of
the Ring and Tristan, Minna has been given short shrift by most
Wagner commentators. In Eva Rieger's acclaimed biography,
translated into English by Chris Walton, the author reveals Minna
as a self-assured woman and artist who played a crucial role in the
creative life of her husband.
Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg has been one of the
most performed operas ever since its premier in 1868. It was
adopted as Germany's national operas ('Nationaloper'), not least
because of its historical coincidence with the unification of
Germany under Bismarck in 1871. The opera epitomizes themes of
Germanness, including what many regard as blatant anti-Semitic
imagery, and thus ideally suited the agenda of the Third Reich, or
so it seemed. Despite or perhaps because of the ease with which the
Nazis appropriated the work, it was selected as the first opera to
be performed when the Bayreuth festival re-opened after the War.The
first section of this volume, 'Performing Meistersinger, contains
three commissioned articles from internationally respected artists
- a conductor (Peter Schneider), a stage director (Harry Kupfer)
and a singer (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau), all experienced in the
performance of this unusually demanding 5-hour work. The second
section, 'Meistersinger and History', examines both the
representation of German history in the opera and the way the opera
has functioned in history through political appropriation and
staging practice. The third section, 'Representations', is the most
eclectic, exploring in the first place the problematic question of
genre from the perspective of a theatrical historian. The chronic
issue of Wagner's chief opponent, Eduard Hanslick, and his musical
and dramatic representation in the opera as Bessmesser, is then
addressed, as are gender issues, and Wagner's own utterances
concerning the opera. Contributors: Nicholas Vazsonyi, Peter
Schneider, Harry Kupfer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hans Rudolf
Vaget, Lutz Koepnick, David B.Dennis, Klaus Van Den Berg, Thomas S.
Grey, Lydia Goehr, Eva Rieger, Peter HAyng. Nicholas Vazsonyi is
Associate Professor of German, University of South Carolina
A well-researched and exhaustive analysis of the role of women in
Wagner's operas. Richard Wagner's music contains some of the most
powerful portrayals of emotions in all opera, particularly love.
Eva Rieger presents a new picture of the composer, showing how the
women at his side inspired him and how closely his life and art
intertwined. We follow Wagner's restless hunt for the 'ideal
woman', her appointed task being to give him shelter, warmth,
inspiration, adventure and redemption, all in one. He could hardly
have desired anything more contradictory, and this is reflected in
the female characters of his operas. They are all in some way torn,
faltering between their own desire for self-realization and the
societal constraints that impel them to sacrificethemselves for
their men. Rieger bids farewell to essentialist, naturalized
notions of femininity and masculinity. Her investigations are both
comprehensive and convincing, for she avoids the pitfalls of
imposing extraneousinterpretation, instead focussing keenly on the
music itself. EVA RIEGER is Professor Emeritus in Historical
Musicology at the University of Bremen and lives in the
principality of Liechtenstein.
Exploring the relationship between queer sexuality and music in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century Queer Episodes in Music
and Modern Identity approaches modern sexuality by way of music.
Through the hidden or lost stories of composers, scholars, patrons,
performers, audiences, repertoires, venues, and specific works,
this intriguing volume explores points of intersection between
music and queerness in Europe and the United States in the years
1870 to 1950--a period when dramatic changes in musical expression
and in the expression of individual sexual identity played similar
roles in washing away the certainties of the past. Pursuing the
shadowy, obscured tracks of queerness, contributors unravel
connections among dissident identities and concrete aspects of
musical style, gestures, and personae. Contributors are Byron
Adams, Philip Brett, Malcolm Hamrick Brown, Sophie Fuller, Mitchell
Morris, Jann Pasler, Ivan Raykoff, Fiona Richards, Eva Rieger,
Gillian Rodger, Sherrie Tucker, and Lloyd Whitesell.
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