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This volume presents the most significant essays written by established and younger scholars as part of the two-year project titled WagnerWorldWide 2013. Conceived by Anno Mungen, Director of the Forschungsinstitut für Musiktheater at the University of Bayreuth, the project comprised a Lecture Series in Fall/Winter 2011-12 and two international conferences, at the University of South Carolina (USA) in January 2013, and at Schloss Thurnau in December 2013. Beyond recognizing the bicentennial of Wagner´s birth, WagnerWorldWide 2013 examines the current significance of the Wagner phenomenon through five overarching themes that link social, political, ideological and aesthetic aspects of the 19th and 21st centuries, as follows: Environment & Nature, Gender & Sexuality, Media & Film, History & Nationalism, Globalization & Markets. Beyond individual treatments, the project seeks to create networks between the themes. Since the concluding conference took place at the end of 2013, the volume also reflects on the anniversary year by examining not only its aesthetic and intellectual results but also the ways in which Wagner was remembered, memorialized, and celebrated.

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Anno Mungen ist seit dem Wintersemester 2006/07 Leiter des Forschungsinstituts für Musiktheater auf Schloss Thurnau und Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Theaterwissenschaft unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Musiktheaters an der Universität Bayreuth. Nicholas Vazsonyi ist Jesse Chapman Alcorn Memorial Professor of Foreign Languages und Professor für Germanistik und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft an der University of South Carolina. Julie Hubbert is an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina at both the Film and Media Studies Department and the School of Music. Her areas of specialization are Film Music, American Music, 19. and 20th century Music. Ivana Rentsch, Professorin am Institut für Historische Musikwissenschaft der Universität Hamburg. Anselm Gerhard, ordentlicher Professor für Musikwissenschaft und Direktor des Instituts für Musikwissenschaft der Universität Bern. Arne Stollberg, Förderungsprofessor des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds am Musikwissenschaftlichen Seminar der Universität Basel.

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