Alexander Shapiro and Barry Emslie, ‘All is Clear to me Now’: Brünnhilde as World Historical Hero

March 2020, Volume 14, Number 1, 31–48.

Alexander Shapiro’s recently published book The Consolations of History: Themes of Progress and Potential in Richard Wagner’s ‘Götterdämmerung’ offers a new interpretation of the final opera of the Ring which goes to the heart of the composer’s intellectual and philosophical world-view. We invited Barry Emslie, whose Richard Wagner and the Centrality of Love took a sharply contrasting view of the work, to engage with the author in a transatlantic electronic debate. Consolations will be reviewed in the next issue of The Wagner Journal.

BE:
Dear Alexander
Congratulations on The Consolations of History. It is a highly insightful monograph and I hope it is widely read. I have learned a lot from it. I may not, however, have learned quite enough for, although I am among those you regard as misguided, I am not ready yet to change my opinions on Götterdämmerung, or on the wider issues raised by the development of the Ring tetralogy … or indeed on Wagner’s lifetime of mighty intellectual and creative labours. And it is on that basis that our distinguished editor – he who must be obeyed – has asked me to write to you.