Ideal Companion: Nicholas Baragwanath is impressed by a multi-author study of Wagner

Compiled over several years and replete with sixteen substantial chapters by an array of distinguished Wagner scholars, this companion volume certainly offers value for money. Around half the chapters address the operas, with the early works reasonably well represented, while the other half deal with matters biographical, social and politi- cal, touching finally upon influence, reception and performance history. If the aim of this collection is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of scholarship, then it has largely succeeded; even the obligatory chart of dates and events is usefully and thoroughly revised. There is also an additional aim, or intellectual thread, that serves to bind the chapters together and to make this more than just a summary of knowledge. Each author contributes in some way to the ongoing reaction against the rehabilitation of Wagner, which began after the end of the Second World War.