The music of Richard Wagner
In my last blog post I looked at books about the Wagner family, Wagnerian Opera and Bayreuth.
In this post I want to look at some of the audio-visual material the Library has on this subject.
The following DVDs are of the controversial 1976 centennial staging of the complete Ring Cycle, directed by Patrice Chereau at Bayreuth.
A more recent 2009 production by Christoph Marthaler from the Bayreuth Festival was said to have excellent singing but a bleak production – judge for yourself – 8 copies within the Library system have 78 holds so it's proven popular with other patrons already.
Wolfgang Wagner also directed performances as well as commissioning new ones.
- Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg – DVD - 1989 performance from Bayreuth
There are, of course, other places where Wagner is performed and below you can see some productions from the Metropolitan Opera in New York:
For something more general and not focused on a specific opera you may be interested in the documentary:
There is a wide selection of CDs to choose from. Below are some selections by well-known singers: some you can borrow and others are available only to listen to at the Toronto Reference Library:
- Der Ring des Nibelungen – 14 CDs – the complete cycle – 1960s Berlin Philharmonic with Herbert von Karajan as conductor
- Der Ring des Nibelungen- 14 CDs – the complete cycle – 1997 – Vienna Philharmonic with Georg Solti as conductor and with Birgit Nilsson and Hans Hotter singing
- Wagner – excerpts – Berlin Philharmonic with Claudio Abbado as conductor
- Wagner's Siegfried – 3 CDs – 1937 Metropolitan Opera performance with Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior singing
- An introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen – 2 CDs – an explanation and analysis of Wagner's system of leitmotifs by Deryck Cooke with 193 music examples
- Essential Wagner – 2 CDs – Various soloists, orchestras, and conductors
- Wagner, Strauss – 1 CD - Adrianne Pieczonka (Canadian singer)
Did you know the Toronto Reference Library still has over 15,000 records as well as record players for listening in the library?
- The Ring of the Nibelung – 11 Records – Kirsten Flagstad, Set Svanholm and Max Lorenz – La Scalla Milan
- The Flying Dutchman; excerpts – 1 Record – Annalies Kupper, Sieglinde Wagner, Wolfgang Windgassen, Ernst Haefliger,Josef Metternich, and Josef Greindl, bass
- Wesendonk songs ; Arias – 1 Record – Régine Crespin
- Parsifal – 2 Records – Maria Callas – Rome 1950 production
- Flagstad and Melchior duets (Wagner) – 1 Record –
- Unforgettable voices in unforgotten performances from the German operatic repertoire – 1 Record – Soloists accompanied by various orchestras from 1926-1950
One thought on “The music of Richard Wagner”
The father of my grandfather also was called Richard Wagner and was a composer in Annaberg (East-Germany). Still wondering if he was connected with him.