Current issue

The November 2011 issue (vol.5, no.3), now available, contains the following feature articles:

• in 'Monsalvat's Magnetic Wand', Edward A. Bortnichak and Paula M. Bortnichak examine Wagner's works through the lens of mesmerism and paranormal experience generally, suggesting that these hugely popular activities left their mark on both Wagner and his early audiences.

• in 'Sea, Mirror, Woman, Love: Some Recurrent Imagery in "Opera and Drama" ', Michael Dyson finds a seductive series of images in Wagner's major theoretical essay by means of which his aesthetic programme is articulated and clarified.

• in 'Craft and Magic: Forges and Forging in Wagner's Ring', Werner Breig looks at the craft of forging in Siegfried, drawing the distinction that Siegfried himself draws between the learnt technique of a smith and the natural talent of a genius.

plus reviews of:

all this year's productions at Bayreuth, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Glyndebourne, Tristan und Isolde at Grange Park, the Ring in San Francisco, Paris and Milan/Berlin

two of Tony Palmer's key films on Wagner

a DVD recording of Der fliegende Holländer from Amsterdam.

CDs of classic performances from the Met under Schippers, Böhm and Klobucar

new guides to Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde

A dramaturgical analysis of the 2010 Bayreuth Lohengrin by Edward A. Bortnichak and Paula M. Bortnichak appears on the website only. Click here.

Wartburg®, Joep van Lieshout’s eco-recycling complex for the Bayreuth Tannhäuser. Photo Bayreuther Festspiele/Enrico Nawrath

King Mark (Clive Bayley) delivers his Narration from the end of the bed on which he has been betrayed by Tristan (Richard Berkeley-Steele) and Isolde (Alwyn Mellor) in the Grange Park production by David Fielding. Photo Alastair Muir

The gods ascend the gangplank to Valhalla in Francesca Zambello's production of Das Rheingold for San Francisco. Photo Cory Weaver

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