WEISS, Michaela and Miroslav URBANEC. Opera as Comics: Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung in Craig P. Russell's Graphic Adaptation. OPEN LIBRARY OF HUMANITIES. CAMBRIDGE: OPEN LIBRARY HUMANITIES, 2021, vol. 7, No 2, p. 1-24. ISSN 2056-6700. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.16995/olh.4680.
Other formats:   BibTeX LaTeX RIS
Basic information
Original name Opera as Comics: Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung in Craig P. Russell's Graphic Adaptation
Authors WEISS, Michaela (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution) and Miroslav URBANEC (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution).
Edition OPEN LIBRARY OF HUMANITIES, CAMBRIDGE, OPEN LIBRARY HUMANITIES, 2021, 2056-6700.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Article in a journal
Field of Study 60206 Specific literatures
Country of publisher United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL
RIV identification code RIV/47813059:19240/21:A0000844
Organization unit Faculty of Philosophy and Science in Opava
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/olh.4680
UT WoS 000697683300005
Keywords in English Richard Wagner; The Ring of the Nibelung; adaptation; opera; P. Craig Russell; comics
Tags SGS12020, ÚCJ
Tags International impact, Reviewed
Changed by Changed by: doc. PhDr. Michaela Weiss, Ph.D., učo 48912. Changed: 25/2/2022 08:14.
Abstract
The article explores the capacity of the comics medium to represent a complex opera cycle in a graphic narrative. It analyses specific features of transmedial transmission between opera and comics through the example of the most recent graphic adaptation of Richard Wagner's dramatic tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung by P. Craig Russell, published by Dark Horse Comics (2000-2001). The adaptation, which fuses the disparate worlds of opera, comics, and fantasy culture, is stripped of Wagner's controversial ideology. Russell interprets the Ring Cycle as an essential source of inspiration for American comics, thereby making this complex magnum opus attractive and accessible to wider audiences. His chief aim, however, is to reproduce an operatic effect by way of graphic mythic grandiosity. The study explores the visual aspects of the adaptation, addressing the potential of the comics medium to capture Wagner's original vision. With a focus on illustration style and character depiction, this article discusses Russell's imagery, which combines the classic illustrations of Arthur Rackham and Carl Emil Doepler, images from American popular culture, and Alan Lee's illustrations of Tolkien's series The Lord of the Rings. This article further analyses the methods of transmission of sounds into the silent medium, including both linguistic and visual means of expressing the intensity and quality of sound. Special attention is paid to the meaning and visual form of the Wagnerian leitmotiv as well as the use of colouring in relation to timing.
PrintDisplayed: 11/5/2024 20:13