Resumen
Resumen de El perfecto wagneriano
Para quién es
For opera lovers who want a way into the Ring, readers of Shaw who enjoy his arguments, and anyone curious about art and politics.
De qué trata este libro
The Perfect Wagnerite is a book by Bernard Shaw, first published in 1898. It is a guide to Richard Wagner's four music dramas known together as The Ring of the Nibelung. Shaw was then a committed socialist, a playwright on the rise, and a music critic who had spent years in the concert halls and opera houses of London. He wrote the book because he thought English audiences admired the scenery and the singing and missed the point of the story.
His claim is bold. The Ring, he says, is not a fairy tale about gods, dwarfs and giants told for its own sake. It is a picture of gold, power, law and revolt in the Europe of Wagner's own century. You get a guide to the plot and its people, a political reading that you can accept or argue with, and a lively example of how a sharp and opinionated mind listens to music. Shaw writes as a persuader, not as a scholar, and that is much of the fun. Let us begin with how he sets up his reading.
En este resumen
- 1Shaw reads the Ring as a parableFree
- 2Gold and the loss of love
- 3Wotan, the ruler bound by his own laws
- 4The Valkyrie and the need for a free hero
- 5Siegfried and the anarchist hero
- 6How the music argues, and how the reading has fared
Idea clave 1 de 6
Shaw reads the Ring as a parable
Shaw begins by refusing the usual view of the Ring as a grand legend from the misty past. He says it is a drama about the world its author lived in. The gods, the dwarfs and the giants stand for classes and powers that Shaw's readers would know from daily life. Once you see that, he says, the story stops being a pretty puzzle and starts to make sense.
He has reasons to think Wagner would allow this. Wagner was no quiet court musician in his younger years. He took part in the uprising in Dresden in 1849 and had to flee the country. Shaw treats the Ring as the work of a man who had seen a revolution fail and who thought hard about why. The poem was written before the music, and Shaw pays close attention to the words as well as the notes.
Shaw also tells you how to listen. The Ring is built from short musical themes that come back again and again, each tied to a person, an object or an idea. Wagner's followers call them leading motives. Shaw describes many of them in plain terms, so that a listener can follow them like signposts through the long evenings. He wants you to hear that the orchestra tells you things the singers do not say.
The title of the book is itself a joke at the expense of fans. A perfect Wagnerite, to Shaw, is not someone who worships Wagner but someone who understands him. He pokes fun at audiences who treat the Ring as a ritual to be sat through in awed silence. His aim is to turn them into thinking listeners, and he is happy to be rude to do it.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about El perfecto wagneriano
What is The Perfect Wagnerite about?
It is Bernard Shaw's guide to Wagner's four Ring operas. Shaw reads them as a story about money, power, law and revolt in the modern world, and he explains the plot and the main musical themes as he goes.
When was The Perfect Wagnerite written?
Shaw first published it in 1898, when he was a socialist and a working music critic. He later revised and extended it, so later editions carry added material and a fresh preface.
Is Shaw's reading of the Ring what Wagner meant?
Not necessarily. Shaw gives one political reading, and many scholars find it too neat, because Wagner's views shifted over time. It is best taken as a lively argument, not as the final word.
Do I need to know Wagner's music to read it?
No. Shaw tells the story and describes the main themes in plain words, so a newcomer can follow. Some knowledge of the operas helps, but the book is written for general readers.
What does Shaw say the ring and the gold stand for?
Shaw sees the gold and ring as capital and the power it gives. Alberic gives up love to make the ring, and then forces his fellow Nibelungs to labour for him, like workers in a factory.