Carnegy Medals Again: Tash Siddiqui welcomes a collection of essays by the first dramaturg of the Royal Opera House

The old adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover has never been more true than in the case of this stimulating collection of essays. The front cover image is a blurry photo of the final scene of Wieland Wagner’s second Bayreuth production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, taken in 1964, if you believe the back flap, or in 1963, according to p. 34, where the photo is also badly reproduced. It features the Walther of Sándor Kónja (back flap), or maybe that of Jess Thomas (p. 34). In contrast to all this alarming fuzziness, the essays contained within the book are as incisive and enlightening as you would expect, the result of Patrick Carnegy’s lifelong engagement with the stage history of Wagner’s works.