Excerpt from The Meistersingers, Wagner Before proceeding to outline the story of Wagner's great humorous Opera, it seems expedient to give the reader some account of the real Mastersingers the artisan poets of Germany, who had a certain affinity with, and yet were entirely different from, the troubadours of France. It is not so long since the craft became extinct. Twelve old Meistersingers held regular meetings in a little inn at Ulm as late as 1830. By 1839 the number had dwindled to four; and the quartet solemnly decided that the society of Mastersingers be disbanded for ever.6 the real meistersingers It is said that the last of these interesting survivals died in 1876. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Sources and d104 of Richard Wagner's Opera Die Meistersinger We Nurnberg The later Minnesingers indulge in extravagant vagaries of both content and verse. It is a significant fact that Frauenlob, to whom the Mastersingers referred the foundation of their first School, was one those singers who played with artificial verse forms to the havoc of his subject. 1) But in the middle of the fifteenth century torpid Europe twas aroused. Through the capture of Constantinople by the Turks and the almost simultaneous invention of printing came, for Germany at least, the era of Humanism and the Reformation. 2) The imperial cities had been steadily growing in importance, and soon became the centers of all culture. Who but the honest burghers began now to flirt with the shy Muse, as they looked about for recreation after their day's labor? And although they clipped the wings of their Pegasus, and trained him to amble along in harness withal, yet they had taken him out of pound, and they cherished him fondly until he was ready for a new flight. From the fifteenth century on, the time of court-life and wandering for this poetry was past. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger has always called forth superlatives from those who have fallen under its spell. Toscanini wanted to lay his baton down for the last time only after he had conducted a performance of it. Paderewski called it 'the greatest work of genius ever achieved by any artist in any field of human endeavour.' H.L. Mencken declared, 'It took more skill to plan and write it than it took to plan and write the whole canon of Shakespeare.' And yet Wagner's many-splendoured comedy has come under severe criticism in recent years for what has been called its 'dark underside,' its 'fascist brutality,' and its 'ugly anti-Semitism.' In Wagner and the Wonder of Art, renowned opera expert M. Owen Lee addresses that criticism. He also provides an introduction to the opera and an analysis that will surprise even those veteran operagoers who may not have explored the work's intricate structure and the emotional drama at its centre. The book includes the on-air commentary that Father Lee gave during the first radio broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera after the events of 9/11. He thought it necessary, after attempting to refute the charges leveled against Wagner's opera, to say something about its truthfulness, its life-affirming music, its insight into the madness that can destroy human lives, and its witness to the importance of art for the survival of our civilizations.

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Excerpt from The Master-Singers of Nuremberg; (Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg): Opera in Three Acts When to thee our Saviour went To receive thy Sacrament, Ere His sacrifice divine, We were giv'n salvation's sign, That through Baptism we might prove Worthy of His death and love. Interceder, Christ's preceder Take us gently o'er Unto Jordan's shore. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.