Wagner, (Adolf) Wieland (Gottfried)
Wagner, (Adolf) Wieland (Gottfried)
Wagner, (Adolf) Wieland (Gottfried), German opera producer and stage designer, son of Siegfried (Helferich Richard) Wagner and brother of Wolfgang (Manfred Martin) Wagner; b. Bayreuth, Jan. 5, 1917; d. Munich, Oct. 16, 1966. He received his general education in Munich, and devoted himself to the problem of modernizing the productions of Wagner’s operas. With his brother, Wolfgang Wagner, he served as co-director of the Bayreuth Festivals from 1951 to 1966. Abandoning the luxuriant scenery of 19th-century opera, he emphasized the symbolic meaning of Wagner’s music dramas, eschewing realistic effects, such as machinery propelling the Rhine maidens through the wavy gauze of the river, or the bright paper flames of the burning Valhalla. He even introduced Freudian sexual overtones, as in his production of Tristan und Isolde,where a phallic pillar was conspicuously placed on the stage.
Bibliography
W. Panofsky, W. W. (Bremen, 1964); C. Lust, W. W. et la survie du théâtre lyrique (Lausanne, 1969); W. Schäfer, W. W.: Persönlichkeit und Leistung (Tübingen, 1970); G. Skelton, W. W.: The Positive Sceptic (London, 1971); B. Wessling, W. W., der Enkel: Eine Biographie (Cologne, 1997); C. Cheyrezy, Essai sur la représentation du drame musical: W. W. in memoriam (Paris, 1998).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire