The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music

Rating:
Summary: Excellent essays on all aspects of this complex man
Review: This is the most up-to-date and useful "general" volume on Wagner I have read. Rather than focusing on a single aspect of Wagner, this gives excellent, short and readable essays (by a variety of modern authors) on the historical and philosophical background; Wagners' views on his contemporaries, women, and the Jews (a particularly insightful essay on this difficult issue); Wagner's own writings; and fine short analysis of all of the music, not just the operas. This book is a mini-encyclopedia (though more comprehensive and readable than the new Grove entry). Well worth finding for anyone who has more than a passing interest in Wagner.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent essays on all aspects of this complex man
Review: This is the most up-to-date and useful "general" volume on Wagner I have read. Rather than focusing on a single aspect of Wagner, this gives excellent, short and readable essays (by a variety of modern authors) on the historical and philosophical background; Wagners' views on his contemporaries, women, and the Jews (a particularly insightful essay on this difficult issue); Wagner's own writings; and fine short analysis of all of the music, not just the operas. This book is a mini-encyclopedia (though more comprehensive and readable than the new Grove entry). Well worth finding for anyone who has more than a passing interest in Wagner.