Richard Wagner

“Un giorno, preso dal cruccio, mi scappò di dire che l’arte è una forma della morale, ma non un mezzo morale. Mi si rispose che era una massima oscura”. Nell’oscurità di questa formula riportata nelle Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen c’è tutta l’ambiguità della morale manniana, una morale eteronoma, le cui leggi sono quelle cui l’artista obbedisce nella produzione, nell’obbedienza all’opera. Etica, pessimismo, sacrificio, senso della forma sono, in Thomas Mann, termini difficilmente svincolabili gli uni dagli altri, ricondotti all’“aura etica” di una Heimatsphäre che contempla in sé, insieme al senso più alto dello Humanitätsideal, le declinazioni più oscure o tragiche del nichilismo. L’arte è il luogo privilegiato i cui convergono le antinomie delle spirito, un’arte ‘morale’ e ‘antimorale’, morale per il rigore della forma, la verità dell’espressione che non può darsi senza l’esperienza profonda e radicale di ciò che solo apparentemente le si oppone, senza le estasi erotico-wagneriane di tanti personaggi manniani, senza le irrinunciabili componenti di dilettantismo, malattia e degenerazione, senza, dunque, le implicazioni ‘antimorali’ dell’arte stessa, origine del ‘dolore’ e della ‘grandezza’ che costituiscono la dignità e l’ambiguità dell’attività artistica. Per il ruolo preminente della forma e del rigore strutturale, per la sua specificità metafisica e la potenza dei suoi effetti, la musica è, per Mann, il paradigma, “il più sacro archetipo di ogni arte”, l’arte in cui “la morale diventa forma”.

L’article analyse les écrits critiques (réunis dans Nos Maîtres) et les textes littéraires de Teodor de Wyzewa, en fonction de son attitude à l’égard de ceux qu’il considérait comme ses maîtres. L’évolution de la pensée de Wyzewa démontre que cet adepte du wagnérisme s’est progressivement éloigné de ceux qui l’ont influencé, en remplaçant une approche intellectuelle de l’art et la foi aveugle dans la science, jugée vaine, par un idéal à la fois esthétique et éthique. Dans le roman Valbert ou les Récits d’un jeune homme Wyzewa décrit un détachement de l’idéalisme aliénant au profit d’une attitude spontanée face à la vie. Sa relecture des paraboles bibliques met en question la philosophie schopenhauerienne au profit du tolstoïsme (Contes chrétiens). La quête des valeurs morales entraîne une rupture avec la pensée symboliste en faveur d’une religion de l’amour et de la beauté. En formulant son propre enseignement Wyzewa a donc dépassé l’autorité de ses maîtres, sans pourtant amoindrir leur importance pour toute sa génération.

An article (in Turkish) where Emre Aracı recalls his trip to Neuschwanstein Castle of King Ludwig II in the Bavarian Alps.

Emre Aracı bu makalesinde II. Ludwig'in sihirli dünyasını yansıtan ve besteci Richard Wagner'in sanatına hediye olarak inşa edilen Neuschwanstein Kalesi'ne yapmış olduğu bir ziyaretin anılarını bizimle paylaşıyor.

As a long-time admirer of classical music, I was always particularly interested in symphonic descriptions of the Sea. Since several years I began taking notes of the pieces on the subject and finally it took a form of the current compilation. This program is not pretended to be comprehensive as it is based on my personal musical preferences which would equally explain the domination of the Russian composers.
I would like to address this program to my family that admires the Sea, to my shipmates of archaeological missions in Egypt and those of the sailing frigate ‘L’Hermione’, as well as to all people that love symphonic music and the Sea.
The accompanying text section (in English, Russian and French) includes general information and some curious facts concerning the creation of each piece.
I wish you a nice listening,
A.B.

Fromental Halévy’s five-act grand opera <La Reine de Chypre> premiered in Paris in 1841. Many critics viewed the work as a great success and seen as a true rival to <La Juive> (1835). Wagner, who was in Paris at the time, even went so far as to claim the composition ‘a new step forward’ in the world of opera, evidenced in the many review articles and publications he wrote about the work. This article attempts to uncover what Wagner admired about Halévy’s composition, especially within the context of the German composer’s ‘artistic exile’ in France (1839–1842) and the completion of a new dramatic conception of German romantic opera in <Der Fliegende Holländer> (1843). The connections between the two works are explored, revealing an affinity for the exile and the desire for female redemption.

More than a century after Guido Adler's appointment to the first chair in musicology at the University of Vienna, Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History provides a first look at the discipline in this earliest period, and at the ideological dilemmas and methodological anxieties that characterized it upon its institutionalization. Author Kevin Karnes contends that some of the most vital questions surrounding musicology's disciplinary identities today-the relationship between musicology and criticism, the role of the subject in analysis and the narration of history, and the responsibilities of the scholar to the listening public-originate in these conflicted and largely forgotten beginnings.

Sažetak | Ovim radom se istražuje scenografski projekat srpskog scenografa Aleksandra Denića za opersku tetralogiju “Prsten Nibelunga” Riharda Vagnera, u režiji kontroverznog nemačkog reditelja postdramskog teatra – Franka Kastorfa, premijerno prikazanu na Festivalu u Bajrojtu 2013. godine, povodom jubileja dvesta godina od kompozitorovog rođenja. Kastorf i Denić su novim postmodernim i postdramskim tumačenjem Vagnerove sage o Nibelunzima, najdubljim delom u istoriji evropske muzike, stvorili jednu od najkompleksnijih inscenacija Prstena, prožetu dekonstrukcijom dramske radnje i realizmom scenske arhitekture uz naglašenu društveno-ideološku metaforu. Dramatikom operskog trilera i scenografskom atmosferom filmskog karaktera reditelj i scenograf eksperimentalno pristupaju Vagnerovom konceptu muzičke drame, tematski objedinivši mitološke priče u jedinstveno putovanje kroz geo-političku istoriju 20. veka zasnovanu na ideološkim i globalističkim uticajima komunizma i neoliberalnog kapitalizma. Dramaturška interpretacija Prstena zasnovana je na ideji da je zlato današnjice crno, odnosno da je to nafta. U vrtlogu suprotstavljenih društvenih vrednosti profit postaje povezujuća spona između istoka i zapada, različitih ideologija i kulturnih obrazaca, koje prevazilaze mitsko kao idealizovanu predstavu nepatvorene nacionalne istorije i kulture. Režijski koncept prenošenja apstraktne teme nordijske mitologije u savremeni istorijski i društveni kontekst, omogućio je scenografu otkrivanje brojnih tema društvene zbilje i njihovo prenošenje u scenski prostor naglašene semantike i vizuelnog doživljaja.
Ključne reći | Festival u Bajrojtu, Rihard Vagner, Prsten Nibelunga, opera, pozorište, Aleksandar Denić, scenografija, semantika scenskog dizajna.


Summary | This paper explores the scenographic project of Serbian set designer Aleksandar Denić for opera tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” by Richard Wagner, directed by the controversial German director of postdramatic theater – Frank Castorf, premiered at the Bayreuth Festival in 2013, for the two hundredth anniversary of the composer's birth. Festival in Bayreuth has become one of the most important opera world events, a place that gathers the most eminent theatre and opera artists around Wagner's music, with the intention of remembrance of Wagner's opera heritage, but also inevitably to find new possibilities for artistic and theatrical interpretation. With the new postmodern and postdramatic interpretation of Wagner's Nibelungen saga, the deepest part of the history of European music, Castorf and Denić had created one of the most complex staging of the Ring, interspersed with the deconstruction of dramatic action and realism of stage architecture with a pronounced socio-ideological metaphor.
Director and set designer have experimentally approached Wagner's concept of music drama, with the drama of the opera thriller and scenographic atmosphere of the film character, they have united the theme of mythological stories in a unique journey through the geo-political history of the 20th century, based on ideological and globalizing influences of communism and neoliberal capitalism. The dramaturgical interpretation of the Ring is based on the idea that gold is black today, and it is oil. In the maelstrom of conflicting social values the profit is the connecting link between East and West, different ideologies and cultural patterns that go beyond the mythical which is an idealized representation of genuine national history and culture. The theme of the drama (opera) action is recognized on a global level, so that oil, as semantically light motive, becomes the connecting link between mythological stories, different ideological constellations and historical premise of the 20th century.
Directorial concept of conveying abstract themes of Norse mythology in contemporary historical and social context enabled the scenographer to detect numerous themes of social reality and its transfer to the scenic area of highlighted semantics and visual experience. Theatrical creative work of Frank Castorf and Aleksandar Denić is based on their maximal engagement of artistic-intuitive and critical-semantic expressions, unified in a unique theatrical approach, which is based on scenographic pulse on which the director based stage space and directing plays. Denić's scenography architecture should be seen as a construct of complex semantic narrative of historical and cultural identification, from which it has made dramaturgical interpretation and deconstruction. At the same time, scenography becomes a visual link that explicitly reveals the dramatic messages, because what in Castorf's direction has done as elusive or incomprehensible, Denić's scenographies showed as a real.
Key words | Bayreuth Festival, Richard Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung, opera, theatre, Aleksandar Denić, scenography, semantics of set design.

Jean MARCEL, « Richard Wagner dramaturge », dans Pensées, passions et proses, Montréal, L’Hexagone, 1992, pp. 287-311    ISBN 2-8900-6445-X  errata p. 300 ligne 9 : « la prochaine phase du drame » ; p. 311 ligne 5 : « Alberich en maudissant l’anneau ».

The article examines the principles of interaction of the sacred
and musical texts of the operas of Richard Wagner and Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov. The greatest amount of attention is given to the
aspect of direct interaction with the musical fabric that is studied
on the material of the orchestral introductions to the operas.
Based on the conclusions of the analysis of four contrasting
examples: the opening sections (before the raising of the curtains,
according to the composers’ instructions in the score) of the
operas “Das Rheingold,” “Götterdämmerung,” “Mlada” and “The
Snow Maiden,” both the common features and the individual
peculiarities of the myth and ritual origin in each case. The
instrumental introductions to the operas of Wagner’s “Ring” have
a similar type of expression of the myth and ritual-based universe
in the musical fabric, whereas Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas reveal
various variants of interaction, possessing traits both similar to
Wagner’s (“such as “The Snow Maiden”) and contrasting to them

Becoming commercially available in the mid 1960s, video quickly became integral to the intense experimentalism of New York City's music and art scenes. The medium was able to record image and sound at the same time, which allowed composers to visualize their music and artists to sound their images. But as well as creating unprecedented forms of audiovisuality, video work also producedinteractive spaces that questioned conventional habits of music and art consumption. This book explores the first decade of creative video work, focusing on the ways in which video technology was used to dissolve the boundaries between art and music.

In “Wagner’s Parsifal: The Music of Redemption,” Sir Roger Scruton guides us—like Virgil—through the twisty cosmos of Richard Wagner and leaves us at the gates of paradise. Those who desire a treatment of Wagner’s final opera without the pollution of ideological criticism will find a wonderful breath of fresh air in Scruton’s treatment of the work.

In 1870, Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) wrote an essay to celebrate the centennial of Beethoven's birth. In this essay Wagner made the case that music is, unlike any other object we create or are attentive to in experience , in an immediate analogical relationship with the activity of the Schopenhauerian "will" and is always enlivened. By drawing on this idea, we can not only conceive of music as in an immediate analogical relationship with our personal experience, but as perhaps the only object of cognition that is in a constant state of personal vitality. It is by that very continuous vitality that it can return us to our own personhood with deeper insight and perspective. The essay concludes by exploring how attending to the musical object as a spiritual (existen-tial) exercise might reconnect us to our roots in sensus communis, educate us on our common personhood, and play an ethical role in our lives.

This article explores the politics of performing Wagner outdoors, focusing on the Waldoper in Sopot, Poland, and its operations under the Third Reich. Festival literature suggests that the Reich combined climatic deterministic logic with established open-air theatrical practice to implicate experiencing Wagnerian sounds outdoors as inculcating völkisch character in Poles, positioning the festival within the Reich’s imperial mission. However, this vision from ‘on high’ was undermined by bureaucratic disorganization and inefficiency, much like other Nazi artistic projects. The article concludes with a discussion of the post-war afterlives of the Waldoper and its attendant mythologies.

Este artículo pretende reconstruir la relación entre Nietzsche y Richard Wagner a través del análisis de los conceptos que el primero de ellos toma de Arthur Schopenhauer y que ve reflejados en el segundo. Schopenhauer veía en la Música no solo la máxima expresión del Arte sino la única disciplina completamente independiente del mundo de la representación. Nietzsche toma estas ideas y las lleva un paso más lejos, hasta el punto de considerar la Música como algo necesario para hacer despertar el elemento dionisíaco que nos permita revitalizar una cultura cada vez más decadente. Wagner se presentará en su vida como la figura del genio kantiano capaz de provocar esa revitalización.

Cavour definì la lirica come una vera e grande industria che ha ramificazioni in tutto il mondo. L’affermazione dello statista, valida ancora oggi, non solo dimostra l’importanza economica di questa complessa forma d’arte, ma implica necessariamente il ricorso a un vasto corpus normativo che ne consenta il funzionamento.
Il presente volume intende, pertanto, analizzare le regole di diritto privato che disciplinano l’attività di un teatro lirico, concentrandosi, in particolar modo, sugli aspetti contrattuali. L’opera evidenzia la forte influenza che gli usi originati nella prassi teatrale esplicano ancora oggi e avanza alcune proposte di riforma tese a rendere più efficiente il sistema della lirica in Italia e a riequilibrare la situazione di svantaggio nella quale, di norma, l’artista lirico si trova ad operare.
Una riflessione su questi aspetti appare oggi di particolare interesse, stante l’annunciata adozione, da parte del Ministero dei beni culturali, di un Codice dello Spettacolo che andrà a ridisciplinare anche il funzionamento dei teatri lirici.

Ve svém krátkém parodickém textu Nejnovější vzdělávací reforma razí Heinrich von Kleist paradoxní myšlenku, že zatímco v dobré společnosti může člověk mravy pouze napodobovat, což znamená, že postupně upadají, společnost špatná naopak inspiruje k tomu, aby si je člověk takříkajíc rekonstruoval sám, úsilím vlastního srdce. To má pak zcela jasné stimulující účinky, jak to podle něj ukazuje případ trestanecké kolonie v Austrálii. - Je možná přehnané aplikovat tuto teorii na Richarda Wagnera, o němž i jinak celkem indiferentní Wittgenstein říká, že je prvním z velkých umělců s nepříjemným charakterem. Zdůvodnilo by to však, proč jsme zvláště ve Wagnerově případě fascinováni temnými stránkami jeho osobnosti, k nimž patří i nijak neskrývaný a opakovaně deklarovaný antisemitismus, zatímco u jiných, např. Lichtenberga či Dostojevského, nás nechávají chladnými. - S ohledem na společenský či, řekněme, společensky mimořádně vlivný charakter Wagnerovy osobnosti a díla se chceme něčemu důležitému naučit. - Čemu a jak k tomu může přispět tento sborník, je obsahem tohoto úvodu.

Inscindibile dalle vicende della Germania nazista, la musica scandì l'ascesa e il crollo del regime hitleriano, assumendo un ruolo di preminenza assoluta su tutte le arti. Que-sto libro ne indaga l'intimo intreccio con la politica tedesca tra il 1933 e il 1945, analizzandone le tappe principali: i presupposti; l'epurazione di ebrei e oppositori politici; la costruzione del «mito» del Terzo Reich da parte dei musicologi; l'ascesa e la caduta di nuovi e vecchi astri; l'effimero tentativo di colmare il vuoto lasciato dalle epurazioni; in-fine, la sorprendente organizzazione musicale del sistema concentrazionario. Accanto alle vicende dei musicisti ebrei, vittime predestinate e oggetto delle più gravi vessazioni, emerge un groviglio indistricabile di partigianerie e atti di resistenza, fedeltà cieca al regime e op portunismo, invidie e ri-valità tra potenti, sullo sfondo della più spa-ventosa tragedia collettiva del XX secolo.

This paper shows how the concept of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk' (total or universal work of art), which originated as 'Artwork of the Future' in Richard Wagner's 'Zurich Writings', is rooted in Wagner's reading of Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit', particularly of the section on 'Das geistige Kunstwerk' (The Spiritual Work of Art). Wagner's conceptions of a 'Kunstwerk der Zukunft' and a universal 'Kunstgenossenschaft' must be interpreted as a failed attempt to provide a solution for the negative deadlock of modernity and thus an alternative to today's total work of art: capitalism.

What exactly is the relation between music, our origin(s) and our end(s)? Is the danger intrinsic to music that philosophers and thinkers like Pascal Quignard, Deleuze and Guattari, and even neuroscientists like Daniel Levitin related to our musical relation to our fantasied births and deaths? Focusing particularly on Wagner's music, but also on musicians like Diamanda Galas, Laibach, Lingua Ignota, and Dorian Electra, this essay examines the dangers of archephonai or "originary sounds," as well as--through their dangerous nature--their potential as pharmaka.

Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896), estudou no Conservatório do Rio de Janeiro e no Conservatório Real de Milão onde iniciou exitosa carreira como operista. Suas relações de identidade, sua obra e seu papel como compositor ilustrado na formação de uma identidade nacional para o Brasil tem sido alvo de estudos (VOLPE, 2002). Seu maior sucesso foi Il Guarany, estreada no Teatro alla Scala em 19 de março de 1870. Baseada no romance de Jose de Alencar de temática indigenista, o libreto de Antonio Scalvini, complementado por Carlos D’Ormeville, permitiu trânsito seguro ao compositor para aborda-lo musicalmente dentro da estética de grand-opéra e do exotismo. Provavelmente este aspecto, combinado com a fluência melódica de Gomes, tenha lhe garantido substancial e duradouro sucesso. O desejado exotismo está centrado nas figuras de Pery e do Cacico, dois dos pontos cardinais do pentágono dramático completado por Cecilia, Don Antonio de Mariz seu pai e Gonzales. Ao longo das décadas, diferentes apropriações dessas duas figuras exóticas constam na iconografia. Se as ilustrações tem forte conteúdo de percepção autoral, as fotografias atestam um fato mais concreto, porém ainda perceptivo. Essas fontes permitem observar a relação entre realidade, a transformação da realidade no conceito de otherness (segundo Said, 2007) e a interpretação dessa trans-formação nos periódicos da época. A distância entre a realidade do índio e sua representação no palco é incomensurável, compreensível e parte integrante da licença da arte operística, particularmente no que se refere à ópera italiana do século XIX. Mesmo na aceitação do irreal, a análise iconográfica permite discutir a relação entre ditas três con-dições. Se o primado do exótico era fonte de interesse à ópera do século XIX, a melhoria das comunicações e de deslocamento rápido ao longo do século XX modificou a percepção do exotismo, contribuindo para uma menor aceitação de obras como Il Guarany de Gomes e, por conseguinte, o relativo esquecimento a que foi relegada.

Ausgehend von Interpretationen zu literarischen Texten des 21. Jahrhunderts, in deren Zentrum Ost-westliche Transfers stehen, macht die Monographie auf einen blinden Fleck der zeitgenössischen Debatte um das kulturelle Gedächtnis aufmerksam. Sie stellt diesem Begriff den des Interkulturellen Gedächtnisses als Ergänzung an die Seite, um terminologisch pointiert zu fassen, was das Anliegen der untersuchten Texte ist. Es geht ihnen um marginalisierte Erinnerungen von Migranten und Migrantinnen, Sexarbeiterinnen oder politisch Verfolgten und – mehr noch – um den semantischen Kampf, diese Marginalisierungen ansprechen zu können. Die Ursache der Unmöglichkeit des Sprechens über diese Erinnerungen, die teilweise so weitereichend ist, dass das Erinnern selbst nicht mehr oder nur noch rudimentär möglich ist, sehen die Texte im Fehlen von angemessenen Formen des Erinnerns. Dass ausgerechnet in der Kunstform Literatur die Möglichkeit gegeben ist, auf das Fehlen dieser Sprachformen hinzuweisen, liegt nicht zuletzt daran, dass es ihr möglich ist, neue Formen und Formulierungen zu (er)finden, indem Aporien oder Widersprüchlichkeiten als solche ausgestellt werden können. Die Texte tun dies – wo es gelingt – vor allem durch den Transfer und das Verweben verschiedener Gedächtniskulturen, die nicht immer international, aber doch immer interkulturell sind. Das Buch ist erschienen und erhältlich  bei Königshausen & Neumann (www.koenigshausen-neumann.de).

This study is a documentary contribution to the history of aesthetics in Argentina. It collects, comments, and contextualizes the programs of the courses taught by Mariano Antonio Barrenechea as Professor of Aesthetics at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the University of Buenos Aires between 1922 and 1930.

En este artículo se analiza Parsifal (1882), última obra del compositor
alemán Richard Wagner, centrando la atención en una peculiar concepción del Tiempo manifestada principalmente por el material musical, en profunda articulación con texto y escena. Con ayuda de esto se intenta desvelar el sentido de las últimas palabras de la obra, “Erlösung dem Erloser”, como expresión de la decadencia de un orden imposible de restaurar a pesar de la intervención de Parsifal, idea determinada por laisintomatología de toda una época que está en la raíz del proyecto wagneriano.

In un tempo in cui l'Europa riscopre l'inquietante presenza di movimenti di destra, xenofobi, intolleranti e violenti, "Il veleno del commediante. Arte, utopia e antisemitismo in Richard Wagner" (ombre corte), scritto da Leonardo V. Distaso e Ruggero Taradel, offre uno strumento prezioso per comprendere quale nesso vi sia stato tra alcuni tratti dell'ideologia di Wagner e della sua poetica e l'oscuro baratro dentro cui è caduta l'Europa alcuni decenni dopo. Rileggere l'opera wagneriana a partire dallo Judenhass che percorre buona parte della produzione saggistica del grande compositore può contribuire a ricostruire il quadro storico-ideologico all'interno del quale si è innestato e si è diffuso il virus dell'antisemitismo e dell'intolleranza, che oggi sembra drammaticamente ricomparire.

ABSTRACT
This article investigates how Gabriele D’Annunzio’s The Triumph of
Death brings together Nietzsche’s ideas and Wagner’s music and
interweaves them with the motifs of literary Decadence and the
author’s own particular sexual politics. The novel is an experimental
text striving to be a Gesemtkunstswerk, an integrated work that
incorporates music, painting, poetry, regional folklore, and private
thoughts about personal and national power. I discuss the novel’s
themes of violent sexuality and the anxiety of powerlessness and
explore their implications for the fascist political aesthetics in which
D’Annunzio played a pioneering role.