Verdi And/Or Wagner: Two Men, Two Worlds, Two Centuries - Rilegato

Conrad, Peter

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 050051593X ISBN 13: 9780500515938

Casa editrice: Thames & Hudson, 2011

Riassunto

This is the first book to compare these two composers and cultural heroes, both of whom were born in 1813 and achieved huge national and inter- national renown in their lifetimes. Yet not only did they never meet, but the differences between them—in music, culture, environment, significance, and legacy—were profound.Peter Conrad begins his tale in a public park in Venice, home to a pair of statues of the composers that are positioned so as to appear to shun each other. This provides a fitting starting point for his argument that they represent two opposite yet equally integral and compelling dimensions of European culture: north versus south, cerebral versus sensual, proud solitude versus human connection, epic mythmaking versus humane magnanimity.The book is a richly argued tour de force that engages passionately and profoundly with music, biography, history, politics, philosophy, psychology, and culture in the broadest sense. As Conrad concludes, “At one time or another, if not simultaneously, we still need the two contradictory, complementary kinds of music that Verdi and Wagner left us.”

Su questo libro

Dalla quarta di copertina

Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, the two greatest operatic composers of their time, had everything and nothing in common. Their achievements were comparable, but their personalities, their approaches to music and drama, and their complex legacies made them incompatible. Verdi thought of art as a comfort to mankind; it pleased Wagner to believe that the nervous intensity of his operas might drive listeners mad. Is it impossible - as Peter Conrad asks in this book, the first to investigate their affinities and explain their mutual mistrust - to love them both? These equally matched Titans offer us a choice between two kinds of art, two ways of life, two opposed philosophies of existence. During their lifetimes Verdi and Wagner helped to define the identity of their emerging nations; their music still dramatizes the light and dark sides of every human being's character and consciousness.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Thames & Hudson
• Data di pubblicazione: 2011
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 050051593X
• ISBN 13: 9780500515938
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 384
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile