Actors and singers
By: Richard Wagner ; translated by William Ashton Ellis.
Contributors: Ellis, William Ashton, d. 1919.
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Lincoln
Language: eng
Number of pages: 383
Subjects: Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics; Music -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Description: "The essays collected in this volume were written between 1870 and 1873, years that brought a transformation in Germany. After Prussia's spectacular defeat of France, the coalescing of German states into a unified Germany, and Bismarck's declaration of the German Empire, Richard Wagner suddenly felt like a prophet whose predictions had come true before his eyes. At last the German culture he longed to enliven had a German state as grand as his own ambition.".

"In the same period Wagner was deeply inspired by the works of Shakespeare, an influence that runs throughout this volume. The title essay, "Actors and Singers," is one of Wagner's most deliberate and philosophical writings. He wrote, "Art ceases, strictly speaking, to be Art from the moment it presents itself as Art to our reflecting consciousness. " He described how the unconsciousness of art, and thus art's power, connected natural genius to cultivate traditions.

German genius, however, still lacked its own traditions. Wagner aimed to provide them." "Also included are Wagner's famous essay, "Beethoven"; his first publications concerning the nascent Bayreuth Festival Playhouse; his visionary "The Destiny of Opera"; and his letter to Friedrich Nietzsche responding to the publication of The Birth of Tragedy." "This edition includes the full text of volume 5 of the translation of Wagner's works published in 1896 for the London Wagner Society."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: "Bison books"--P. preceding t.p.
Originally published: Richard Wagner's prose works. Vol. 5, Actors and singers. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1896.
Includes index.
Table of contents: title: To the German army before Paris (poem); title: A capitulation; title: Reminiscences of Auber; title: Beethoven; title: The destiny of opera; title: Actors and singers; title: The rendering of Beethoven's ninth symphony; title: Letters and minor essays; title: Bayreuth.