Inside the Ring: Essays on Wagner's Opera Cycle - Now As An Ebook

If you are anything like us, you may spend an atrocious amount of money on Wagner related material - no less so than books.  Should you want to save a significant amount of money, then we would like to mention that 2005's Inside the Ring: Essays on Wagner's Opera Cycle - edited by "John Louis DiGaetani" can now be found on google books for only £14.99 (Its a large saving on the print version).  Alas, it is officially impossible to read a google book on a Kindle (although for the technical "savvy" it is possible but the attempt is not suggested for most people) but it can be read on computers, Android Reader's, Ipads, etc. Although if you don't like ebooks this is certainly a book worth more than a second glance in print format. There is a review of this and its companion work to be found here

Publishers description below. and a good sized sample of the book from google.

While you are over-there you might also want to check out the rather difficult to find in print: Richard Wagner and the English by Anne Dzamba Sessa a fascinating look at the history of "Wagnerism" in Victorian England.  Again, there is a generous sample of this unique and excellent book below:



Inside the Ring: Essays on Wagner's Opera Cycle
Once tainted by association with Hitler and Nazism, Richard Wagner’s work has experienced an international cultural renaissance in the last 25 years. His magnum opus, Der Ring des Nibelungen, which took him over 20 years to finish, is a complex tale with themes of greed, corruption and loss, spun out in more than 16 hours of powerfully moving opera. This book, with provocative essays for both the uninitiated and the seasoned fan, examines Wagner’s Ring cycle from a wide array of modern perspectives. Divided into six parts, this anthology first offers a foundation for the Ring, with a chronology and an introduction, along with a look at Wagner as an enterprising marketer. Part Two explores different interpretations of the Ring, with reference to politics, romanticism and international inspirations. Part Three studies the complex relationship between Wagner’s Ring and Germany, with a summary of the opera’s influence on German culture and a discussion of its Munich premiere. Part Four offers a production history, including studies of the Ring’s effects in America and its influence on world literature. Part Five provides a technical examination of language in the Ring, as well as an interview with the famous Wagnerian soprano Jane Eaglen. The book concludes with an essay on the trouble with Wagnerian opera and an overview of the recorded Ring on disc, video and print.