Richard Wagner, The Rhinegold / Das Rheingold / L'or du Rhin, Opera Guide 35.

Condition : very good, minor signs of shelf wear.
Illustrations : numerous black and white illustrations in the text.

Das Rheingold, the overture to Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, a work in four parts, stands out from the others by its sweetness and picturesqueness. But it immediately highlights the magnitude of the work as a whole and the extraordinary musical language that unfolds. It is a miracle of musical history that Wagner's 1850 conception could be brought to completion, in an organic whole, some twenty-five years later. Stewart Spencer discusses how Wagner fuses authentic mythology with his own invention and John Deathridge places the opera in the context of the Ring and its century.Contents: The beginning of the "Ring", John Deathridge; "The Rhine Gold" - The Music, Roger North; Language and Sources of the "Ring", Stewart Spencer; Das Rheingold: Poem by Richard Wagner; The Rhine Gold: English translation by Andrew Porter.