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Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-43738-7 — Richard : und Isolde Edited by Arthur Groos Frontmatter More Information

Cambridge Handbooks

Richard Wagner

Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde occupies a singular position in the history of Western culture. What Nietzsche called the ‘terrible and sweet infinity’ of its basic nexus of longing and death has fascinated audiences since its first performance in 1865. At the same time, its advanced harmonic language, immediately announced by the opening ‘’, marks a defining moment in the evolution of modern music. This accessible handbook brings together seven leading international writers to discuss the opera’s genesis and the ’s relationship to late Romantic literary concerns, to present an analysis of the Prelude, the music of the drama itself, and Wagner’s innova- tive use of instrumental timbre, and to illustrate the production history and reception of the music-drama into the twenty-first century. The book includes the first English translation of Wagner’s prose draft of the libretto, a detailed discussion of Wagner’s orchestration, and rare pictures from important and influential productions.

Arthur Groos is Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1973. A member of the departments of German Studies, Medieval Studies, and Music, his musical interests focus on issues of music and culture, and opera, especially Wagner, Puccini, and modern opera. His books include Giacomo Puccini: La bohème (with Roger Parker, 1986) and Romancing the Grail: Genre, Science, and Quest in Wolfram’s (1995), as well as the collections Reading Opera (1988), Madama Butterfly: Fonti e documenti (2005), and seven other edited volumes. Founding co-editor of the Cambridge Opera Journal, he has served on the editorial/advisory boards of JAMS and Opera Quarterly. He is also general editor of Cambridge Studies in Opera, and co-editor of Transatlantische Studien.

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Published titles in this series

Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio by Paul Robinson Vincenzo Bellini: Norma by David Kimbell : Lulu by Douglas Jarman Alban Berg: by Douglas Jarman : by Ian Kemp Georges Bizet: Carmen by Susan McClary : by Mervyn Cooke and Philip Reed Benjamin Britten: Death in by Donald Mitchell Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes by Philip Brett Benjamin Britten: The Turn of the Screw by Patricia Howard : Pelléas et Mélisande by Roger Nichols and Richard Langham Smith C. W. von Gluck: Orfeo by Patricia Howard Leoš Janácˇek: Kát’a Kabanová by John Tyrrell : Orfeo by John Whenham W. A. Mozart: by John Rice W. A. Mozart: Cos`ı fan tutte by Bruce Alan Brown W. A. Mozart: Don Giovanni by Julian Rushton W. A. Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Thomas Bauman W. A. Mozart: Idomeneo by Julian Rushton W. A. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro by Tim Carter W. A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte by Peter Branscombe Giacomo Puccini: La Bohème by Arthur Groos and Roger Parker Giacomo Puccini: Tosca by Mosco Carner : Arabella by Kenneth Birkin Richard Strauss: Elektra by Derrick Puffett Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier by Alan Jefferson Richard Strauss: by Derrick Puffett : The Rake’s Progress by Paul Griffiths : Falstaff by James A. Hepokoski Giuseppe Verdi: Otello by James A. Hepokoski Richard Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer by Thomas Grey Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by John Warrack Richard Wagner: by Lucy Beckett Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde by Arthur Groos : by Stephen Hinton

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Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde

Edited by ARTHUR GROOS

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-43738-7 — Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde Edited by Arthur Groos Frontmatter More Information

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521437387

© Cambridge University Press 2011

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2011 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde / edited by Arthur Groos. p. cm. – (Cambridge opera handbooks) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-43138-5 1. Wagner, Richard, 1813–1883. Tristan und Isolde. 2. Wagner, Richard, 1813–1883. 3. Opera – 19th century. I. Groos, Arthur. II. Title. III. Series. ML410.W1A295 2011 782.1–dc22 2010037296

ISBN 978-0-521-43138-5 Hardback ISBN 978-0-521-43738-7 Paperback

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Contents

List of contributors page vii List of illustrations viii General preface xi

Introduction 1 Synopsis: Wagner’s prose draft (1857) 4 1 Public and private life: on the genesis of Tristan und 19 Isolde and the JOHN DEATHRIDGE

2 Between memory and desire: Wagner’s libretto and 36 late Romantic subjectivity ARTHUR GROOS

3 The Prelude and the 53

4 In the realm of the senses: sight, sound and the music 69 of desire in Tristan und Isolde THOMAS GREY

5 A mantle of sound for the night: timbre in Wagner’s 95 Tristan und Isolde JU¨ RGEN MAEHDER

6 Staging Tristan und Isolde 120 STEWART SPENCER

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vi Contents

7 Tristan’s traces 142 STEVEN HUEBNER

Notes 167 Select bibliography 199 Index 211

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Contributors

JOHN DEATHRIDGE is King Edward Professor of Music, King’s College London.

THOMAS GREY is Professor of , Stanford University.

ARTHUR GROOS is Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Cornell University.

STEVEN HUEBNER is James McGill Professor of Musicology, McGill University.

JOSEPH KERMAN is Professor of Musicology Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley.

JÜRGEN MAEHDER is Professor of Musicology at the Freie Universität Berlin.

STEWART SPENCER currently works as a translator.

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Illustrations

1. Set model for Act I by Angelo (ii) Quaglio page 121 (1829–90) for the Nationaltheater, Munich, 10 June 1865. Detta and Michael Petzet, Die Richard Wagner-Bühne König Ludwigs II. (Munich, 1970), 57 (Plate III). 2. Set design for Act II by Max Brückner (1836–1919) 125 and Gotthold Brückner (1844–92), , 25 July 1886. Portfolio of designs published as Richard Wagner’s Werke im Bilde (Bayreuther Bühnenbilder)Tristan und Isolde (Leipzig: Eulenburg, n.d. [c. 1900]). 3. Set design for Act II by Adolphe Appia 127 (1862–1928), La Scala, Milan, 20 December 1923, Deutsches Theatermuseum, Inv. Nr: I 13299 F 436. Brigitte Heldt, Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde: Das Werk und seine Inszenierung (Laaber, 1994), 137. 4. Set designs for Acts I and II by Alexander 128–9 Shervashidse (1867–1949) for Vsevolod Meyerhold’s production at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, 30 October 1909, St Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. Heldt, Richard Wagner, 166 and 167. 5. Set designs for Acts I and III by Emil Preetorius 132 (1883–1973), Bayreuth Festival, 24 July 1938. Emil Preetorius, Das szenische Werk (Berlin and Vienna, 1944), 42 and plate facing page 32.

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List of illustrations ix 6. Act II in the production by 135 (1917–66), Bayreuth Festival, 24 July 1962. This image dates from the 1963 revival. Heldt, Richard Wagner, 195. 7. Acts II and III in the production by Jean-Pierre 136–7 Ponnelle (1932–88), Bayreuth Festival, 25 July 1981 (photo: Lauterwasser). 8. Act III in the production by Christoph Marthaler 139 (born 1951), Bayreuth Festival, 25 July 2005 (photo: Jochen Quast).

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