The New Grove guide to Wagner and His Operas (New Grove Composers)

Some of the most significant work is acknowledged in the ‘Suggested Further Reading’ section of this book. The publication originally took the form of entries on Wagner, his operas and related subjects, along with other material, all culled from the New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992).

For this new edition I have completely overhauled the material, radically revising and updating several sections in the process. The entries on Wagner’s life and works remain substantially the same, but I have compiled a new chronology, glossary, bibliography, and discography. An updated entry on the staging of Wagner’s works (also from Opera Grove) has been incorporated, as has one on Wagner’s orchestration (from the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, revised edition, 2001). All the above material, along with the entry on ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, is my own. I have brought the late Geoffrey Skelton’s excellent ‘Bayreuth’ article up to date  and am delighted to include once again Arnold Whittall’s magisterial entry on ‘Leitmotif ’, as deployed by both Wagner and later composers.