Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Not recommended. Use the Dover score instead.
I bought this score when I was out of town longer than I had expected and needed a score of Walkure to follow during a recent performance at the Met with a Score Desk.
Major complaints:
First, the score switches orientation so that one must rotate the book to read it (at least a dozen times). Clearly the editors did not anticipate the difficulty of doing this during the pianissimo passage while at a performance. The publisher has opted to print with as few pages as possible, resulting in the need to make an awkward 90 degree rotation of the text--often for only a few pages. Very irritating.
Second, the score includes English and French underneath the original German. This makes it difficult to get a sense of where one is, because all three language are rendered in a similar size font. The English (listed second) is put in italics, but this does little to address the problem of not being able to quickly sync one's self up with the libretto. Even worse, the English translation is dreadful antiquated. It is the infamous Fredrick Jameson translation, which comes off in many places as straight out of the 19th century: for instance, Jameson translate _Fiend_ as "foeman" instead of the much more natural "enemy." The reason of course is strictly economic. The dreadful Jameson translation is no longer under copyright, so the publishers can reproduce it without paying any royalties...
As for the construction of the book itself, it is the kind of cheap hardback that is all too common as of late. When I was an undergraduate in engineering back in the 1960s, they made hardbound books that had a binding. But alas those days are no longer.
The publisher follows the current model of cutting all possible costs in binding. I much prefer the Dover score in this regard. It is not a hardback, but the binding is far superior to this volume. I have in fact bought a few spare Dover's in case one day they are no longer available...Far superior quality (and cheaper price as well!)
Go for the Dover, if at all possible! Thank Heavens for Dover!
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Text in German, French and English
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