Michael Buckley

Aspects of Wagner’s Dramatic Technique

This is the first of three articles examining some aspects of Wagner’s dramatic technique, primarily but not exclusively in Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Wagner’s dramatic technique: Act 2 of Götterdämmerung

In my previous article I suggested some principles for analysing the Ring as a work for the theatre. This article applies those principles in order to analyse how Wagner tackled the dramatic construction of Act 2 of Götterdämmerung.

Wagner’s dramatic technique in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

I noted in my first article on aspects of Wagner’s dramatic technique that like other dramatists he often subordinated plausibility and consistency to dramatic necessity. He did this even in what is ostensibly the most realistic of his works, Die Meistersinger.

Form and Meaning in the Ring

Many works of art, such as absolute music and abstract paintings, have no meaning other than themselves; and some say that that is true of all works of art. However, it is generally assumed that Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is not just a musical working up of particular Teutonic myths and legends, but that it has a meaning beyond that.

Productions of Wagner’s Ring

New productions of the Ring seem to be followed as inevitably as the progression of the seasons by an exchange of slogans between what I shall call, with apologies for oversimplification to both parties, the traditionalists and the modernists.

Three Fundamental Fallacies

There are three fundamental fallacies that bedevil many attempts to interpret Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.