Wagner - and no end in sight

It is refreshing that at the end of the Wagner year, the little trivialities that would previously have had no chance of luring the dog out from behind the stove have been added, because in the jubilee year only the big publications were usually talked about and described.

Finally there is now The little Wagneriancollected aperçues, cleverly grouped, formulated in modern language and often commented on in a pleasingly irreverent way, so that reading them can be fun even for advanced readers, but offer beginners different approaches. If Lohengrin is referred to as a "satiating supplement of patriotic sentiment" for the special situation before 1945, or Wagner's begging letters are mentioned, which "serve him to ornament the depth of his contrition", one takes pleasure in the intellectual shirt-sleevedness and prepares to devote one's full attention to the chapters that come up with heavier artillery.

But will beginners be able to follow the detailed retellings of the great music dramas as set out in the second part of the book, even if they do not have the piano reduction or the score in front of them? The references to the surprising similarities with biblical characters in the Meistersinger or the profound explanations of Wagner's work of redemption Parsifal can still be verified on the basis of the libretti. What is strange, however, is that the efforts to reach the beginners are disavowed when it is said that Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk is ultimately immune "to the weapons of the mediation industry". The insight that a new and young audience needs to be catered for is there, however; the author and writer fight quite successfully against "threshold fears" with precisely these weapons.

Enrik Lauer, Regine Müller, The little Wagnerian. Ten lessons for beginners and advanced students, 261 p., 11 ink drawings, hardcover, € 17.95, C. H. Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64110-7

The target group for the Wagner quiz from the Grupello publishing house, on the other hand, cannot be precisely defined, as the 100 questions are probably only suitable for advanced players. Apart from the question about the year of birth 1813, a beginner would probably not be able to answer any of them correctly - and the answers could not be guessed either. The target group dilemma is exacerbated by the fact that Wagner initiates would hardly be willing to play such a game. There is therefore only one conclusion to be drawn: The Wagner quiz is most successfully directed at Wagner despisers, who then receive every confirmation of their prejudices and can indulge in the most trivial things. But perhaps there are still some who can approach Wagner without reservations, but also without any special interest, and would then find the question "Which famous Wagner tenor spends the night in his caravan during his engagement?" quite informative. Even the question of who was offered the "Du" by Wagner and Liszt on the Rütli meadow on July 7, 1853, would not trigger an end-of-the-world mood in them, because Georg Herwegh, who is the subject of this question, coined the phrase "All wheels stand still when your strong arm wills it". If they had known it, they would have been satisfied that so much intimate knowledge of cultural history was available to the Wagnerian immune system. But I can promise you that we "little Wagnerians" can have a lot of fun looking up the hundred answers afterwards in order to expand our knowledge a little.

Dorita Kinzler and Rainer Hüttenhain, Richard Wagner Quiz, 103 cards in a jewelry box, € 10.90, Grupello-Verlag, Düsseldorf 2013, ISBN 978-3-89978-181-6