Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Kreuzer considers operas, pre-operas, post-operas (films), and meta-operas (
Ring cycle satires) while moving through past and present with ease. …Her approach is original. She pulls Wagner down from the heavens among the gods and makes him mortal—a flawed, infuriating and curious creature who worried about receipts while cursing at the riggers.”
* Times Literary Supplement *
“Kreuzer offers an innovative and staggeringly detailed examination of the intertwined developments of opera as an art form and the technical machines that brought it to life. Her investigation sheds light on how composers, from the nineteenth century onward, sought to incorporate old and emerging stage technologies into their operas in various ways to achieve ever-grander artistic ends, no one more so than Wagner.” * The Wagner Society *
"Gundula Kreuzer has written an imaginative, highly original, and stunningly researched book. It is not just about Wagner, but is instead a minihistory of selected technologies employed by European theater going as far back as the baroque and right up to our own time, where Wagner serves as a fulcrum and point of constant reference." * German Studies Review *
"Kreuzer’s study combines meticulous historical research and critical analysis, which makes for innovative, exciting work." * College Music Symposium *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Note on Presentation
Introduction: Opera, Staging, Technologies
1. Wagner’s Venusberg
2. Curtain
3. Gong
4. Steam
Epilogue: Wagnerian Failure
Notes
Works Cited
Index
