|
|||||||
Número 276 - Zaragoza - Diciembre 2023|
|
|
FORO
|
|
||||||||||
 |
Suscríbete ya a la newsletter de Música Clásica |
| Stories of the Wagner Opera. |
| ||||||
|
Hola amigos: Os adjunto un enlace que os llevará a un libro sobre la obra de Wagner en inglés. Pero antes quisiera aclarar unas cosas: - ¿Conocéis el ?Project Gutenberg?? Se trata de una iniciativa surgida en determinadas universidades norteamericanas, como la de Illinois, consistente en poner a disposición del público e-books que están libre de copyright. Ya sabéis que los americanos son muy estrictos en este tema y que allí el periodo el copyright es de nada menos que 75 años. Gracias a este proyecto podemos acceder a miles de libros mucos de ellos descatalogados, que pertenecen al dominio público en varias lenguas, sobre todo, claro está, en inglés. También podréis encontrar libros en castellano, por ejemplo de Galdós. A mí me es muy útil para consultar libros de difícil acceso. Y es totalmente legal. Esta es la web: http://www.gutenberg.net Pienso que en un portal cultural como éste está bien que se sepa. - ¿Por qué pongo tantos enlaces en inglés? Evidentemente, no es para hacerle la puñeta a nadie. Para bien o para mal, lo publicado de o sobre Wagner en castellano es bien escaso y conocido por los que estamos interesados en el tema. Si queremos ver otras cosas, tendremos que cambiar de lengua. El inglés es la más extendida y en esta lengua podremos encontrar una infinidad de libros de temática wagneriana, que no están traducidos al castellano. Ya me gustaría a mí que lo estuvieran, que mi inglés tiene sus limitaciones, pero las cosas son así. - Esto no es nuevo, cuando estudiaba en la universidad tuve que consultar libros escritos en francés o inglés porque no existía la traducción española. Seguro que a todos os habrá pasado. Lo mismo sucede en Internet, que si no tienes un conocimiento suficiente de la lengua de Shakespeare vas perdido. Así son las cosas. Pues bien, buscando en la Red cosas sobre Wagner me he encontrado con este libro y os adjunto el enlace (tranquilos los más legalistas porque es perfectamente legal y se autoriza expresamente su libre distribución gratuita). http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16840 La autora es Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline), 1859-1929. No es que sea una cosa del otro mundo, pero no está mal leer las introducciones alas ópera y gramas, ya que el resto consiste en contar los libretos. Tiene el aliciente de que también habla de Rienzi, cosa poco usual. Os adjunto algún fragmento, incluido el permiso de libre distribución. Saludos y que os aproveche. Rex. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories of the Wagner Opera, by H. A. Guerber This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net (O sea, que se puede copiar libre y gratuitamente.) CONTENTS. Page Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes 7 The Flying Dutchman 23 Tannhaeuser 38 Lohengrin 56 Tristan and Ysolde 72 The Master-Singers of Nuremberg 88 The Nibelung’s Ring.--Rheingold 105 The Walkyrie 120 Siegfried 138 Dusk of the Gods 154 Parsifal 172 RIENZI, THE LAST OF THE TRIBUNES. Wagner was greatly troubled in the beginning of his career about the choice of subjects for his operas. His first famous work, ’Rienzi,’ is founded upon the same historical basis as Bulwer’s novel bearing the same name, and is a tragic opera in five acts. The composer wrote the poem and the first two acts of the score in 1838, during his residence at Riga, and from there carried it with him to Boulogne. There he had an interview with Meyerbeer, after his memorable sea journey. ??????????????????????????? THE FLYING DUTCHMAN. After leaving Riga, where he had accepted the position of Music Director, which he filled acceptably for some time, Wagner went to Pillau, where he embarked on a sailing vessel bound for London. He was accompanied by his wife and by a huge Newfoundland dog, and during this journey learned to know the sea, and became familiar with the sound of the sailors’ songs, the creaking of the rigging, the whistling of the wind, and the roar and crash of the waves. ???????????????????????????????. TANNHAeUSER. In 1829, when Wagner was only sixteen years of age, he first became acquainted, through Hoffmann’s novels, with the story of the mastersingers of Nuernberg, and with the mediaeval legend of Tannhaeuser, as versified by Ludwig Tieck. The ’mystical coquetry and frivolous catholicism’ of this modern poem repelled him, and it was not until twelve years later, when he chanced upon a popular version of the same story, that he was struck by its dramatic possibilities. ?????????????????????????????. TRISTAN AND YSOLDE. It was in 1854, when still an exile from his native land, that Wagner, weary of his long work, ’The Ring of the Niblungs,’ of which only the first two parts were completed, conceived the idea of using the legend of Tristan as basis for a popular opera. Three years later the poem was finished, but the opera was played in Munich only in 1865 for the first time. The libretto is based on an ancient Celtic myth or legend, which was very popular during the Middle Ages. ??????????????????????????????.. THE NIBELUNG’S RING.--RHEINGOLD. It was in 1848, after the completion of Tannhaeuser, that Wagner looked about for a subject for a new opera. Then ’for the last time the conflicting claims of History and Legend presented themselves.’ He had studied the story of Barbarossa, intending to make use of it, but discarded it in favour of the Nibelungen Myths, which he decided to dramatise.[1] His first effort was an alliterative poem entitled ’The Death of Siegfried,’ which, however, was soon set aside, a part of it only being incorporated in ’The Twilight [or Dusk] of the Gods.’ Wagner was then dwelling in Dresden, and planning the organisation of a national theatre; but the political troubles of 1849, which resulted in his banishment, soon defeated all these hopes. ????????????????????????????????.. PARSIFAL. This opera, which Wagner himself called a religious drama, is intended as the ’Song of Songs of Divine Love, as Tristan and Ysolde is the Song of Songs of Terrestrial Love.’ The performance was repeated sixteen times at Bayreuth, where many people had come from all parts of the world to hear and see it, and has since been revived a number of times. It is the most difficult and least easily understood of the master’s intricate works, and bears the imprint not only of his philosophical studies, but also of the spirit of Oriental mysticism, in which he delighted, and which he at one time intended to make use of for the stage. ??????????????????????????????????.. PD. Si alguien que conozca mejor que yo el inglés se anima a traducir al español las introducciones (que no son muy extensas, la autora se extiende mucho más en los libretos que ya conocemos) le haría un gran favor al foro, ya que todos nos podríamos enterar mejor. Yo lo haría con gusto, pero no dispongo de suficiente tiempo. Muchas gracias. Rex. Para terminar ya de verdad, aquí tenéis un par de enlaces que os permitirán acceder a la correspondencia entre Wagner y Liszt que creo que no se puede encontrar en España y mucho menos en castellano. Venga, a cotorrear lo que se escribían estos grandes de la música. ¿No os entra curiosidad? Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt ? Volume 1 (English) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3835 Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt ? Volume 2 (English) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4234 Aquí os cuelgo algún fragmento de Wagner en el que habla de la negación de la voluntad de vivir, el budismo, la defensa de los animales, etc. No cabe duda de que ya está en su etapa schopenhaureriana. Fijaos también en la diferencia que hay entre los chat actuales: - ¡Hola! ¿Qué haces? - Nada. Aquí chateando. ¿Y tú? Y la profundidad de las cartitas de esta gente: This act of the "negation of will" is the true characteristic of the saint, which finds its last completion in the absolute cessation of personal consciousness; and all consciousness must be personal and individual. But the saints of Christianity, simple-minded and enveloped in the Jewish dogma as they were, could not see this, and their limited imagination looked upon that much-desired stage as the eternal continuation of a life, freed from nature. (...) But this deep longing is expressed more purely and more significantly in the most sacred and oldest religion of the human race, the doctrine of the Brahmins, and especially in its final transfiguration and highest perfection, Buddhism. This also expounds the myth of a creation of the world by God, but it does not celebrate this act as a boon, but calls it a sin of Brahma which he, AFTER HAVING EMBODIED HIMSELF IN THIS WORLD, must atone for by the infinite sufferings of this very world. He finds his salvation in the saints who, by perfect negation of the "will of life," by the sympathy with all suffering which alone fills their heart, enter the state of Nirwana, i.e., "the land of being no longer." Such a saint was Buddha. (...) How sublime, how satisfying is this doctrine compared with the Judaeo-Christian doctrine, according to which a man (for, of course, the suffering ANIMAL exists for the benefit of man alone) has only to be obedient to the Church during this short life to be made comfortable for all eternity, while he who has been disobedient in this short life will be tortured for ever. (...) SE BUSCA TRADUCTOR... |
| ||||||
|
Estimado Rex: Esta última cita de la carta de RW de junio de 1855 sigue con esta frase que hoy sería considerada "políticamente incorrecta": "Let us admit that Christianity is to us this contradictory phenomenon, because we know it only in its mixture with, and distortion by, narrow-hearted Judaism, while modern research has succeeded in showing that pure and un-alloyed Christianity was nothing but a branch of that venerable Buddhism which, after Alexander’s Indian expedition, spread to the shores of the Mediterranean." Una breve esquela de enero de 1859 desde Venecia no difiere mucho de un adolescente chateo moderno. En todos lados se cuecen habas... "Muy querido Franz: ¿no tienes ABSOLUTAMENTE NADA que decirme? ¿Qué quieres que llegue a ser al fin, si TODO EL MUNDO me olvida? Tuyo, R.W." |