Wagner: The Complete Experience

In this second edition, 'Wagner: The Complete Experience and Its Meaning to Us', Paul Dawson-Bowling introduces, deepens and enriches the Wagner Experience for the newcomer and seasoned Wagnerian alike.

Expounding in colourful style the stories, the sources and the lessons of Wagner's great dramas, the author offers unusual insights into the man, his works and their meaning while grappling with the music's almost occult power.

Before taking us through Wagner's operas (including three new chapters unveiling Wagner's rarely examined early operas Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot and Rienzi), he explores Wagner's formative experiences, his aspirations and his mentality; also Wagner's first wife Minna and her immense but unrecognised impact. This sets up lenses through which the reader may more accurately view not only Wagner the man but, more importantly, his stage works since, as Dawson-Bowling insists, the best encounter with Wagner's dramas is a direct one.

Uniquely drawing on a lifetime's experience in General Medical Practice, the author brings us great wisdom, humanity and psychological understanding to his study on the life and work of Wagner with especial reference to the thought of Carl Jung.

Above all, this book draws out the vital lessons which Wagner's extraordinary, didactic dramas can over us. It reveals their lessons as life-enhancing: capable of transforming our society, our lives and ourselves. There is no other book about Wagner quite like it.

This edition:

• Three volumes
• Preface by Dame Gwyneth Jones
• Updated with new research and findings
• New 'Recommended Recordings' section at the end of each opera chapter
• Three new chapters on Wagner's rarely explored early operas:
• Die Feen
• Das Liebesverbot
• Rienzi
• 136 colour illustrations
• 274 musical figures