Wagner

The Invention of a Monster
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-0-7188-9867-0
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer Ltd.

Buch, Englisch, 300 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 597 g

An invitation to reassess one of the greatest German composers, and consider whether he merits the darkening of his image during the past 60 years.

Wagner has the most villainous reputation of any figure in the arts. He is often held to have inspired Hitler's murderous anti-Semitism, and an army of ruthless mercenaries-the Wagner Group-has taken its name from him. Yet many of the worst things laid to his charge are based on misconstruction or even fabrication: on a letter he never wrote, or opinions he never expressed. Key passages in Cosima Wagner's diaries have been misinterpreted through failure to check their background. In Wagner: The Invention of a Monster, Derek Hughes re examines this controversial figure, tracing the progressive falsifications of his opinions from the 1960s to the present day. There is much new research into the early reception and understanding of his operas, and Hughes contrasts modern assessments of the composer with those current in Wagner's own era, and then during the Third Reich. Ultimately, the book reaches a perhaps surprising conclusion: many modern critics see more Nazism in Wagner than the Nazis ever did.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hughes, Derek

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein Einzelne Künstler: Biographien, Monografien
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Sinfonische Musik & Ensembles
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Einzelne Komponisten und Musiker

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Texts and Abbreviations

Section I. Rabid and Virulent

1. The Accusations
2. A Pogrom in Russia
3. A Theatre Fire

Section II. The Road to 'Das Judenthum in der Musik'
4. Meyerbeer
5. Revolution
6. 'Das Judenthum in der Musik'

Section III: Jewish Villains?

7. Tannhäuser and Lohengrin

8. The Ring Alberich and Mime

9. The Jew in the Thornbush

10. Parsifal. Rassenschande?

Section IV: Views of Wagner to 1945

11. Alberich and Mime. Two Early Views

12. Alberich and Mime. Further Early Views

13. Die Meistersinger, from Wagner to Hitler

14. Parsifal. The Fortunes of Kundry

15. Wagner's Reputation

Section V. Wagner without Sensationalism

16. Race (1)

17. Jewish Genes

18. Race (2)

19. Good Jews and Jewish Friends

20. Nationalism

21. Jews in the Press. Three Case Studies

1. Usury

2. Darabani

3. A Harsh Winter

Appendix

Fotor Judaïcus: A Cautionary Tale

Wagner and 'the Jew Guggenheim'

Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Hughes, Derek
DEREK HUGHES is Professor Emeritus at the University of Aberdeen. He has published an array of books and articles with an operatic or theatrical focus, including Culture and Sacrifice: Ritual Death in Literature and Opera (2007), and is a consistent contributor to the Wagner Journal.