Search results for ""author andrew porter""

Agamemnon led a ten-year-long struggle at Troy only to return home and die a pathetic death at his wife’s hands. Yet while Agamemnon’s story exerts an outsize influence—rivalled by few epic personalities—on the poetic narratives of the Iliad and Odyssey, scholars have not adequately considered his full portrait. What was Agamemnon like as a character for Homer and his audience? More fundamentally, how should we approach the topic of characterization itself, following the discoveries of Milman Parry, Albert Lord, and their successors?Andrew Porter explains the expression of characterization in Homer’s works, from an oral-traditional point of view, and through the resonance of words, themes, and “back stories” from both the past and future. He analyzes Agamemnon’s character traits in the Iliad, including his qualities as a leader, against events such as his tragic homecoming narrative in the Odyssey. Porter’s findings demonstrate that there is a traditional depth of characterization embedded in the written pages of these once-oral epics, providing a shared connection between the ancient singer and his listeners.

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Richard Wagner’s fifteen-hour operatic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung ends with this great music drama. Michael Tanner’s essay tackles the scale and meaning not just of this work but of Wagner’s whole undertaking, showing that Götterdämmerung is – for all its length – his fastest-moving drama. Composer Robin Holloway brings the focus of creative genius to his discussion of the score, while Christopher Winkle’s article analyses Brunnhilde’s concluding monologue. The ninety numbered musical themes of the Thematic Guide are cross-referenced to the other Ring guides. Contents: An Introduction to the End, Michael Tanner; Motif, Memory and Meaning in ‘Twilight of the Gods’, Robin Holloway; The Questionable Lightness of Being: Brunnhilde’s Peroration to ‘The Ring’, Christopher Wintle; Götterdämmerung: Poem by Richard Wagner; Twilight of the Gods: English translation by Andrew Porter

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“A lyric comedy unlike any other”, wrote Verdi about his last opera. That the last work of a composer who was almost notorious for his preference for tragic and gloomy subjects should be a brilliant human comedy was and remains one of the wonders of music. Michael Rose considers its status in Italian comic opera tradition. Davis Cairns pours his enthusiasm for the piece into a detailed and illuminating musical analysis. Andrew Porter, whose translation almost matches Boito’s original libretto for elegance and wit, explains the challenges and risks of the undertaking in his fascinating introduction. Contents: Introduction, Nicholas John; ‘A Lyric Comedy Unlike Any Other’, Michael Rose; ‘Full of Nimble, Fiery and Delectable Shapes’, David Cairns; Translating ‘Falstaff’, Andrew Porter; Falstaff: Libretto by Arrigo Boito; Falstaff: English Translation by Andrew Porter

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Das Rheingold, the opening of Wagner's four-part Ring of Nibelung, stands out as more genteel and picturesque than the others. But it immediately establishes the huge scale of the overall work, and the extraordinary musical language that will be displayed throughout. It is a miracle of musical history that Wagner's 1850 conception could be brought to completion, in an organic whole, some twenty-five years later. Stewart Spencer discusses the way in which Wagner fuses genuine mythology with his own invention and John Deathridge places the opera in the context of The Ring and its century.

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“Things like this are written only for people who have good powers of endurance (so really for nobody!)”, wrote Wagner about Die Walküre. Yet, as Geoffrey Skelton points out, the opera has enjoyed a separate popularity and existence from the Ring Cycle. George Gillespie shows just how the string of mythical events was converted into a drama remarkable for its concentrated excitement and fine construction. Barry Millington introduces the web of motifs in the complex score. The English version, with Elizabeth Forbes’s translation of the verses that Wagner did not eventually set to music but retained as footnotes to his published version, is by acclaimed translator Andrew Porter. Contents: A Conflict of Power and Love, Geoffrey Skelton; Chronology of the Composition of ‘The Valkyrie’; An Introduction to the Music of ‘The Valkyrie’, Barry Millington; New Myths for Old, George Gillespie; Translating ‘The Ring’, Andrew Porter; Die Walküre: Poem by Richard Wagner; The Valkyrie: English translation by Andrew Porter

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“Verdi’s War and Peace“, writes Peter Conrad of this epic opera composed in 1862. It encompasses the extremes of a religious and secular existence – the worlds of the lovers pursued by an uncompromising fate and of the people in the scenes at the inn and on the battlefield. Despite its beautiful score, this opera has often seemed perplexing: Richard Bernas shows us how the music is devised as a convincing entity, and Bruce A. Brown traces the tortuous but fascinating history of its revisions. Here translated into English by Andrew Porter, La forza del destino deserves a serious reassessment. Contents: War and Peace, Peter Conrad; The Music of ‘The Force of Destiny’, Richard Bernas; The Revision of ‘The Force of Destiny’; ‘That Damned Ending’, Bruce A. Brown; La forza del destino: Libretto by Francesco Piave (1862) with additions by Antonio Ghislanzoni (1869); The Force of Destiny: English translation by Andrew Porter

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'A Landmark in Musical History' is John Luke Rose's title for the introduction to this extraordinary piece of theatre. It belongs to the German tradition of mystical writing, and a short note on the poem itself by Martin Swales and Timothy McFarland elucidates some of Wagner's literary techniques. Anthony Negus, who assisted Reginald Goodall on the WNO production of Tristan and Isolde, has contributed a penetrating analysis of the musical structure of the opera, while Patrick Carnegy assesses the remarkable solutions to staging an opera which some argue is best experienced with your back to the performers.

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Wagner wanted Siegfried, the third music drama in The Ring of the Nibelung, to be the most popular of the cycle. Despite its many beautiful and dramatic scenes, it has not fulfilled its composer’s aspiration: Professor Ulrich Weisstein examines why. Professor Anthony Newcomb contributes a detailed analysis of Wagner’s leitmotifs and the different purposes they fulfil. Derrick Puffett discusses how Wagner composed Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nu¨rnberg in the eight-year hiatus between his beginning and completion of Siegfried’s second act. The thematic guide complements those found in the other Opera Guides to The Ring Cycle. Contents: Educating Siegfried, Ulrich Weisstein; ‘Siegfried’: The Music, Anthony Newcomb; ‘Siegfried’ in the Context of Wagner’s Operatic Writing, Derrick Puffett; Siegfried: Poem by Richard Wagner; Siegfried: English translation by Andrew Porter

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