August Bungert (b. Mühlheim / Ruhr area, 14. March 1845 – d. Leutesdorf, 26. October 1915) : Torquato Tasso op.14 [Preface]

Abstract

August Bungert was one of those composers in the generation immediately succeeding Richard Wagner that suffered a sort of creative identity crisis in the wake of the seismic and megalomaniacal innovations of the Bayreuth founder. His early work demonstrates a preoccupation with the typical subjects of German romanticism – the present score, Torquato Tasso, drawn from homonymous drama of Goethe, is illustrative of this – rendered in a slightly personal but largely conventional fashion. He was notably prolific, composing in every available genre, not least over four hundred lieder. Yet Bungert’s reception both in his time and subsequently was grounded in his output as an opera composer, in particular his sprawling answer to Wagner’s Ring. [excerpt]