Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction: Music and "Murky Death" -- 1. The Contemplation of Death -- 2. Eros and Thanatos: Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde -- 3. "All That Is, Ends": Living while Dying in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen -- 4. Orphic Rituals of Bereavement -- 5. "'Tis a Consummation Devoutly to Be Wish'd": Staging Suicide -- 6. The Undead -- Coda: "Be Acquainted with Death Betimes . . ." -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index.