# What is a great book on Wagner's Ring cycle?



## RogerWaters (Feb 13, 2017)

At the least it would include the Libretto in English, and synopses of the individual operas.

Ideally it would also include some history around its composition and performance, and 'philosophical' analysis of the meaning of the work! 

Pictures of Germanic myths is a bonus.

Thanks :tiphat:


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## hustlefan (Apr 29, 2016)

A good book that includes the libretto with translation and essays on the work is Stuart Spencer and Barry Millington, Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, A Companion, available in paperback at Amazon and other booksellers.










In addition, the English National Opera guides for each of the four operas have synopses, a libretto with translation and illustrations.


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

Not many books on Wagner's Ring come with a copy of the libretto that I've seen, and I've read a number of really good ones. So definitely do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Stuart Spencer's and Barry Millington's companion mentioned by hustlefan. Easily the best side by side translation of the libretto out there, and includes a few nice essays and a basic list of some of the most prominent leitmotifs in the opera and notations on when they appear in the story to help you follow along as you listen. I know it has personally enhanced my love and appreciation of the work greatly as it helped reveal all sorts of connections and transformations that happen between the music and the drama that I would have been totally ignorant of otherwise. Really indispensable.

Then if I had to pick just one book on Der Ring, it would be Roger Scruton's _The Ring of Truth_, a masterpiece and all told the best book I've ever read on the subject. It includes an in depth synopsis, and discusses the symbolism, music, philosophy and "meanings" behind the work with real inspiration and insight.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

By far the best libretto is the Andrew Porter book - 45 years on and it's still the best. My old, worn copy is still quite valuable to me. For synopsis, analysis, history and understanding, I highly recommend Wagner Without Fear by William Berger. Of course, the Ernest Newman book, Wagner Operas, should be in every Wagnerites library already, but it's pretty serious. Berger tries to make it a lighter entry.


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

Berger's is a lightweight and superficial read, basically nothing more than a synopsis of the operas with some anecdotes and usually lame attempts at humor thrown in. A somewhat amusing introduction for a newcomer to Wagner's operas perhaps, but one that quickly loses its usefulness. Its basically a poor man's version of the Ernest Newman book, which is itself a glorified collection of elaborate synopses of the operas, but written with far more style and wit and knowledge. If you want something short and succinct but still thoughtful and perceptive on the Ring, M Owen Lee's Turning the Sky Round is a much better choice.

Roger Scruton's is the kind of book that someone like myself who has lived with the work intimately for decades can pick up and learn from and be taught to see new and deeper themes in a work rich with meaning.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

hustlefan said:


> A good book that includes the libretto with translation and essays on the work is Stuart Spencer and Barry Millington, Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, A Companion, available in paperback at Amazon and other booksellers.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This includes the best English translation in my opinion, since Spencer tried to align the musical stresses with the right word. You get a bit of Yoda-speak as a result, but it is a worthy trade-off and the easiest to follow along with the music.


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## RogerWaters (Feb 13, 2017)

Excellent, thanks gents!


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## RogerWaters (Feb 13, 2017)

WildThing said:


> Not many books on Wagner's Ring come with a copy of the libretto that I've seen, and I've read a number of really good ones. So definitely do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Stuart Spencer's and Barry Millington's companion mentioned by hustlefan. Easily the best side by side translation of the libretto out there, and includes a few nice essays and a basic list of some of the most prominent leitmotifs in the opera and notations on when they appear in the story to help you follow along as you listen. I know it has personally enhanced my love and appreciation of the work greatly as it helped reveal all sorts of connections and transformations that happen between the music and the drama that I would have been totally ignorant of otherwise. Really indispensable.
> 
> Then if I had to pick just one book on Der Ring, it would be Roger Scruton's _The Ring of Truth_, a masterpiece and all told the best book I've ever read on the subject. It includes an in depth synopsis, and discusses the symbolism, music, philosophy and "meanings" behind the work with real inspiration and insight.


Is Scruton's analysis overly influenced by his own philosophy (not that I have a huge problem with his philosophy - just wondering)?


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Couchie said:


> You get a bit of Yoda-speak as a result, but it is a worthy trade-off and the easiest to follow along with the music.


Trust me that quite a bit of Wagner's libretti sound as curious as Yoda-speak to German native speakers...

I know only one book on Wagner which is not for beginners (libretti and piano score recommended on the side) and not for the Ring only (all 10 major works are covered) but recommendable, if encountered and it has been translated:
Dahlhaus, Carl. 1979. _Richard Wagner's Music Dramas_. Translated by Mary Whittall. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Couchie said:


> You get a bit of Yoda-speak as a result, but it is a worthy trade-off and the easiest to follow along with the music.


A hero you wish to be, young Siegfried?


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

RogerWaters said:


> Is Scruton's analysis overly influenced by his own philosophy (not that I have a huge problem with his philosophy - just wondering)?


Great question. In his other two books on Wagner, focused on Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal respectively, there were times I could hear the sound of a loud axe being ground as they almost began to come across like a theoretical treatise, offering tendentious classifications of the variaties of love and ideas about passion and society that are a little too congruent with Scruton's other writings on those topics. Of course there are plenty of valuable and illuminating insights into both Tristan and Parsifal contained in those books as well that on the whole would make them highly recommendable to most. I also don't have a huge problem with his philosophy and actually found his discussions of those subjects interesting and thought provoking, even when I didn't fully agree with him.

But either way rest assured his book on the Ring is almost entirely devoid of that sort of thing. Trust me, you won't regret purchasing it. And in the course of his critique, Scruton discusses or references several of the other most worthwhile books on the Ring in case you want to explore those further in the future as well.


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## Auntie Lynn (Feb 23, 2014)

Every New Years Day, I sponsor the "Nibelung Bowl" - everybody shows up at 7 a.m. and it goes until 11 p.m. BYOB, I provide the pizza.

It's the one with Siegfried Jerusalem and Jessye Norman - she's worth the wait. I think Alberich probably has the hardest part as he has to be there until the first curtain goes up and the last curtain comes down on the final final...


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

hustlefan said:


> A good book that includes the libretto with translation and essays on the work is Stuart Spencer and Barry Millington, Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, A Companion, available in paperback at Amazon and other booksellers.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Agreed. This book is essential, IMO.

But although no libretto, I'd urge consideration of this .....


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## RogerWaters (Feb 13, 2017)

WildThing said:


> Great question. In his other two books on Wagner, focused on Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal respectively, there were times I could hear the sound of a loud axe being ground as they almost began to come across like a theoretical treatise, offering tendentious classifications of the variaties of love and ideas about passion and society that are a little too congruent with Scruton's other writings on those topics. Of course there are plenty of valuable and illuminating insights into both Tristan and Parsifal contained in those books as well that on the whole would make them highly recommendable to most. I also don't have a huge problem with his philosophy and actually found his discussions of those subjects interesting and thought provoking, even when I didn't fully agree with him.
> 
> But either way rest assured his book on the Ring is almost entirely devoid of that sort of thing. Trust me, you won't regret purchasing it. And in the course of his critique, Scruton discusses or references several of the other most worthwhile books on the Ring in case you want to explore those further in the future as well.


Thanks for that, WildThing.

Is there any record to Wagner's own 'message' behind the Ring?


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

No single record, there are many messages open to interpretation. GB Shaw's socialist interpretation is probably not totally off (Stealing the gold is the rape of nature and the original accumulation, all the contracts afterwards have unjust relations from the beginning (which traps Wotan), then the corrupting power of the ring (making the ring has transformed the gold into a great means of superior production and gave Alberich power over the dwarves) goes on through Gods (old nobility) and dwarves (bourgeois upstarts) and all the humans involved (or they get trapped and thrown under the bus, like Siegmund) and their old world has to be destroyed to make room for new hope), 
Taking some older text versions into account it seems that Wagner started out with an anarchist-socialist stance and changed this to a more general Schopenhauerian resignation position.
The book by Dahlhaus I mentioned has some discussion of this and information about this can certainly be found elsewhere and will probably be in most books on the Ring.


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

RogerWaters said:


> Thanks for that, WildThing.
> 
> Is there any record to Wagner's own 'message' behind the Ring?


In a series of letters to his friend August Röckel, who was captured and imprisoned after the Dresden uprising Wagner took part in, Wagner goes about answering some of Röckel's questions and concerns about the action of the drama, and in turn provides some of his most direct thoughts on his intended meanings behind the work. His wife Cosima also recorded several of his thoughts on the work and the characters contained within during private conversations throughout the years. And there is an account of the rehearsals of the first performance of the Ring written by Wagner's friend Heinrich Porges that records some of Wagner's statements on the significance of particular scenes and pieces of dialogue.

Yet Wagner makes it clear in the letters to Röckel that he understands that the meaning of any true work of art cannot simply be spelt out or explained, even by the creator of the work of art; that it needs to be _experienced_ and believed his works could only be truly understood through feeling, by taking in both the music and the drama, and not through intellectual analysis.

"I believe that a true instinct has kept me from a too great definiteness; for it has been borne in on me, that an absolute disclosing of the intention disturbs true insight. What you want in drama-as indeed in all works of Art-is to achieve your end, not by statement of the artist's intentions, but by the presentment of life as the resultant, not of arbitrary forces, but of eternal laws".


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## Rmathuln (Mar 21, 2018)

*This has by a long shot been the most helpful resource for me.*
But I have owned my copy with this exact cover for over 45 years.
I have not seen it on any store shelves for decades, and I have no idea about the quality of any of the printings that have appeared since my version went OOP.


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

^ This is a wonderful and insightful book although I still haven’t quite finished it yet! It’s available online on archive.org. Quite absurd how well Wagner’s works fit for Jungian analysis.


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## RogerWaters (Feb 13, 2017)

Thank you for the Jungian suggestion, however I'm not sure I'd be keen on a psychoanalytic analysis of Wagner.

Psychoanalysis has a clinical success rate at or below chance and is so it's picture of the mind is basically old pseudo-science now, as far as I can tell.

And anyway, I'm more interested in what Wagner's meaning in writing the Ring was, not what subliminal, unconscious, mental schemas it might (or might not, as it were) be a symptom of.


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## planet (May 1, 2015)

I'm quite surprised the Deathridge translation published by Penguin wasn't mentioned in this thread.

Anyone read it yet?


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