Wagner and Cinema

Jeongwon Joe is Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of Cincinnati. She is editor of Between Opera and Cinema (with Rose Theresa) and has published articles on Milos Forman's Amadeus, Philip Glass's La Belle et la Bête, David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Gérard Corbiau's Farinelli, and other works related to opera and film music.Sander L. Gilman is Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences at Emory University. He is author of Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity; Multiculturalism and the Jews; Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery; Freud, Race, and Gender; and Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews.

"Each contributor to this collection brings a unique perspective on Wagner's influences on cinema. Some of the essays suggest that given his vision of Gesamtkunstwerk (synthesis of the arts), the maestro would have been more comfortable in the modern age as a movie producer/director than as a composer/director of opera. Maybe or maybe not, but Wagner's influence on cinema was certainly profound; his work inspired filmmakers and score composers from cinema's earliest years and continues to inspire today. Joe (musicology, Univ. of Cincinnati) and Gilman (liberal arts and sciences, Emory Univ.) divide the essays into five thematic parts: 'Wagner and the Silent Fil'"; 'Wagnerian Resonance in Film Scoring,' which examines specific composers, e.g., Max Steiner and Franz Waxman; 'Wagner in Hollywood,' which considers implicit/explicit use of Wagner's music in Hollywood productions; 'Wagner in German Cinema,' which treats the composer's ideological presence in new German cinema of such directors as Werner Herzog and Alexander Kluge; and 'Wagner beyond the Sound Track,' which looks at Wagner's impact on the aesthetics of cinema, film noir in particular. A useful resource for serious students of film, theater, and/or music, the book includes numerous photos, and helpful music notation enhances the text. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. —Choice"— A. C. Shahriari, Kent State University, December 2010"[D]emands and deserves a commitment of time and space from a wide range of readers as they experience its transitions . . . and powerful enlightening moments. Vol. 64 2 Summer 2011"—Jrnl American Musicological Soc JAMS"[Wagner and Cinema] looks at the plethora of senses in which Wagner's music and different kinds of Wagnerian reception histories have informed cinematic production throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. ...Wagner and Cinema is a text that will no doubt be consulted for many years henceforward.Issue 24, 2012"—Nathan Waddell, Scope"[T]he book . . . present[s] the reader with a strong and very varied attempt to discuss the relation between Wagner, opera and cinema and includes a vast array of densely detailed information covering large historical periods in many of its well-written essays.Issue 29"—Screening the Past"A useful resource for serious students of film, theater, and/or music, the book includes numerous photos, and helpful music notation enhances the text. . . . Recommended."—Choice"Wagner & Cinema provides a comprehensive discussion of its subject . . . [I]t offers an excellent introduction for scholars interested in Wagner's influence on film and offers a starting point for future studies. 34/2 (2011)"—German Studies Review"The essays in this collection engage in a critical dialogue with existing studies—extending and renovating current theories related to the topic—and propose unexplored topics and new methodological perspectives.March 01, 2010"—Camero-Stylo"Timely, relevant, and absolutely central to what is going on in so many fields. The editors have done a terrific job in bringing together not only the most appropriate but also the most stimulating and exciting of contributors."—Linda Hutcheon, author of A Theory of Adaptation

• Foreword by Tony PalmerIntroduction: Why Wagner and Cinema? Tolkien Was Wrong \ Jeongwon JoePart 1. Wagner and the Silent Film1. Wagnerian Motives: Narrative Integration and the Development of Silent Film Accompaniment, 1908–1913 \ James Buhler2. Underscoring Drama—Picturing Music \ Peter Franklin3. The Life and Works of Richard Wagner (1913): Becce, Froelich, and Messter \ Paul Fryer4. Listening for Wagner in Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen \ Adeline MuellerPart 2. Wagnerian Resonance in Film Scoring5. The Resonances of Wagnerian Opera and Nineteenth-Century Melodrama in the Film Scores of Max Steiner\ David Neumeyer6. Wagner's Influence on Gender Roles in Early Hollywood Film \ Eva Rieger7. The Penumbra of Wagner's Ombra in Two Science Fiction Films from 1951: The Thing from Another World and The Day the Earth Stood Still \ William H. RosarPart 3. Wagner in Hollywood8. "Soll ich lauschen?": Love-Death in Humoresque \ Marcia J. Citron9. Hollywood's German Fantasy: Ridley Scott's Gladiator \ Marc A. Weiner10. Reading Wagner in Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944) \ Neil Lerner11. Piercing Wagner: The Ring in Golden Earrings \ Scott D. PaulinPart 4. Wagner in German Cinema12. Wagner as Leitmotif: The New German Cinema and Beyond \ Roger Hillman13. The Power of Emotion: Wagner and Film \ Jeremy Tambling14. Wagner in East Germany: Joachim Herz's Der fliegende Holländer (1964) \ Joy H. CalicoPart 5. Wagner beyond the Soundtrack15. Nocturnal Wagner: The Cultural Survival of Tristan und Isolde in Hollywood \ Elisabeth Bronfen16. Ludwig's Wagner and Visconti's Ludwig \ Giorgio Biancorosso17. The Tristan Project: Time in Wagner and Viola \ Jeongwon Joe18. "The Threshold of the Visible World": Wagner, Bill Viola, and Tristan \ Lawrence KramerPostlude: Looking for Richard: An Archival Search for Wagner \ Warren M. SherkEpilogue: Some Thoughts about Wagner and Cinema; Opera and Politics; Style and Reception \ Sander L. GilmanInterview with Bill Viola \ Jeongwon JoeFilmography \ Jeongwon Joe, Warren M. Sherk, and Scott D. PaulinList of ContributorsIndex