Wagner and SuicideComposer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) likely suffered from a manic-depressive disorder but in his time very little was known about mental illness, and suicide was not a topic for general discussion. Wagner was often plagued by extreme mood swings; he used his operas, especially the librettos, to express himself and his personal difficulties. This investigation of the suicidal themes in Wagner's life and operas--Die Fliegender Hollander, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, the Ring cycle, and Parsifal--shows how manic-depressive illness, particularly the depressive part of it, affected Wagner's life and art. It also analyzes the influence of Giambattista Vico's theories of cycles (and how these theories appeared in Wagner's work), suicide as a theatrical and operatic phenomenon, and the way in which the theme of suicide has appeared in other works of the literary and performing arts. |
From inside the book
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... German compatriot Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Nicholas Boyle , in his wonderful and comprehensive biography of Goethe , indicates that the author knew of Vico and his theories ( Boyle 463 ) . These theories appear most clearly in ...
... German theatres began to take up Tannhäuser his inveterate optimism made him assume that the process would go on indefinitely , and that as soon as the four operas of his first period had gone the whole round he would be ready with the ...
... German doctor , Friedrich Keppler , wrote : It is self - evident that the innumerable psychical agitations to which Wagner was daily disposed by his peculiar mental constitution and dis- position , his sharply defined attitude towards a ...
... German reworking of a French text published in the Tableaux de voyages the pre- vious year ( his original brief version had appeared in the Reisebilder of 1826 ) . But Heine's developed version is mordantly ironic , with more than a ...
... German public was beginning to be a little weary of operatic subjects of the romantic , and especially the gloomy romantic type [ Newman 349-350 ] . The Flying Dutchman is certainly nothing if not gloomy — at times it seems like a ...
Contents
7 | |
21 | |
Tannhauser The Artistic Personality and Suicide | 37 |
Lohengrin The Dream Persona from Another World | 55 |
Tristan und Isolde Suicide as the Best Alternative | 73 |
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg Mania and Reconciliation | 94 |
The Ring Cycle Suicide as Threat and Triumph | 111 |
Parsifal Beyond Polarity | 148 |
Suicide in Opera and Drama | 165 |
Wagner the Decadents and the Modern British Novel | 172 |
Conclusion | 182 |
Bibliography | 187 |
Index | 193 |