The Wagners: The Dramas of a Musical Dynasty - Hardcover

Wagner, Nike

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 069108811X ISBN 13: 9780691088112

Publisher: Princeton Univ Dept of Art &, 2001

Synopsis

In this virtuoso piece of cultural history, the great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner narrates the Wagner family's turbulent history. In the process, she shares her considerable insights into the operas and gives an inside account of the internecine struggles that have surrounded the Wagner family jewel: the Bayreuth Festival.

Nike Wagner draws on history, biography, and psychoanalysis to interpret both her family's history and her great-grandfather's operas. She focuses on Bayreuth, revealing how this showcase for Wagner's sublime art so readily served the Third Reich. With clear, often ironic eyes, she examines her family's extraordinary role in German culture--and its connections to right-wing ideology.

Particularly fascinating is the tug-of-war between Nike's visionary but enigmatic father, Wieland, and her astute but aesthetically stodgy uncle, Wolfgang. It was Wieland Wagner who inaugurated a daring new style of Wagner production--characterized by absence of scenery, spare acting, and dramatic lighting--that led to a wider revolution in how operas are produced. But Wolfgang Wagner, now entering his eighties, has controlled the Festival and quarreled with family members since Wieland's premature death in 1966. The author concludes with a look at the current contenders for this family throne, herself among them, and presents her vision for the Festival's future.

Wagnerites will need this book on their shelves. As an example of cultural journalism at its finest, it will also appeal to readers interested in German cultural history or those simply drawn to the melodrama that is the Wagner family story.

About this title

Review:

"Within The Wagners there are three books rolled into one. The first is a collection of dramaturgical essays . . .The second is a potted family history, told by an opinionated insider . . . The third is a personal manifesto . . . Nike demonstrates the depth and relevance of Wagner's world to us today. Her sense of perspective of Wagner's anti-Semitism is particularly refreshing."--Andrew Clark, Financial Times

"[A] gripping (and true) story of intrigue, betrayal, lust, snobbery and ambition."--Margarette Driscoll, The Times (London)

"Despite [the author's] intimate connection to [Bayreuth], a better treatment of the family-run cultural institution seems unimaginable."--Booklist

"[A] fascinating insider's view."--Library Journal

"This is not a pretty family history, but it is endlessly interesting and dotted with perceptions that perhaps only a family member could--or would dare--bring to light . . . People who care anything about Wagner or his works ought to read it."--Rudolph S. Rauch, Opera News

"Nike's account of the recurrent patterns of strong women and vacillating men in the family, and the odd ways in which Bayreuth has been both cherished and rejected by modern Germany is fascinating."--Publishers Weekly

"Nike Wagner's stories of the family are shot through with insights and details that make her must reading for any committed Wagnerian. . . . NIke comments on her father, Wieland, are subtle and complex, recognizing his artistic genius but fully aware of his personal faults."--John Rockwell, New York Times Book Review

"A family memoir in which shrewd insight and unexpected empathy animate a cast of characters nearly worthy of the master himself. . . . Nike Wagner's book--at once an opera goer's companion, a genealogical chronicle, and a position paper--bravely aspires to a Wagnerian confluence of themes."--Joseph Horowitz, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"I approached this book (as one approaches any book by any Wagner) with skepticism, but ended up being very impressed. . . . What Nike Wagner writes about the Ring, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal, in particular, is a good deal more intelligent, clear eyed, and provocative than much else that has been turned out about these works recently. . . . Very smartly written and excellently translated, Nike's baleful family saga is fascinating to read, well worth your time even if you hate Wagner."--Joseph Kerman, New York Review of Book

From the Back Cover:

"Nike Wagner has a sophisticated and subtle mind. Her intellectual and artistic credentials are formidable, and she writes in a highly polished, witty, and allusive style that is enormously rewarding. In this book, she performs a tour de force. . . . As a piece of cultural history--a discipline that is nowadays widely practiced in a variety of deformed jargons, but is here a contribution itself to culture--this book is exemplary. It is a virtuoso performance."--Michael Tanner, Cambridge University, author of Wagner

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton Univ Dept of Art &
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 069108811X
• ISBN 13: 9780691088112
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 327