The Cambridge Companion to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

The Companion is an essential, interdisciplinary tool for those both familiar and unfamiliar with Wagner's Ring. It opens with a concise introduction to both the composer and the Ring, introducing Wagner as a cultural figure, and giving a comprehensive overview of the work. Subsequent chapters, written by leading Wagner experts, focus on musical topics such as 'leitmotif', and structure, and provide a comprehensive set of character portraits, including leading players like Wotan, Brünnhilde, and Siegfried. Further chapters look to the mythological background of the work and the idea of the Bayreuth Festival, as well as critical reception of the Ring, its relationship to Nazism, and its impact on literature and popular culture, in turn offering new approaches to interpretation including gender, race and environmentalism. The volume ends with a history of notable stage productions from the world premiere in 1876 to the most recent stagings in Bayreuth and elsewhere.

List of figures; List of music examples; List of contributors; Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction Mark Berry and Nicholas Vazsonyi; Part I. Myth: 1. Greek tragedy and myth Jason Geary; 2. Wagner and the rise of modern mythology Stefan Arvidsson; Part II. Aesthetics: 3. The Ring in theory and practice Arnold Whittall; 4. Form and structure J. P. E. Harper-Scott; 5. Listening for leitmotifs: concept, theory, practice Christian Thorau; 6. The Bayreuth concept and the significance of performance Roger Allen; Part III. Interpretations: 7. Characters in the 'world' of the Ring Mark Berry; 8. The Ring as a political and philosophical drama Anthony Arblaster; 9. The idea of nature Thomas Grey; 10. Gender and sexuality Chris Walton; Part IV. Impact: 11. Critical responses Barbara Eichner; 12. Placing the Ring in literary history David Trippett; 13. Specters of Nazism Tash Siddiqui; 14. The Ring in cinematic and popular culture Adrian Daub; 15. Notable productions Barry Millington; Bibliography; Index.

Mark Berry is Reader in Music History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Treacherous Bonds and Laughing Fire: Politics and Religion in Wagner's 'Ring' (2006), After Wagner: Histories of Modernist Music Drama from 'Parsifal' to Nono (2014), and Arnold Schoenberg (2019). He is a recipient of the Prince Consort Prize and Seeley Medal for his work on Wagner.
Nicholas Vazsonyi is Dean of the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities at Clemson University, Jesse Chapman Alcorn Memorial Professor of German and Comparative Literature, and Chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures at the University of South Carolina. He is the author of Lukács Reads Goethe (1997) and Richard Wagner: Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand (Cambridge, 2010) as well as editor of Wagner's Meistersinger (2003) and The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia (2013).