Wagner and Russia

by Rosamund Bartlett

Overview

This book explores the immense influence of the composer Richard Wagner on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian writers, musicians and artists. It contains a history of the production of Wagner's works in Russia and the Soviet Union (by directors including Meyerhold and Eisenstein), an account of Wagner's visit to Russia in 1863, and a detailed investigation of the impact of his music and ideas on the Russian Modernist movement. The last two chapters explore the fate of Wagner's works after the 1917 Revolution, when he was first hailed but then reviled, and finally rehabilitated during the years of glasnost.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521440714
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/02/1995
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature
Pages:	436
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.14(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Notes on the text; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Wagner and Nineteenth-Century Russia: 1. Reception and performance history, 1841–1863; 2. Reception and performance history, 1863–1890; Part II. Wagner and Russian Modernism: 3. Reception and performance history, 1890–1917; 4. Wagner and the Russian Symbolists: Vyacheslav Ivanov; 5. Wagner and the Russian Symbolists: Bely, Medtner and Ellis; 6. Wagner and the Russian Symbolists: Aleksandr Blok; Part III. Wagner and Soviet Russia: 7. Reception and performance history, 1917–1941; 8. Reception and performance history, 1941–1991; Appendices; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...offers a wealth of information on the reception of Wagner in Russia, and it provides a broad view of a theme which as hitherto only been treated in shorter essays....will be useful in both the undergraduate and graduate classroom. It reads fluidly and is handsomely laid out..." Slavic and East European Journal

"...an essential source for all those who wish to pursue the subject further." The Russian Review

"I recognize with gratitude the work Bartlett has undertaken in collecting so much undeniably helpful information under one cover." Opera Quarterly

"This fine study traces Wagner's music and ideas in Russia from 1841 to 1991, detailing his reception and performance history, the factors that shaped them, and his admirers and detractors." Slavic Review

"...a rich volume, blending vivid strands of Russian music, art, theater, philosophy, and politics....Without question, the landscape of Wagner's reception and influence has been significantly enlarged by Bartlett's fine and ambitious text." Carol Reynolds, Book Reviews

From the Publisher