Ringer sheds new perspectives on Schubert's songs, focusing on their
incomparable dramatic power, which often exceeds that of many a
full-fledged opera. But Schubert's "stage" was not to be the public
theaters of the repressive Metternich regime in Vienna, but the far less
censorable "theater of the mind." Schubert's theater of song would
spring to life in intimate social gatherings of like-minded friends,
wherever a singer and a fortepiano were available. They rightfully
belong to every music lover. This is the first introductory guide for
the general reader to appear in many years.