An important addition to our newly produced orchestral materials is the first publication of vocal scores of Wagner's ten great operas, in every important version, based on the Complete Edition.* The score corresponds to the performance materials from the Complete Edition.* For practical use in rehearsal cues and bar numbers throughout.* The publisher has secured the services of renewed musicologists associated with the Richard Wagner Complete Edition who convey detailed information in critical forewords.* The forewords are given in three languages(German, English, French).* Uniform and attractive front cover designs with reproductions of paintings from the Wagner era underline the series design of the edition. DIE WALKÜREIn the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen [The Ring of the Nibelung] which was subtitled by Wagner as "A stage festival play for three days and a preliminary evening", Die Walküre [The Valkyrie] forms the "first day" following Das Rheingold as the preliminary evening. The beginning of the history of the origins of the tetralogy is frequently placed in 1848 when Wagner compiled a prose sketch entitled Die Nibelungensage (Erstschrift) [The Nibelung Saga (first draft)] or Die Sage von den Nibelungen (Reinschrift) [The Saga of the Niblelungs (fair copy)] which would suggest that this was already the text for the Ring des Nibelungen, but the actual concept for the tetralogy did not actually evolve until the autumn of 1851. When Wagner first compiled the libretto for the heroic opera Siegfried's Tod [Siegfried's Death] in November 1848 - during his period of employment as Hofkapellmeister[court music director] in Dresden - he was in fact only planning a single opera and continued to adhere to this concept even after his involvement in the failed Dresden uprising in 1849 and subsequent escape to Switzerland. He began with the composition of Siegfried's Tod in the summer of 1850 in Zurich, but soon laid it aside. He returned to the project almost a year lat
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