Listening to The Ring

[Karafan]

Hi all

I'd be interested to know, when settling down to listen to Wagner's Ring, which libretto you use?

Even with CD I have been using the large format libretti from either my Solti or HvK LP sets, but I have heard that Spencer & Millington's "Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungen: A Companion" is a far superior translation and an all round "good egg" of a book to add to any serious collection. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Karafan

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If I don't "just" listen, I follow the Music with the scores (very waring on the knees!) so it's Wagner's own libretti with my concoction of various translations taken from LP books, ENO Guides and others together with attempts of my own to get an English word that fits the rhythm and vowels of the original. Not always a success and I'm often distracted by what seemed at the time to be a brilliant solution!

Spencer & Millington (if I'm thinking of the correct book: Huge, fat paperback with a white cover and red and black lettering) is very good for a one-volume overview of the Ring that's easy and enjoyable to read. No great individual insights of its own, and militant Wagnerians - the sort who accept no other composer except (as an act of charity) Beethoven - would find it "lightweight". These people scare me!

Best Wishes.

[Chris Newman]

fhg,

If I don't "just" listen, I follow the Music with the scores (very waring on the knees!)

I use my little folding two person camping table on which I usually stand my paint, brushes and palette when painting ideal for resting big scores. It is also useful for camping .

For listening without a score I use Andrew Porter's translation written to be sung for the Goodall Sadler's Wells/ENO Ring Cycles.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

fhg, I use my little folding two person camping table on which I usually stand my paint, brushes and palette when painting ideal for resting big scores. It is also useful for camping

My room is still cluttered with piles of CDs and other "clutter" so there's barely room for me let alone a(nother) desk: I really must get round to decorating so that I can put shelve the Discs!

Having said that, do you think an artist's eisel could support a Wagner score? Seems just the right height to hold them at a level where I wouldn't have to stoop.

Best Wishes.

[Chris Newman]

It could. Though you would need a piece of board as well and do not have a wide base at the bottom of the score. Though a £10 music stand should be strong enough for a vocal or even a Dover sized score and will hold the pages down. You can set it at an angle or as a "conductor's table". Just be gentle as it is top heavy with large scores. For less than twenty pound you can get quite sturdy stands designed to do the job. They stack away like a book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orchestral-Sheet-Music-Stand-Adjustment/dp/B002GCMNIC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323794463&sr=8-1

[DublinJimbo]

Some years ago I treated myself to a beautifully produced 5-volume set by Rudolph Sabor (the extra volume is termed a 'Companion' and, among other things, details the author's reasons for producing a new translation in the first place). The set was published by Phaidon Press in 1997.

Summarising his approach, Rudolph Sabor has this to say:

The present translation aims to provide the reader and singer with a libretto which does not sound like a translation, but rather like the text Wagner might have written had he been born not in Leipzig but in London. My objectives are:

* Accuracy
* Matching German and English lines, retaining the position of key words
* Preserving the original metre
* Retaining alliteration and rhyme where possible
* Elucidating where Wagner is obscure
* Emulating the original by allowing each character to speak in his/her particular idiom.

To my mind, these objectives are well met, and Rudolph Sabor's translation had since been my libretto of choice.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It could. Though you would need a piece of board as well and do not have a wide base at the bottom of the score. Though a £10 music stand should be strong enough for a vocal or even a Dover sized score and will hold the pages down. You can set it at an angle or as a "conductor's table". Just be gentle as it is top heavy with large scores. For less than twenty pound you can get quite sturdy stands designed to do the job. They stack away like a book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orchestral-S...3794463&sr=8-1

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Some years ago I treated myself to a beautifully produced 5-volume set by Rudolph Sabor (the extra volume is termed a 'Companion' and, among other things, details the author's reasons for producing a new translation in the first place). The set was published by Phaidon Press in 1997.

Summarising his approach, Rudolph Sabor has this to say:

To my mind, these objectives are well met, and Rudolph Sabor's translation had since been my libretto of choice.

Sabor was one of the translations I "consulted" (as I said to the Copyright Judge!) - it is very good. But I remember it was quite pricey at least when it first came out. Leeds Library, among others, has a copy.

EDIT: Yes, the Phaidon on-line store has them for £9.95 each - just under £50 for the lot.

[Howdenite]

I use this now. I have used Porter for years, but find the Spencer & Millington helps me keep close to the German I'm listening to. The words on each line usually translate to the German words on that line based on my very, very limited German. Porter can be very different as it has such a different requirement -- to be sung. I haven't read any of the articles at the beginning of the Spencer & Millington text yet as I've only recently acquired it, but my main reason for buying it was that it felt closer to the German words I'm hearing. I've added it to a reasonable stack of books on the operas themselves.

[Mr Pee]

Some years ago I treated myself to a beautifully produced 5-volume set by Rudolph Sabor (the extra volume is termed a 'Companion' and, among other things, details the author's reasons for producing a new translation in the first place). The set was published by Phaidon Press in 1997.

I have that set too, and I fully endorse your remarks. Apart from being an excellent translation, it's also a superb guide to the cycle as whole. Alongside the text, Leitmotifs are pointed out, as well as short comments and explanations. It's easily the best guide to the Ring that I've come across.

[Richard Tarleton]

2-volume paperback William Mann translation published by the Friends of Covent Garden in 1964, and inherited from an elderly Wagnerphile. It has fold-out leitmotif guide.

[Petrushka]

The Solti Ring was the first one I ever had and I've been listening to various Rings now for some 40 years (since I was 16). I played the Solti LP's to death and in so doing managed to learn huge chunks of the German libretto off by heart together with the English translation. Nowadays, I tend to use the libretto as provided with the original CD issue of the Bohm cycle for the German where I need it and rather like FHG make my own translation from a number of sources including my own head as I go along.

[Barbirollians]

I have ordered the Spencer and Millington and can ignore the Wagnerite essays I hope .

I love Richard Osborne's notes for the EMI Tristan where he mentions the influence of Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet and Wagnerites ignoring any evidence that he might have been influenced .

[jayne lee wilson]

A battered old, pages falling out, Andrew Porter...

Beautifully written-to-sing and to read, very easy to follow, at least in the Faber 1976 paperback.

But will I ever listen to The Ring again, I wonder..? I've been emotionally scoured out by it once too often, perhaps... but to reach those last pages, after 14-odd hours, as Valhalla meets the flames of Redemption... I'm shivering thinking of it, but could I ever do it again?

[amateur51]

Sabor was one of the translations I "consulted" (as I said to the Copyright Judge!) - it is very good. But I remember it was quite pricey at least when it first came out. Leeds Library, among others, has a copy.

EDIT: Yes, the Phaidon on-line store has them for £9.95 each - just under £50 for the lot.

The web address is : http://uk.phaidon.com/store/search/?q=Wagner

Later: On closer examination, all 5 volumes are currently 'out of stock' - whether this means 'and they'll be coming back soon' or 'and likely to be so for the foreseeable future' I don't know.

There are copies available on amazon and abebooks but at £250+