The March 2021 issue of The Wagner Journal has been published

The March 2021 issue (vol.15, no.1) of The Wagner Journal has been published and contains the following feature articles:

• ‘Dream Work: The Inner World of Die Meistersinger‘ by Paula M. Bortnichak and Edward A. Bortnichak

• ‘A Postscript to “A Breath of Sorrow“ ‘ by Eva Rieger

• ’The Incest Motif in Wagner‘ by Otto Rank. Translated by Anthony Negus, introduced and edited by Christopher Wintle

• ’Richard Wagner and the Artist Gustav Gaul: Newly Discovered Drawings in the Austrian National Library‘ by Chris Walton

• ’Redemption from the Redeemer? Review Article on Roger Scruton and his Wagner's Parsifal‘ by Jeremy Coleman

plus reviews of: productions from Antwerp, Brussels and Helsinki courtesy of Opera Vision; the New York Met’s ’Wagner Week’; performances in Berlin, Bayreuth and Hanover; the CD debut of the soprano Jenufa Gleich; Fritz Reiner’s Complete Columbia Album Collection; the Cambridge Companion to Wagner’s ’Der Ring des Nibelungen’; Michael Buckley’s Dramatic Technique and Meaning in Wagner’s ’Ring’; Anna Stoll Knecht’s Mahler’s Seventh Symphony; William Melton’s new biography of Engelbert Humperdinck

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One of the finest monuments in sound ever to have been raised to the everlasting glory of music. (Claude Debussy on Parsifal)

"The thing about Wagner is that there can be no true success in any production of his operas, only degrees of failure. There is so much in these bloody pieces, all you can do is try to live up to them." (Keith Warner, The Guardian)

"I have never come across an audience with so much hatred, so much anger, such a thirst for revenge. They take everything personally. It makes you a little bit scared, and it's really quite terrifying." (Lance Ryan on the audiences at Bayreuth)

"People sometimes complain that Wagner operas are too long, that they get stiff and sore about 10.30 because they have rushed in to hear one of his works straight from work and are not properly prepared for listening to his music. The audience, as much as the artists, must be prepared for a performance."
(Benjamin Britten to Alan Blyth, Gramophone)

"I was bowled over. It was the year after Wieland Wagner had died; to be able to see his productions was a total knock-out. These bare stagings, where everything was done with lighting. The light changed with the music, and the shadows and patterns seemed as archetypal as the music itself. Nobody had done that on the stage before. I thought it was extraordinary and wonderful."
(Patrick Carnegy to The Guardian)

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